All Fried Up In The Big Smoke

Less political. More fictional.

How High Sir?

Posted on February 19, 2015 by "Brother" of Cityslikr

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 17 million times.

You want to fix City Hall? Start electing better city councillors. Easier said than done, for sure, given the disheartening results of last year’s municipal campaign. Thirty-seven of thirty-eight incumbents returned to office including one still under the cloud of a police investigation. Another, Frank Di Giorgio in Ward 12 York South Weston.

The councillor was on Metro Morning today along with another former budget chief, Shelley Carroll, to talk about the city’s need for more revenue, new revenue tools. “Do you think we need new taxes, Frank Di Giorgio?” asked the show’s host, Matt Galloway. Here’s how the councillor responded:

Not at this point. I think certainly, I think the one thing that’s important in the immediate future is that we have to support the mayor…

Say what?

That’s what’s important in the immediate future? City council needs to support the mayor? [Begins flipping frantically through the city’s Code of Conduct for Members of Council. Must support the mayor…Must support the mayor….] Nope. Not seeing that stipulation.

Councillor Di Giorgio has been a local representative for almost 30 years now, at City Hall in amalgamated Toronto since 2000. This is the sum of all his civic wisdom. “I think one thing that’s important in the immediate future is that we have to support the mayor.”

If the councillor actually believes that — and he’s not alone in that way of thinking, sadly, in talking to a candidate during last year’s election who was running against another deadweight incumbent, I was told that a few years earlier in discussing with the councillor why he had voted a certain way, he was told that, You gotta support the boss — why bother with city council races in the first place? Just elect a mayor, be done with it. No messy debates to deal with, rubber stamp city council meetings, items all passed with a waxed red royal seal.

Parsing Councillor Di Giorgio’s go along to get along logic a little further, consider his 2014 re-election. At Marshall’s Musings, Sean Marshall has done fantastic work breaking down the numbers October’s election. A look at the results in Ward 12 shows that less than one in five voters there voted for John Tory. The councillor fared little better, garnering under 30% of the popular vote where just over 1300 ballots separated him from the 4^th place challenger.

So, less than one in three voters gave Councillor Di Giorgio a mandate to unwaveringly support a mayor who fewer than one in five Ward 12 voters backed? It’s how first-past-the-post elections work, I get it, but it’s almost as if the councillor thinks we have some sort of presidential system at City Hall, though. The Big Guy wins. You fall in line behind the Big Guy.

Councillor Di Giorgio’s views on such ring-kissing fealty to the mayor also extends to city staff. As Jude MacDonald reminded me, back during the last administration when the councillor was still TTC commissioner and voted to fire then-CEO Gary Webster, he had his reasons. “Excellence in bureaucracy means the ability to perform tasks that are consistent with leaders of a corporation, the leaders of a city,” he declared. “It’s the ability to put forward positions that are consistent with positions adopted by the mayor.”

Your councillor for Ward 12 York South Weston, folks. Frank Di Giorgio.

So, city councillors are elected to merely to serve at the pleasure of the mayor. Such passiveness from Di Giorgio extends to the city’s dealings with the province evidently. During the Metro Morning discussion, he said exploring the idea of more revenue tools will simply let the province off the hook for paying their share of stuff like social housing. They’ve already stopped paying, Councillor Carroll pointed out. That’s why the city’s scrambling to plug the hole in its operating budget. That’s why we need to a discussion about new revenues. It’s all on us now.

The councillor was having none of it. No need to rush. We already have revenue tools in the arsenal, like the Land Transfer Tax which is bringing in substantial amounts of money to the city coffers. Maybe we could milk some more from that cash cow. If not, the City of Toronto Act is coming up for renewal in a few years, 2018 or so. Let’s revisit this discussion then. In the meantime, don’t ‘undermine the mayor’s initiatives’ because that would be ‘dangerous’. Loose lips sink ships, I guess.

Councillors like Frank Di Giorgio are throwbacks to an era when municipalities were little more than wards of the province, where we were given the property tax to play with, to largely pay for local initiatives, roads, sewers, maybe a portion of public transit. A time when the province contributed substantially more to the overall operations of this city than it sees fit to now. As Councillor Carroll (as well as the city manager, Joe Pennachetti) pointed out, Toronto is a big boy now, closing in on 3 million people. It’s time we put on our big boy pants and realize we’ve been pushed out of the nest.

