City council largely unchanged with progressives snagging a few council seats
The 2022 municipal elections provided few, if any, real surprises. The mayor and much of the city council remain the same, much to the chagrin of progressive voters who hoped for more action on zoning, transit, and budgetary spending (e.g., the Toronto Police Service annual budget). Here is a detailed breakdown of the results:
Mayoral Election
Mayor John Tory won a resounding third term with 62 percent of the vote, easily defeating plucky upstarts Gil Peñalosa and Chloe Brown. The major sticking points in Tory’s campaign were his commitments to keep taxes below the rate of inflation and his support for the transit development plan laid out by the province. Throughout the campaign Tory only attended two debates, a far cry from the more than 20 he attended when first seeking election back in 2014. Critics will also recall John Tory’s pledge in 2018 that he would not seek reelection in 2022. Unfortunately for Mayor Tory, there is speculation on the horizon that he will be unable to keep at least one more promise during his time as mayor, namely to keep taxes low. The city faces a $857 million budget shortfall and Tory’s recent efforts to get funding assistance from the provincial and federal governments were rebuked. Although Tory could appeal to the federal government for assistance, another potentially more realistic avenue is for Tory to try to address the shortfall through some combination of increased taxes and public services cuts.
The largest chunk of the Toronto city budget comes from property tax revenues which makes it an attractive place to start in trying to address a significant shortfall. Critics of this approach say that it will exacerbate housing costs. Proponents on the other hand say that it is appropriate to tax Toronto home owners since the price growth of their homes has vastly outpaced inflation and they currently pay lower property taxes than any other city in the province. The alternative would be to have the city cut public services in areas like Toronto Public Library spending or the Toronto Transit Commission, which would more drastically impact low income individuals. Some argue that the budget shortfall could be addressed by abandoning costly car-centric infrastructure projects like the Gardiner Expressway, but this suggestion has gotten little to no real traction inside City Hall.
The last thing to keep an eye out for is how John Tory will use the new “strong mayor” powers granted by the Ford government earlier this year. The new powers would allow John Tory to enact bylaws with the support of only eight out of 25 city councillors, assuming the bylaw aligns with “provincial priorities.” It is unclear what degree of alignment is required for the powers to be lawfully exercised, but Tory has already announced that he would use the powers to create a housing division in the city to address the lack of housing. Zoning reform has long been a topic of debate in the city as roughly 70 percent of the land in Toronto is zoned only for detached homes. It is unclear what exactly the division seeks to accomplish, but zoning reform should be top of mind if they seriously wish to address the dearth of housing in the city.
Municipal Council
The Faculty of Law is located in Ward 11 University-Rosedale, which elected Dianne Saxe to the city council. Saxe worked as a lawyer both in private practice and in the Ontario government prior to entering politics. She was also the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario from 2015 to 2019. She was the deputy leader of the Ontario Green Party up until this past August. Her platform focused on housing, mobility, along with climate change and sustainability. However, her responses to Vote Compass have attracted criticism for her arguably negative attitudes towards encampments and the construction of more shelters. From 2018 to 2022, the city councillor for Ward 11 was Mike Layton, son of former NDP leader Jack Layton, who was a well-known, well-regarded progressive voice on city council. There will likely be significant pressure on Saxe from constituents who likely expect her to continue supporting progressive policies. Layton likely would have won reelection but decided to withdraw to focus on his family.
Other notable municipal election results include the elections of Alejandra Bravo (Ward 9), former director of the Broadbent Institute, who replaced former deputy mayor Ana Bailão; Ausma Malik (Ward 10), former school trustee who is now the first Toronto city councillor to wear a hijab; and Jamaal Myers (Ward 23) who graduated from the New York University School of Law and worked as a corporate associate in New York for a number of years. All three are expected to be progressive voices in City Hall.
