Thread by @g_meslin

1. It’s important to be for something, and to not just litigate grievances.

I want to tell you why I support @jen_keesmaat for mayor.

@jen_keesmaat 2. I should first say that I worked alongside Jen for several years - my first planning job - at Office for Urbanism and DIALOG.

@jen_keesmaat 3. aside: Office for Urbanism (OU) was a small planning/urban design firm started by @jen_keesmaat, @aurbanist, and @haroldmadi in 2003.

4. Those three enormously talented principals launched a firm that grew quickly in profile and reputation.

5. For a small, new firm, OU punched above its weight, successfully competing with larger firms for high profile contracts.

6. OU eventually merged with Cohos Evamy, Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden, and Mole White & Associates to form DIALOG.

7. So Jen launched her own company in her 30s, grew it, and was a founding principal of one of Canada’s top 100 employers…

8. …something to keep in mind when you hear reference to the business experience of another candidate.

9. Anyhow, I am fortunate to have worked with and learned from Jen, and I consider her to be a friend, colleague, and mentor.

10. So in this thread, I don’t want to speak about platform planks - you’ve heard my thoughts on #GardinerEast, #VisionZero, golf courses…

11. I want to talk about why I think Jen would be a great person to have in the Mayor’s office. How her approach would fundamentally differ.

12. First, @jen_keesmaat has strong principles, and holds them with integrity. They are not chosen and discarded as a matter of convenience.

@jen_keesmaat 13. Here is something I wrote with Jen back in 2008 - it was part of the introduction to a study undertaken for the City of Winnipeg.

@jen_keesmaat 14. The point here isn’t ‘complete communities’, it’s how she frames that concept as being about choice, options, access, and opportunity.

@jen_keesmaat 15. I will also say that when she speaks about these things, she is often thinking about children, and the world they will grow to inhabit.

16. Hers is a coherent body of work, and the theme of building cities to expand options for all people to live & get around runs through it.

17. Consulting can be a mercenary world - you eat what you kill - but OU never allowed itself to be pushed off of their principles.

18. I was part of work with Jen where making some concessions would have greased the wheels for future gigs. We didn’t. I was proud of that.

19. Second, Jen is deeply empathetic, and has a sincere belief in meaningful public consultation.

20. She really wants to hear people’s stories; she listens deeply and remembers them; they inform her work and world view.

21. It was these characteristics that allowed her to succeed working with communities in Halifax, Regina, Lethbridge, Winkler...

22. She also engages people in good faith: consultation is used to inform outcomes, not to burnish them.

23. Part of meaningful consultation is ensuring people involved are informed - OU/DIALOG invested so much energy in this part of their work.

24. As Chief Planner, Jen created new channels for public engagement and raised the bar on City Planning's external communications.

25. (counterpoint: Tory’s proposed referendum. Jen would never use ‘consultation’ in that manner, to sanitize desired outcomes.)

26. Finally, Jen has an open mind. She learns. Her positions evolve

It’s not about winning, it’s about getting it right, the greatest good.

27. As mayor, she wouldn’t surround herself with strategists, she'd surround herself with people that could help her make good decisions.

28. She is somebody that respects evidence from serious sources - she wouldn’t bury a staff report if inconvenient.
thestar.com/news/toronto-e…

29. I say this as a person who is a stickler for logical, coherent arguments, and who has been able to make a case and change Jen’s mind.

30. I have had many complaints about the past four years, but they are really to do with integrity of process, not with positions.

31. Ignoring and avoiding evidence, leaning on staff to bury or alter work, decisions driven by political calculus rather than public good…

32. I sincerely believe that @jen_keesmaat would be an antidote - and antithesis - to the abject cynicism of the current administration.

@jen_keesmaat 33. Before I close this thread, I do want to briefly touch on one of Jen’s policy positions: her transit plan.

@jen_keesmaat 34. I’ve seen this plan criticized as not being bold enough, when boldness was promised, or as offering little new...allow me to differ.

@jen_keesmaat 35. Jen arrived at City Hall in 2012, at the peak of the Ford-era cycle of continually reopening LRT/subway debates.

@jen_keesmaat 36. One of her first big moves: 'Feeling Congested?'

A huge consultation-driven initiative to evaluate and establish transit priorities.

@jen_keesmaat 37. The idea of 'Feeling Congested?' was to use consultation to establish evaluation criteria - not to identify favourite projects.

@jen_keesmaat 38. 24 rapid transit projects were to be evaluated & prioritized based on those criteria, then the plan was to be embedded in the OP.

@jen_keesmaat 39. This was supposed to represent a new paradigm of consultation-led, evidence-based transit planning, insulated from political games.

@jen_keesmaat 40. The process kicked off in 2013, a new plan was never embedded in the OP, work on updating transit policies is still underway...

@jen_keesmaat 41. These are some maps from that process - surface routes and top performing rapid transit projects.

Look familiar?

@jen_keesmaat 42. Jen didn't draw lines on a map. Because that's not how you plan transit.

She advanced a network informed by evidence & consultation.

@jen_keesmaat 43. In our current context, that's bold.

@jen_keesmaat 44. I think, in politics, we conflate ‘boldness’ with making a big splash. Proposing something new and unexpected.

@jen_keesmaat 45. Personally, I don’t want political campaigns to promise things they don’t possibly have the time or resources to properly develop.

@jen_keesmaat 46. To me, a Keesmaat mayoralty would be bold in that it would be honest, uncynical, and informed by evidence. Bold.

#Keesmaat4Mayor.

@jen_keesmaat Final thought: I've focused on the mayoralty, but many Council races will be extremely close. Your vote matters.

Please vote.
#TOpoli

@jen_keesmaat 90 minutes until polls close.
If you haven't voted yet, there's plenty of time.
If you have, encourage somebody else to vote.

#TOvotes18