Mayor John Tory seems like a nice guy, which makes you wonder whether he is an effective mayor. He appears friendly, easy to get along with, not prone to angry outbursts and seems to win many of the issues in which he expresses an interest.
Recently, he went to bat to get $2 million for a staff study on creating a large park, Rail Deck, over the railway tracks on the south side of Front Street. Councillor Joe Cressy was the one pushing for a downtown park — it is his ward, after all — but the mayor came in and took leadership, resulting in a unanimous vote on council.
Of course, that was the easy part: buying the air rights, creating the deck over the tracks, then developing the park have a price tag of at least $1 billion, and getting council support for that sum might prove more difficult.
But Mayor Tory has convinced a majority of council to spend large sums on his pet projects in the past. He championed a scheme to keep the east end of the Gardner Expressway functioning as an expressway, at an extra cost of more than $500 million. And he has been a staunch supporter of building the one-stop extension of the Scarborough subway, rather than the multi-stop light rail transit system, at an extra cost of well over $1 billion, even though the LRT would have served more transit riders better.
He also convinced council that all staff departments would be required to present budgets for 2017 that are 2.6 per cent less than last year. This was his way of showing that he is not open to increase property taxes even if means a reduction in services.
All three of these issues were decided by council votes that were close, but as some say in politics, getting a majority is good enough, although others think it is important to assess the wisdom of the decisions taken.
One might conclude, then, that Mayor Tory has a way with council on matters he is willing to provide leadership on and can use his charm or political capital to come out on top.
There are other issues on which he has been on the winning side: issues with strong community support that he responded to, such as the bike lanes on Bloor Street, establishing safe drug injection sites and using staff to create a Syrian resettlement plan.
These are generally seen as progressive issues, and although Mayor Tory may not have been in a leadership position, his support certainly helped.
Is that a strong record for almost two years in the mayor’s chair?
What is lacking is anything that could be called transformational or that results in significant change. Toronto is facing extraordinary growth pressures, with amazing economic and cultural strength, but the municipal structures seem not to be responding well.
The mayor has not waded significantly into the issue of affordable housing. He seems willing to allow the Toronto Community Housing Corporation to flounder as more affordable units are boarded up because the city does not have the money to put them into good repair.
He has not tackled the problem of congestion, except for photo ops of towing cars away during rush hour.
He has not ensured that transit service is reliable and meeting the needs of residents, nor has he tackled police spending or indeed police activities.
He has yet to address the city’s dismal shortage of tax revenue, and one fears he is trying to avoid this issue.
He is generally inactive on issues of city planning, as development continues — with a dozen new buildings planned that are 80 or more storeys high.
One might conclude that Mayor Tory has done well by avoiding these controversial issues, and perhaps that is why he seems so successful.
Those many suburban councillors who have voted with him on budget cuts, the Gardiner expressway and the Scarborough subway may not support him on the critical issues yet to be addressed.
And yes, he can try to avoid clear council votes on the critical issues, but they need to be addressed if the city is to thrive.
That’s the challenge for the next two years. Mayor Tory will have to show leadership on the transformational issues. That will display the mettle of the man.
