Thread by @TorontoDDG

So, let's talk about this Toronto City Council change, and more importantly, what it means for you and local democracy.

1/

Firstly, under this scenario Councillors will have >100,000 people per Ward.
The same as MPPs or MPs.

No big deal, right?

As has been pointed out, MPPs and MPs are whipped votes, meaning in most, or all, instances, they don't follow the desires of their local constituents as much as they vote for what the Party wants.

Local Councillors don't do this.
Though certainly Councillors on the Mayor's executive team have to follow their direction on matters important to the Mayor, on most other issues they're free to vote as they (ideally) best thinks serves their community and the city.

So the first challenge is that dialogue, between the community needs, and the Councillor's ability to hear and heed, is threatened.

Your concerns, by sheer virtue of volume become less important to your Councillor.

Secondly, you may be familiar with Toronto's motto: "Diversity our strength".

Though I certainly get the irony of me, a white male who is running for City Councillor making this point, I'll press on.

In the entire history of Toronto municipal politics there have been 18 non-white Councillors.

18.
Outrageous.

Under today's scenario, if you want to make a change in your community and run for Council, you can.

The odds are heavily stacked against you if you're not propped up by a Party, but there have certainly been many Councillors who have won without Party support.

Under the new rules, that just became twice as hard for 'independents' to win.

Twice the area to cover. Twice the flyers. More time needed to devote to the campaign.

This excludes even more people, especially people without sufficiently-wealthy friends, from running. And who does that disproportionately effect? People of colour. Women. Independents.

So now, effectively, your only hope of winning a local race for City Councillor is to be affiliated with a large Party with sufficient resources.

Already an NDP/Liberal/Conservative.
Great.

But now you have two 'masters'.

What happens when the needs of your Party conflict with the needs of your local community?
Whom do you serve?
What did you have to promise to earn the Party nod.

Conflicts will naturally occur. They must. It's impossible for them not to.

Local democracy from caring advocates effectively dies.

We're moving into a Party system at the local level.
Certainly it's a mixed bag of pros and cons, but if my Councillor is for Party 'A', and I'm from Party 'B', will they always give my local concerns a fair listen?

It's now in their inherent best interest to not only maintain power themselves, but be aware and active against perceived threats.

Here's another practical scenario - a sleight of openly NDP candidates win a majority of Council seats.

What happens?

What's the best case scenario here?

Do the NDP Councillors seek to work with Ford on as many areas of common concern.
Do they fight Ford tooth and nail?

One is best for constituents, another is best for the Party.

Which master is served?

This can't be good for democracy.
This can't be good for local representation.
This can't be good for Toronto.

The role of Council is to work together. To overcome differences.
It's a messy, sausage-making process, but it's better than this alternative.

Alas, I see myself as a realist on this.

The Province will do what they want because they can.
The change is fait accompli IMO.

Where do we go from here?

Fight on.

The key challenge facing Toronto is how Canada's largest urban centre is governed, financed, planned, and competes globally.

If we're going to 25 Councillors, then let's get moving on the bigger moves that matter most to address our needs.

Transit. Affordability. Safety. Jobs.

As long as we rest on the whims of the Province we lack the ability to self-determine our needs among those who love and care for Toronto the most (self-included).

The big question for me, and our current and future crop of leaders to ask is: how do we change the status quo so the City is no longer merely a 'creature of the Province'?

I want a Mayor to have an answer, to have a positive vision of where Toronto is going in 25 years.

And I want them to register by 2pm today....

/Fin

I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge my plea to the Twitter ether didn’t get a response.

Thanks for running @jen_keesmaat!!