How Ford and Tory’s connection affects Toronto politics
The City of Toronto experienced unexpected political upheaval when Mayor John Tory resigned on February 17, several days after announcing his intention to do so. This decision was prompted by what Tory referred to as a “serious error in judgment”—a consensual relationship between him and a younger staffer in his employ.
The municipal government’s policy outlining that employees are not allowed to have romantic relationships where one partner reports to the other is mentioned in the Conflict of Interest and Confidentiality policy. While the mayor and his staff are not members of the Toronto public service, the legal and ethical problems of the power gap in the relationship has caused some controversy.
Prior to his political success as Toronto’s mayor, Tory was the leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party from 2004 to 2009. In the 2007 provincial election, his campaign promise to extend public funding to religious schools, and his backtracking in the face of public disapproval, was a major reason for his party’s defeat. He has performed a lot better in municipal politics. Tory, who had just started his third term at the time of his resignation, had won 62 percent of the vote in the October 2022 election.
Mayors in Toronto are not required to be connected to a political party in the same way provincial and federal leaders are. However, those who are elected tend to have connections to members of provincial or federal parties. Tory is no exception to this. He defeated fellow Progessive Conservative, Ontario Premier Doug Ford (who stepped in during the campaign for his brother, Mayor Rob Ford) in the 2014 mayoral election. However, since Doug Ford became premier in 2018, the two formed a working relationship.
In December of 2022, shortly after Tory’s reelection, Ford’s government increased the ‘strong mayor’ powers of Toronto and Ottawa’s leaders. The new legislation allowed Tory to propose bylaws and pass them with the support of only a third of councilors, instead of a majority. This comes after a previous increase in mayoral power that gave Tory the ability to veto council decisions that he thought would stop housing construction, and to hire and fire department heads.
The new laws caused noticeable backlash, with Interim Ontario NDP Leader Peter Tabuns calling it “an attack on democracy.” It was not the first time that the Ford government intervened in Toronto politics. In 2018, Ford cut the number of wards in the city from 47 to 25 in the middle of an election. While this caused controversy, the decision was found to be constitutional by Canada’s Supreme Court in 2021.
Ford publicly spoke out in favor of Tory after the mayor made his intentions to resign clear. He stated that if a “lefty” mayor was elected, the City of Toronto would be “toast,” and said that Tory was “the best thing we have in Toronto.” However, he stated that he would not rescind the strong mayor powers, no matter who was elected as Toronto’s next mayor.
On February 23, it was announced that the by-election to replace Tory will tentatively be held on June 26. The city’s last election had a notably low voter turnout, with only 30 percent of eligible Toronto residents voting. Because of the increase in power of Toronto’s mayor, the next election is an important one. As Tory proves, the political connections of a mayor are a factor to consider when casting a ballot.
