It was to put an end to the turmoil that John Tory—former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario—was first elected to lead Toronto in 2014. The previous four years had been scandals. City Hall under Rob Ford. At the time of his inauguration, the mayor had invited the controversial sports commentator Don Cherry, who had attacked “crazy leftists” (” left wing kooks “); in 2013, Rob Ford confessed to using crack, then became the target of international ridicule.
Rob Ford has carried out extraordinary projects, supports his former political adviser, Christine Maydossian, who now lives in Montreal. But these days, when the Toronto-born returns there, she hears from her former co-workers that calm has been restored to City Hall, which suits officials and residents alike. “There are not a hundred cameras at the town hall and people are comfortable with John Tory,” she admits.
Eight years and a pandemic later, this tranquility could return John Tory to power. “Maybe someone better known will show up,” says Christine Maydossian, but after the health crisis, which was well managed by the City, “I don’t think John Tory is going to lose,” she concludes. .
No one has come forward yet, “probably because the mayor’s popularity is quite strong,” thinks Franco-Ontarian Kema Joseph, who worked in the mayor’s office between 2017 and 2021. “The mayor is well-liked by people in left and right. »
According to Toronto Metropolitan University political science professor Michael McGregor, a candidate’s personality matters a lot during a mayoral race in Ontario, and John Tory is “appreciated and seen as a capable manager who doesn’t seem to bother nobody “. “He’s like everyone’s uncle,” agrees Christine Maydossian.
hard to beat
According to Professor Michael McGregor, this popularity drives away good candidates, who do not think they can win given the difficulty of dislodging an incumbent mayor. In 2018, Jennifer Keesmaat, the standard-bearer candidate for the progressive movement, did not enter the race until July 27, three months before the election. Toronto’s former chief planner made her decision after Premier Doug Ford’s plan to cut the city council in half, which raised the ire of council members.
Several other progressive candidates had refused to run before her. His campaign, managed by Montrealer Brian Topp, a former NDP strategist, never took off. “Jennifer Keesmaat did not have the weight of John Tory”, explains Christine Maydossian. On the evening of October 22, 2018, John Tory won easily with 63% of the vote, an even bigger victory than in 2014, when he had beaten Doug Ford and Olivia Chow – the former federal deputy and widow of former NDP leader Jack Layton represented the more progressive option in the race.
The mayor is beloved by people left and right
The City of Toronto hasn’t had a staunchly progressive mayor since 2010. With the election just months away, it’s getting late to assemble a campaign team that could beat John Tory for mayor, says Kema Joseph. On the other hand, several advisers have chosen not to seek another term, which opens the door to the arrival of younger and more progressive advisers, she notes. Given enough clout, these newly elected officials could force John Tory to undertake visionary projects so demanded by the left, she says.
Montreal, the progressive ideal?
However, this influence work will be done informally since Toronto has no municipal political parties. Thus, John Tory has not had to answer to a Leader of the Opposition over the past eight years, as is the case in Montreal, for example. According to Michael McGregor, who taught at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke before moving to Toronto, this system makes incumbent mayors even more powerful during their campaign and makes it very difficult to defeat them.
The municipal political party system is well known to Quebecers and Montrealers, but it is an exception in the country. Strictly speaking, political parties are not banned in Ontario, but they cannot be funded by the public, making them less relevant or even non-existent. “In Toronto, you don’t have a party and a leader waiting in the wings for four years,” says Michael McGregor. The opposition does not have time to make itself known to the electorate. »
After the re-election of Valérie Plante, in November 2021, a columnist from Toronto Star indicated that the Toronto progressive movement should be inspired by that of Montreal. Michael McGregor warns that it would be difficult for Toronto progressives to draw conclusions from the Montreal election, because of the choices made at the mayoralty of Toronto, centered on the personality of the candidates, and the party system, which does not exist just not in Ontario.
“I wouldn’t say that Montreal is necessarily more progressive,” said Kema Joseph, a graduate of the University of Montreal. The relationship to public space is more progressive in Montreal, she admits, but in some respects, such as the relationship between police services and cultural communities, Toronto is more progressive, she believes.
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.