Provincial contributions to the well-being of this city will be grudging and probably when it is only politically advantageous for them to do so. We can act like two year-olds and hold our breath until we turn blue in the face in hopes of changing their attitude but, well, umm, I wouldn’t…hold my breath. But that’s what Mayor Tory has in mind, and loyal foot soldiers like Councillor Di Giorgio see it as his job to follow the mayor’s marching orders.

After all, that’s what he’s been doing for three decades now. That’s what he was elected to do.

— at your servicely submitted by Cityslikr

The Wild West — Challenger Endorsements II

Posted on October 2, 2014 by "Brother" of Cityslikr

Three west northwest wards may give us some sense of where voters’ heads are at come October 27^th. One is an open ward, up for grabs after an Etobicoke institution took a briefly successful stab at provincial politics. The other two are occupied by long time incumbents who, I was going to say, have seen better days but, actually, they probably haven’t.

Just how anti-incumbency (or not) are we at this point? Very much so? Somewhat? Not at all? Will name recognition, as it usually does on election day, trump any itch for something new?

Ward 3 Etobicoke Centre

Just when we thought we’d heard the last of the Li’l Ginny type ramblings of Toronto City Hall’s Grampa Simpson, Doug Holyday, in steps his son, Stephen (whom we’ll refrain from referring to as Homer) into his dad’s shoes. Far be it from us to look askance on anyone simply because of their lineage. Just so long as Holyday the Younger doesn’t try to capitalize on his family name for his political entry.

Yeah. Uh huh. That apple certainly hasn’t fallen far from the tree.

The thing is, watching the Rogers Ward 3 debate, most of the council candidates have landed in the same vicinity. Low taxes. Find efficiencies. Privatize public services. Oh yeah. And keep our services up to snuff too. It’s like some Etobicoke creed.

Separate from all that is Peter Fenech who we talked to back in September. He is a quiet, new voice out there in the wilderness, unwilling to reflexively reject the positive role government can play in our lives and the costs associated with that. He is well versed in how City Hall works and would represent a whole new type of discourse, flowing eastward in from Etobicoke.

On October 27^th we endorse Peter Fenech for city councillor in Ward 3 Etobicoke Centre.

Ward 7 York West

Anywhere else, this ward’s incumbent, Giorgio Mammoliti, would be cooling his heels outside of an election campaign. When last heard from, the city’s integrity commissioner had requested a police investigation into the councillor’s accepting of $80,000 from a questionable fundraiser earlier this year. And that’s just for starters.

Mammoliti is once again facing off against Nick DiNizio who is still bearing David Miller era grudges. Aside from their respective political track records (Mammoliti: Eeewww! DiNizio: None), there’s not much to differentiate between the two men.

One glimmer of daylight in the race is Keegan Henry-Mathieu. We talked to him back in July and, boy, what a breath of fresh air he’d be down at City Hall. He’s everything his two opponents aren’t. Knowledgeable about municipal politics. Not inherently anti-tax. All for engaging the wider Ward 7 community in how they expect their city to run.

On October 27^th, we endorse Keegan Henry-Mathieu for city councillor in Ward 7 York West.

Ward 12 York South-Weston

This race couldn’t be any crazier.

One bumbling, ineffective incumbent councillor. A former mayoral candidate, Member of Parliament, lobbyist and brother of the outgoing city council speaker. A now third time council candidate, and son of a real estate magnate and former interim city councillor.

Throw in some slashed tires and broken campaign office windows and let’s call it an olde tyme dirty old York city council race.

Then there’s Lekan Olawoye.

If Ward 12 voters were really anxious to jettison the past, and get on with the future, Mr. Olawoye would be the clear choice. We went out canvassing with him back in July and found him to be polished, very focussed on the needs of the residents and not attached in the least to old bromides and tired political saws that have got nothing done that needs to be done for decades now.

On October 27^th, we endorse Lekan Olawoye for city councillor in Ward 12 York South-Weston.

— helpfully submitted by Cityslikr

Challengers To Watch V

Posted on July 10, 2014 by "Brother" of Cityslikr

“Neglect”.

That’s the one word answer I got from Lekan Olawoye when I asked him what it was he was hearing from people in Ward 12 York-South Weston while out canvassing. Not complaints about high property taxes. Nothing about subways versus LRTs. Just plain old “neglect.”

In fact, he’d met a resident living in the ward for 50 years who told him that he was the first municipal candidate ever to come knocking on her door.

