Mayor John Tory's Toronto

[AlbertHWagstaff]

i completely agree, let's be non-partisan and give the new team a chance

fyi, jwbf, the expression is "Hear! Hear!"

I thought about putting the r937 hat on, but I figured you couldn't be far away.

All this hand-wringing, after only one day. It's like passing judgment on a TV series based on the first minute of the first episode and reading the guest star list.

All this left, right business brings to mind the old Elvis tune "I'm left, You're right, She's gone".

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

So many appointments in my part of the city, and so little representation for me.

"[G]iving the finger to a huge part of the city" is about more than geography. Even though Chow "lost in a landslide", there are still a lot of people in Toronto who voted for her (and others with similar leanings who did not end up voting for her for whatever reason). It feels like those voices are being left out of the OneToronto that Tory seemed to want when he claimed: "not left, not right, but forward".

I did briefly wonder if he proposed Nunziata as Speaker thinking that she wouldn't be approved based on her performance over the past term, at which point he could just tell her that he tried to give her what she wanted. Given that he's never actually attended a council meeting, it seems more likely that he just doesn't get how awful she was in the position.

So much crap, so little needed to refute it.

1. Chow lost in a landslide. She did. Working better and more fruitfully with Council is not the same as taking on others' plans for the city. The right-wing Mayor Tory selected a right-wing executive. He gave no one the finger; he shaped his executive in his own image.

2. "John Tory('s) ... first experience with City Hall ... dates back to the early 1970's when he was a member of the City Hall Press Gallery as a reporter, interviewer and newscaster for two local radio stations." Economic Club of Canada blurb. He's also been the head of CivicAction, I'm sure he lobbied when necessary as the head of Rogers, he spent way too much time with United Way. There is a decent chance he is THE most knowledgeable person in the city, that had never been elected nor worked at City Hall, with the workings of City Hall. For better or worse, maybe -- he decided Nunziata was not really the problem, which I sincerely doubt. But to say he made that calculation without knowledge of the situation is risible.

 

[Videodrome]

Tory's guest will be anti-violence advocate Louise Russo. Former Premier Bill Davis will also be in attendance.

 

[Palma]

To all those Tory supporters,

Your hero has just appointed Denzil Minnan-Wong - a councilor who opposes waterfront revitalization - to the board which oversees Waterfront Toronto. I hope you're all feeling good about yourselves. Ford opposed Waterfront Toronto as well, but at least he was too inept to actually do anything about it.

He most likely was opposed to it before under Ford because he knew Ford was opposed and he wanted to get on his executive.

 

[Palma]

Did Adam Vaughan actually endorse John Tory?

I do agree that progressive downtown voters who held their nose for Tory should be kicking themselves.

You are insane. All you people who put down Ford and now Tory, I think no one would make you happy. You all just need to complain

 

[Videodrome]

Jennifer PagliaroVerified account
‏@jpags
Standing ovation, spurred by Tory, for outgoing deputy Norm Kelly - who weathered Fordless council with noted grace

He really did a good job when Ford was getting into trouble.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Unfortunately that is just the tip of the iceberg.

From Ed Keenan's article in the Star:

"Minnan-Wong is going to sit on the boards, in Tory’s place, of both Invest Toronto and Build Toronto, as some kind of apparent development czar. He’s going to sit in Tory’s place on the board of Waterfront Toronto, an agency against which he’s pursued a bizarre and spiteful vendetta for years. He’ll head up the civic appointments committee, which will choose the people who run everything from libraries to community centres to the parking authority. He’ll head up the striking committee that selects members of council committees, and head up the labour relations committee that negotiates with the city’s unions."

This is where DMW can do real damage. I'd really like to hear Tory's thinking on giving one man, let alone someone like DMW, such concentration of power.

This is a damn disaster. Even I didn't expct this level of incompetence so early from Tory.

 

[JWBF]

i completely agree, let's be non-partisan and give the new team a chance

fyi, jwbf, the expression is "Hear! Hear!"

Unless you are identifying a specific place like this forum. I guess the pun was lost.

 

[John_Dee]

During the campaign, I couldn't help feeling a certain amount of contempt that the almost always hapless John Tory could only really win under these very specific circumstances. i.e. when the other candidates were either useless or horrifying. Nice of him to show that, yes, he hasn't changed a whit. Maybe he'll grow into the role of Mayor - one can only hope - but this is not a good beginning.

Mind you, he still looks good compared to the family of criminal sociopaths who were occupying the office just ahead of him. As the Fords just so ably proved with their latest publicity stunt. Ye Gods!

 

[DarnDirtyApe]

This is a damn disaster. Even I didn't expct this level of incompetence so early from Tory.

Take anything Ed Keenan says with a large grain of salt... he is a so-called "progressive" agitator.

 

[ShonTron]

It wouldn't be unfair to call Keenan progressive, but he was one of the fairest journalists to Rob Ford in the early days. When others laughed at him and his bid for mayor, Keenan reported on what made him tick, and why he was so popular in Ward 2. When I see Keenan, a rather reasoned journo write that way, I take it as part of a low sodium diet.

 

[dienw]

1. Chow lost in a landslide. She did. Working better and more fruitfully with Council is not the same as taking on others' plans for the city. The right-wing Mayor Tory selected a right-wing executive. He gave no one the finger; he shaped his executive in his own image.

2. "John Tory('s) ... first experience with City Hall ... dates back to the early 1970's when he was a member of the City Hall Press Gallery as a reporter, interviewer and newscaster for two local radio stations." Economic Club of Canada blurb. He's also been the head of CivicAction, I'm sure he lobbied when necessary as the head of Rogers, he spent way too much time with United Way. There is a decent chance he is THE most knowledgeable person in the city, that had never been elected nor worked at City Hall, with the workings of City Hall. For better or worse, maybe -- he decided Nunziata was not really the problem, which I sincerely doubt. But to say he made that calculation without knowledge of the situation is risible.

1. You're misconstruing what I wrote. I recognized that Chow lost in a landslide in my post; still, she received 227003 votes according to the official election results. It isn't about taking on her plans; it's about making sure the people of this city feel included, as Tory suggested he wanted during his campaign, not continuing divisions by leaving progressive voices out of all important roles, especially when some of his appointments are councillors whose competence is questionable.

2. Ann Hui @annhui Toronto City Hall Reporter, The Globe and Mail
Tory just said that he's never even been at a meeting of city council, much less in a meeting of council.
12:20 PM - 1 Dec 2014
https://twitter.com/annhui/status/539469037114511360

That statement is why I wondered if he didn't know for himself how awful she is as Speaker. But who knows, maybe he watches it on Rogers TV instead of attending.

I don't agree with conservative Thompson on a lot of things, but I didn't have a problem voting for him. I know what Tory has done in the past, as I've been paying attention for decades. That's why I didn't vote for him. I'll be quite happy if he surprises me by being a great mayor, but his appointments don't reassure me that this will happen.

 

[SJD_Toronto]

From the sounds of it, Maria Augimeri could end up as Speaker. I'm actually pretty cool with that... if that happens.

 

[ShonTron]

I could see the right having a field day with Augimeri (a suburban left-wing councillor). She has a bit of a temper, famously telling a political opponent to shut up at a presser after the Sunrise explosion. It didn't matter that he deserved it (he did) it looked bad. But that was, after all, six years ago. Still, she'd be much better than Nunziata.

Norm Kelly, if he wanted it, would have been a good choice.

 

[W. K. Lis]

I'm giving John Tory a year to prove himself if he will be a "good" or "bad" mayor for Toronto. So far on his choices for his "team", I have to give him a "D", he could have done better.