Adam Zivo: Toronto proves low taxes a winner by re-electing bland, but competent John Tory
John Tory #JohnTory
Toronto Mayor John Tory has been re-elected for a third term. With his victory seemingly a foregone conclusion, I interviewed Tory hours before the polls closed. He was amiable and cautious — a man who evidently loves his city, but prioritizes self-restraint over bold action. In these uncertain times, Tory’s unexciting but competent managerialism explains the public’s enduring support for him.
Tory coasted to victory partially because he faced no strong competition. Other candidates lacked star power and failed to articulate compelling visions that could attract a broad coalition of voters.
Gil Penalosa and Chloe Brown promised bold action that they believed would make Toronto a livelier and fairer city — but it takes more than noble dreams and technocratic expertise to win. Neither candidate had the political experience to prove that they could handle the difficult negotiations and trade-offs inherent in real-world governance, which seemed to limit their appeal to Toronto’s most optimistic, risk-tolerant voters.
As a result, even the Toronto Star, normally no friend of Tory, begrudgingly endorsed him in lieu of his progressive opponents, citing his competency and civil governing style. However, the Star, along with many others, wondered whether Toronto was declining under Tory’s tenure — services have been shrinking and infrastructure seems to be falling apart.
Tory argued that Toronto’s malaise was a pandemic repercussion. “The government, like other organizations, went through a fairly traumatic experience and had to get its eye back on the ball.” Thinking back on his last term, Tory regrets how the tremendous time needed to manage the pandemic came at the expense of other priorities, such as housing.
Tory has often been criticized for refusing to raise property taxes above inflation, which some argue has starved Toronto of funding (these taxes are the city’s main revenue source). But Tory counters that tax increases would unacceptably burden Torontonians who are already struggling with an affordability crisis made worse by inflation. Instead, he champions fiscal discipline and efficiency which can allow the city to do more with the same budget.
“Even with property tax increases at or below the rate of inflation for eight years, we’ve managed to double the amount of capital that we’ve provided to the TTC in the 10 year plan from $6 to $12 billion. We’ve increased the operating subsidy to the TTC by 45 per cent. We’ve increased the amount of capital for our housing from $98 million to $4.8 billion.”
Tory noted that, during the pandemic, Toronto’s credit score was reviewed and reaffirmed three times, ensuring that borrowing costs didn’t go up and siphon funds from city coffers. “In each case they made reference to the prudent financial management of the city. I think, beyond keeping the city safe, one of the things people expect us to do is to prudently manage finances so we don’t go into a downward spiral.”
In the near-term, Tory wants to focus on stabilizing the city’s finances, which, having already been stressed by the pandemic, are now being further destabilized by inflation — rising costs for goods and services impacts government, too. After that comes housing, specifically increasing supply through legalizing some “missing middle” housing and speeding up approval processes. “The fact that it takes three years to approve housing, even our own projects believe it or not, is very frustrating.”
The mayor also seems intent on creating better municipal responses for those suffering from poor mental health and substance abuse. It’s unsurprising because these issues, if left unaddressed, contribute to homelessness, street crime and healthcare collapse — all of which are major problems haunting Canadian cities today.
“Kevin Smith, the CEO of the University Health Network, said that last year 250 people accounted for 15,000 visits to the emergency room of Toronto General Hospital. A lot of those people are people who are experiencing mental health and substance use issues and have nowhere else to go. If you’re looking at how to take stress off the health-care system, these things just make sense, aside from being morally the right thing for us to do.”
To speed up housing development, Ontario announced earlier this year that Toronto, along with select other municipalities, will be granted “strong mayor” powers. These enhanced powers will give Tory the ability to appoint high level staff and veto some city council decisions. Had Tory had these powers last year, he wouldn’t have been forced to give up on legalizing rooming houses due to insufficient council support, a failure he deeply regrets.
When asked whether having enhanced powers will change his governing style, Tory said, “I am who I am and people know me well by now. I will seek to forge a consensus because that’s the way city government works.” He doesn’t expect that he will have to use these powers very often, because of his firm commitment to collaboration, but also recognizes that just having these powers available, even if unexercised, can foster consensus — having leverage brings people to the negotiating table.
“I think people sometimes underestimate my desire to bring about change. You have to keep public confidence as you make change, and sometimes that makes things more incremental. I believe that incremental change is better than no change. If you bring really bold change, you put yourself in a situation where you get none of it.”
I asked Tory what he thought about the election — was the lack of competition and civic engagement a bad thing? He said that municipal elections traditionally have lower turnout, but that, in the context of Ontario’s recent provincial election, which had historically low participation, he found himself deeply concerned about disengagement from the political process. “That has a lot to do with the polarized and divisive environment in some other places, and we’ve largely managed to avoid that here. I’m dedicating myself to being a unifying leader as opposed to someone who divides people.”
Tory felt that the need for political unity in Toronto was particularly important given the city’s diversity. “You need to place a premium on not having that kind of division — because, before you know it, things start getting extreme. I think there’s a greater chance that you could provoke divisions between different groups that make up the city.”
“Too often now we gravitate quickly to thinking people are right or wrong and nothing in between, and once you’re wrong there’s nothing that happens that will change people’s mind. Then falsehoods and attacks start to spread on a widespread basis, and you’ve lost the essence of what works — that people can sit down together and work something out. I don’t want that to spread to Toronto. The more we can avoid that, which is already in a lot of places in Europe and North America, the better. I think it’s debilitating.”
National Post