It might come as a surprise to many of us who live in Toronto’s politically vigorous areas, let’s call them, where town halls and community meetings draw big crowds. Where our local representatives show up at our doors on a regular basis or respond quickly to our questions and concerns. Neglect? Wouldn’t be the word we’d use.

But take a walk along forlorn sections of Eglinton Ave West, around Keele Street and see what happens when the representative at City Hall isn’t particularly mindful of building thriving neighbourhoods. Empty storefronts. Little street life. Just a thoroughfare people buzz past on their way to someplace else.

This part of the city is the left behind section. Once a solid middle class area with good, well paying jobs not all that far away from home. Now a place with much “untapped human resource”, as one Olawoye campaign volunteer and long time Ward 12er told me. Untapped for many reasons, many of those beyond a city’s control, but certainly for some that come down to local representation that just doesn’t get it, doesn’t know how to respond. It’s just there, shrugging obliviously.

So the simple fact of the matter is, in Ward 12, like many of the other inner suburb wards, engagement comes down to basic retail politics. Being available. Acting quickly on very specific, very local needs. Potholes. Basement flooding. Street parking. Serving as a conduit to help negotiate communication between residents and city departments and services.

Lekan Olawoye seems to get that. His pitch is simple. What can I do to make your life easier and better? I’m here to help.

It smacked a little to me of the current administration’s obsession with ‘customer service’. I asked him for more details about his pledge for ‘better transit, support for families, reduced poverty, safer streets and healthier communities.’ All of which any candidate will inevitably tout. These are the whats. Tell me a little bit more about the hows.

That’s not there yet, the nitty gritty details of exactly how you plan to transform systemic problems. Working with the TTC to sort out bunching of buses followed by long waits has stumped many a well-intentioned people. Lofty goals need thoughtful and innovative approaches to stay afloat.

But here’s what I’m only beginning to understand about municipal politics. Voters need to really believe that a candidate is there to work for their sometimes very personal interests. They want to know you will be available to help sort out the most basic, mundane of everyday problems and situations they face. If that kind of trust and engagement is not present, they’ll walk back and demand nothing more than just keeping their taxes low and their streets clean.

That’s the hill Lekan is climbing in Ward 12. Years, decades even, of neglect, in his words, by the councillors it sends to City Hall have made it difficult for new voices to convince people that it can actually be different, better. City Hall doesn’t have to be this foreign place, an hour or so trip, off and away downtown.

The situation also leaves lots of room for hope, though.

And Lekan does deliver a lot of hope and enthusiasm.

He works the doors of the canvass smoothly and charmingly. While this is his first campaign as a candidate, you wouldn’t know it to see him interact with people during the canvass. He’s personable, friendly and outgoing. At one point of time I watched him actually engage a soccer fan for a quick introduction and chat during the penalty kicks of last night’s Argentina-Netherlands World Cup semi-final.

He has been at this almost since the very beginning of the campaign in January. So he’s getting good at what any candidate needs to get good at. Meet and greet. Meet and greet. Lekan’s also no stranger to the wider world of politics and community involvement. He is currently the Executive of For Youth Initiative, a local non-profit that provides services and programs to youth who live in a part of the city severely under-serviced. Lekan was also the first chair of the Premier’s Council on Youth Opportunities.

He has what appears to be a well-oiled campaign machine, bursting with eager volunteers who fan out across the street as the two of us stand, chatting. That’s going to be absolutely necessary as he’s taking on an entrenched incumbent in Councillor Frank Di Giorgio. From my view point, it should be cinch. Councillor Di Giorgio ranks near the very bottom on my list of terrible, terrible municipal representatives. As Mayor Ford’s second budget chief, he constantly seemed out of his depth. As a local councillor, he comes across as simply disinterested in doing the job.

Unfortunately, politics at the city level seldom work out that way. Name recognition plays a big factor in determining the outcome. Challengers have to be relentless in getting themselves out there, getting their faces known, convincing voters in the ward that taking a risk on change will be worth it.

Lekan Olawoye appears to be making that kind of dent in Ward 12. On Tuesday night, he had 3 of the tires on his car slashed in his driveway. What? That’s like movie shit, says me, the political neophyte. But Lekan chose to see the upside in it.

“Somebody knows we’re here,” he said.

I guess so. I’ll take the candidate’s word for it. It’s a good sign.

— optimistically submitted by Cityslikr