His Worship John Tory IV, son of John A. Tory, president of Thomson Investments Limited and a director of Rogers Communications, grandson of lawyer John S. D. Tory, who founded the Tory LLP law firm, and great-grandson of Sun Life of Canada founder John Alexander Tory, resigned in February of this year after media broke news of his affair with a staffer. Thus a mayoral by-election was called just after the election in October of last year when His Worship Tory IV won a third term with 62 percent of the vote.
We have provided a scattershot look at some of the plethora of candidates to help give our readers some perspective on the heated race for the Mayor’s Chain of Office — and more importantly, how we can block the right and build the movement for municipal reform.
The Using Jokerman Font on their Campaign Materials Tier
Peter Handjis: Finished 31st out of 31 in the 2022 election.
Xiao Hua Gong: Agreed to a record-setting forfeiture of more than $60 million in ill-gotten gains to the New Zealand government after admitting to running a pyramid scheme.
Serge Korovitsyn: Chairperson of the Ontario Libertarian Party.
Chris Sky: 6ixBuzz darling and conspiracy theorist, leader of anti-lockdown/vaccine marches in Toronto.
Knia Singh: Lawyer for the cops’ mandatory vaccine lawsuit.
Nathalie Xian Yi Yan: Acupuncturist who was disciplined in 2018 by the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists of Ontario for professional misconduct.
The Foaming at the Mouth/Not Subtle Enough to Dog Whistle Tier
Giorgio Mammoliti: NDP MPP in Bob Rae’s Government, born George but legally changed it to appeal to certain demographics. As a city councillor, he was Rob Ford’s number 2. On an appearance on Rebel News, he made respectful statements about his constituents who live in Toronto Community Housing, blurting, “I see it like spraying down a building full of cockroaches. Scatter them. Evict them. Get them out of Jane and Finch completely.”
Anthony Furey: Former Toronto Sun scribe, run-of-the-mill anti-bike lane anti-safe injection site maniac.
Syed Jaffery: Former People’s Party candidate.
Ben Bankas: Although it is tempting to put the Instagram “comedian” in the Jokerman font tier, his self proclaimed “anti-woke” campaign, despite being incoherent with calls to bring back smoking on patios and in bars after midnight, does have dangerous elements and must be categorized as not subtle enough to dog whistle.
D!ONNE Renée Tier
D!ONNE Renée: D!ONNE Renée.
Not Capable of Blocking the Right/Not as Progressive as you Might Think Tier
Josh Matlow: Former Ontario Liberal candidate, longtime status quo councillor, all bark and no bite.
Kiri Vadivelu: BY GAWD is that Big Barry Weisleder’s entrance music I hear? Oh the humanity!
Chloe Brown: Finished a distant third in 2022. Her inside baseball platform doesn’t offer any significant reforms and has no appeal for working people.
Gru: Not to be confused with the official energy drink of UQAM. They tossed their cowboy hat in the ring as the voice of housing advocacy. Campaigning on allowing public drinking in parks in a move to win over the trendy West End crowds that have quaint “we support our unhoused neighbours” signs next to the brand new G-Wagon in their driveway.
Anthony Perruzza: Longtime lefty councilor, one-term NDP MPP in Bob Rae’s government. Although he’s on the right track by focusing on user fees and negotiating a new deal with the province and feds, he doesn’t stand a real chance. Lack of donors and volunteers and no labour union endorsements means he’s an outsider incapable of blocking the right wing.
The Hard Right Tier
Mark Saunders: Tory’s police chief, Doug Ford’s choice for the next “strong mayor.” We would love to know what Harvard and Yale lecturer KRS-One has to say about this candidacy.
Brad Bradford: This is just Nathaniel Erskine-Smith doing his best Erin O’Toole impression.
Ana Bailão: Don’t be fooled by labour union endorsements — she was among Tory’s most loyal inner circle members and is looking to carry the torch for real estate developers. Her campaign team is almost entirely the same as Tory’s 2022 election team, including political operative and Rob Ford whisperer Nick Kouvalis, who is very much from the foaming at the mouth/not subtle enough to dog whistle end of the spectrum.
Here at Rebel Youth, we wish all the best in municipal politics retirement to His Worship John Tory IV. We are sure that with his wealth of experience in the private sector from CEO of Rogers to Commissioner of the CFL, he will surely land on his feet. Perhaps he will return to resolving Canada’s own boring adaptation of Succession or doing what he knows best, creating political attacks ads ridiculing Jean Chrétien for his partially paralyzed face.
A People’s Platform
On a more serious note, we do endorse the platform of the Toronto Committee of the Communist Party of Canada.
People’s movements must build on the growing momentum and justified anger at the rapid decline of their living standards. They need to ensure that they can act not only as a backstop against a rightward drift, but also as a force to push for more and more progressive policies. Importantly, the labour movement in the city needs to take a leading role in advancing the fightback, and intensifying the on the ground struggles they are engaged in now. Now is not the time for more lobbying and limp media campaigns. Critically, we need to ensure that working people are fighting for an agenda which is not just an anesthetic to their everyday pains. Working people need an agenda which is a serious redress to capitalism’s worst crimes and rolls back the power of corporations.
In Toronto, we need a platform which puts people’s needs and the planet before corporate greed. We need to fight for an agenda which includes:
A New Financial Deal For Cities:
- Call on the provincial government to adequately fund municipalities through needs-based grants or by providing wealth taxing powers to cities.
- Reduce property taxes by 50 percent, including by removing the $2.2 billion education levy and by uploading the costs for transit, public health, housing and social assistance.
- Eliminate all development fees, which are simply passed on to tenants and home buyers in the form of higher rents and prices.
Real Action on the Housing Crisis:
- Eliminate wait lists for social housing by building 80,000 units of rent-geared-to-income (RGI) social
- housing units; repair existing social housing stock.
- Provide sufficient and safe shelters for unhoused people and stop encampment evictions.
- Push the provincial government to roll back rental costs to 20 percent of income, implement real rent
- controls and scrap vacancy decontrol.
- Expand and improve transitional, supportive and long-term housing to women and children fleeing domestic abuse.
Expand Public Transit and Eliminate Fares
- Restore bus and streetcar routes that have been cut or reduced and add new ones.
- Eliminate all fares and ensure that all public transit and stations are fully accessible.
- Oppose all privatization, including P3’s.
- Increase staffing, including restoring guards on subway cars.
Real Police Reform
- Reduce the police budget by 50% and demilitarize police units.
- Expand programs that de-task police from mental health crisis calls and create community-led crisis response teams.
- Establish strong civilian control over the police through a completely independent civilian agency with powers to fire, hire and discipline, that is publicly accountable and transparent.
Defend and Strengthen Local Democracy
- Renounce the “strong mayor” powers which undermine local democracy and the public accountability of an elected city council.
- Press to entrench the rights and status of municipalities and school boards in the constitution, so that they cannot be created, dissolved or altered at the whim of the provincial government.
- Fight for City Council and the public to be able to determine the size of city wards and the number of elected councilors.
Create and Expand Public Sector Jobs and Services
- Reverse the privatization of waste collection and other city services, and the outsourcing of jobs.
- Expand public and non-profit childcare spaces and centres, through the $10-a-day childcare plan, and fight for free childcare.
- Create needed new spaces at city owned Long-Term Care homes.
- Renovate and upgrade public infrastructure including making all public buildings and services fully accessible and environmentally sensitive.
- Maintain roads and sidewalks throughout the city.