r/TorontoTheCity

I’m making this post because I’m utterly exhausted and annoyed by the sheer number of people who compare Olivia Chow unfairly to Zohran Mamdani. To be fair, a lot of this comes from admiration of an amazing American politician — I’m absolutely a fan of his. But unless the City of Toronto, and other Canadian municipalities, run by the same rules, the comparison is frankly unfair. Toronto is NOT New York City. Toronto is in an entirely different country. 🇨🇦 Can Toronto learn from other municipalities? Absolutely. But here are the reasons why it would be unfair to compare a mayor of a Canadian city to an American one.

“STRONG MAYOR” SYSTEM
As mayor of NYC, Mamdani holds executive power and does NOT require council approval to pass city policies. Toronto, on the other hand, is governed by the City of Toronto Act which dictates that the mayor requires a council majority, making Chow’s position inherently more collaborative and accommodating than Mamdani’s. She does have some limited “strong mayor powers”, as granted by the province, but this only applies to certain bylaws and budget proposals. So just remember that Olivia Chow is just ONE VOTE on City Council and that there are 25 other city councillors who get to vote.

BUDGETARY SCALE AND AGENCY
This year, NYC’s city budget was $110 billion USD. Unlike Toronto, they directly control education, the city housing authority, public health (including hospitals), and the police force. This is why Mamdani has been able to introduce city-funded universal childcare and rent control. NYC also has the ability to levy both personal and corporate income taxes. Toronto’s budget, on the other hand, is only $17 billion CAD. The city’s largest tax revenue is generated through property taxes, as they are not legally allowed to levy personal income or business taxes. Toronto has ZERO jurisdiction over education and rent control, and very limited authority over healthcare, daycare and other social services (near none, basically). What Chow and City Council have done is propose a number of adjacent programs and funding to try and help parents of school age children and renters (eg, the rollout of the universal school lunch program at all publicly funded schools and renoviction bylaws). But by and large, these are all provincial items and Toronto has very little control over them.

RENT AND AFFORDABILITY
The NYC mayor can directly influence local housing costs through the city-appointed Rent Guidelines Board, which votes on rent increases for rent-stabilized apartments. The City of Toronto, on the other hand, has no legislative mechanism to freeze or cap rents in Toronto. Rent control laws are entirely determined and dictated by the Province of Ontario. Chow's primary housing tools are limited to property tax incentives, municipal zoning, and leveraging city-owned land.

***
All in all, saying Mamdani is "better" often stems from his inherit ability as NYC mayor to execute systemic progressive policies. However, it ignores the fact that Olivia Chow, as a Canadian mayor, lacks the legal jurisdiction to enact identical policies. Despite the barriers, Chow has in fact done quite a bit for Toronto. Here are some of her more progressive policies at play:

- Worked in conjunction with the federal and provincial governments to build thousands of rent-controlled homes.
- Uploaded the Gardiner Expressway and DVP highways to Ontario to free up billions of $$ for local city services.
- Introduced a luxury land transfer tax and tripled the Vacant Home Tax to curb real estate speculation.
- Froze TTC transit fares and restored pandemic-era transit service cuts.
- Introduced monthly TTC fare caps to a max of 47 rides per month, with the eventual goal of capping fares to 40 rides per month by 2027 (monthly pass replacement).
- Expanded funding for eviction prevention and legal aid to fight bad-faith renovictions.
- Increased non-police community crisis teams to handle emergency mental health calls instead of police.
- Increased municipal funding for universal student lunch (and eventually breakfast) programs across Toronto schools.
- Significantly reduced homeless encampments by deploying Streets to Homes outreach workers and social services teams to transition residents into shelters and housing (instead of using police force as the province wanted).
- Approved the opening of city-run, non-profit grocery stores in low-income neighbourhoods.

Sorry if this post violates any rules. It got taken down in /toronto and I’m not entirely sure why (too political)? But we have a municipal election coming up and I think people need to be well informed about how their city is run before they go into vote.

Imagine if online posts about the crazy food and drinks at the C.N.E. would actually say WHERE in the grounds those items can be found. Staff working at the information booths cannot memorize every single detail about the C.N.E. Food and bevetages are sold all over the grounds. There's only so much time I am willing to spend searching for a particular food item before I give up.

