Edward Keenan: Doug Ford’s ‘solution’ to Toronto’s housing crisis looks like no solution at all
So tell us, Steve Clark, why is it that Mayor John Tory deserves undemocratic powers to pass legislation at Toronto city hall with the support of just one-third of city councillors?
Well. Funny thing about that. By my own math, Tory also got about 64,000 more votes in Toronto in 2022 than the entire provincial Conservative slate of candidates — winners and losers alike — did. If Tory has a Toronto mandate that trumps the rest of city council’s, he also seems to have one to pretty much double-trump the provincial conservatives here.
You could begin wondering how understanding Tory’s mandate as a one-man cheat code allowing him to win any boss battle with Queen’s Park would translate into real-word results — according to what Tory told the Star just over one month ago, it would mean tolls on the Gardiner and the Don Valley Parkway, just for a start.
Tory, a famously rambling purveyor of on-the-one-hand-all-things-considered-I-think-its-fair-to-say-with-respect-to-the-question-there’s-another-hand-you-could-respectfully-take-note-of polyclausal prevarication, doesn’t get much blunter than that. The province’s housing law will gut the city’s ability to get housing built.
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