>Nate Erskine-Smith is running for the city council seat of Beaches—East York this fall.
The municipal move follows his resignation from federal politics, where Erskine-Smith represented the same lakefront ward for a decade as a Liberal MP, and after he recently ruled out a leadership run for the provincial Liberal party.
“The question for me was, ‘How do you make the biggest difference with the time you’ve got?’” said Erskine-Smith in an exclusive interview with the Star, adding he weighed taking a break from politics to go back to law.
“I genuinely, relentlessly want to make the city work better,” he said.

Read the full story (a Star exclusive) via this gift link.

Toronto mayoral candidate Brad Bradford is calling for mandatory addiction treatment. CBC’s Ali Chiasson breaks down Bradford’s remarks and the reaction.

Hey folks,

Chris Chiasson (Toronto the Politics the Show the Host) here.

Lately, I've been surprised by the level of interest in my hyper local politics podcast.

But I suppose it makes sense, as despite our local news media declining precipitously in the past two decades, there hasn't been a great digital replacement.

Yes, there are many fantastic independent local news publications (City Hall Watcher and The Green Line come to mind). But there's a level of insight that only a longform conversation can provide.

Hearing someone in their own voice is a much better representation of a person than those same words in text.

________

My Open Call to Candidates

Ever since I interviewed Mayor Olivia Chow for the show, my inbox has been flooded with requests from other politicians wanting to come onto the show.

Initially, I was considering being selective in who I interviewed. Perhaps I could assemble a slate of candidates I prefer and make use of my platform to promote them.

But that idea didn't sit right with me.

Both because I don't think any one person can effectively evaluate who best represents a community. But also because I think the far more valuable thing for me to do is to ensure as many candidates as possible get the scrutiny they deserve so that voters can better make up their mind.

That's why I'm making an open call to any councillor candidate:

If you would like to come onto Toronto the Politics the Show, I will do an interview with you.

If you're interested, please send an email to torontothepoliticstheshow@gmail.com so we can set up some time.
________

I'm looking for a recording space

Some quick business here.

While I was initially hoping to travel to each ward and record on site, I'm realizing that due to the volume of interviews I'll be conducting, that is logistically untenable.

So, I'm looking to partner with someone who would donate their space and allow me to film interviews over the course of a few days in the lead up to the Oct 26th election.

Literally any space would serve my purposes. I have filmed the show in offices, malls, and public parks. Hoping to find somewhere with easy TTC access for the sake of easy travel for candidates across the city.

All I need is an 8' by 8' space, two chairs, a table, and a roof.

If you think you have a space that might work, please get in touch! I'd love to chat.

torontothepoliticstheshow@gmail.com

_______

How you can support the show

I've committed to keeping Toronto the Politics the Show entirely free (and ad free) until the municipal election to ensure as many people as possible get access to the show as possible.

There are a variety of costs associated with creating something like this. And while I have relied on the generosity of many great collaborators over the course of this project so far, my preference is always to pay people for their work.

If you'd like to make this venture more sustainable, you can make a donation to:

https://buymeacoffee.com/ttpts

A $5 donation from 1 out 10 listeners would make a meaningful difference in the sustainability of this project.

________

Thanks folks!

As always, I consider my audience my editorial team.

If you have any ideas about how to make this project better, or ideas on how to improve the show more generally, I'm all ears.

Cheers,
Christopher Chiasson

Toronto the Politics the Show the Host

torontothepoliticstheshow@gmail.com

Where would cyclists go, though? Bradford, like Ford, says side streets. But that’s another old congestion canard thoroughly disproven: Toronto doesn’t have continuous, citywide side streets due to a century or two of haphazard development, natural landforms and railways to dodge. It does, however, have a handful of main streets that largely follow the old colonial concession grid, so most forms of transportation have to take the same few roads.

Perhaps we can blame the British for these woes, but traffic congestion debates today are like medieval discussions of chest congestion: there are all kinds of wacky, unscientific ideas for how to cure it. Especially during an election.

Especially if they can be used as a wedge. If lanes are removed, cyclists will still have to cycle on main streets, making them more dangerous for all users. Wedges can be sharp on all sides and have unintended effects.

I often wish all the attention being put on bikes could be consistently applied to motor vehicles as they are a far bigger threat to human life and limb. When it comes to acceptable risks, however, we as a society have decided cars and convenience are worth the carnage.

Bikes are easier to blame — making them an ideal wedge issue. Imagine if we could tackle the root causes of congestion and safety risks honestly and directly.

Gift link

https://www.thestar.com/gift-redeem?t=9778d8fc-5b1c-456c-8f9c-b7a14367eddd