Toronto city hall is caught in a time loop.
asserted
hall → catch → loop
Round and round it goes.
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it → go → ?
A mayor gets elected.
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mayor → elect → ?
A mayor faces the daunting reality that the city has a structural financial problem that they can’t fix without the provincial government.
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they → face → government
A mayor, under pressure, asks a premier for money.
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mayor → ask → money
In some iterations of the time loop, the mayor finds a receptive partner at Queen’s Park, and makes a bit of progress, like Mayor Olivia Chow did when she signed a new deal with Premier Doug Ford in 2023, but in others the answer is a flat no.
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answer → find → others
But regardless, if any financial help is offered, it tends to be either temporary or insufficient — or both — and so history repeats.
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history → offer → ?
The mayors and premiers change, but the structural budget problem and the financial need remain.
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problem → change → ?
The cosmic ballet goes on.
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ballet → go → ?
Last week, the loop began again, as Chow, fresh off a resounding re-election win, opened some public negotiations with Ford about a potential extension of the new deal.
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loop → begin → deal
While the previous agreement offered permanent relief to city hall by freeing up capital funds that would have otherwise been tied up in the very costly rehab project for the Gardiner, it only offered three years of support for ongoing operating budget programs.
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it → offer → programs
Three years is up, and the city now faces an annual shortfall of more than $400 million that it’s been counting on to operate the new LRT lines on Finch West and Eglinton, step up security on the TTC, and cover the ongoing costs of operating homeless shelters.
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it → face → shelters
But this time around, the Ford government doesn’t seem ready to ride to the rescue.
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government → seem → rescue
“There’s no 2.0,” Ford told reporters last week, dashing prospects of a version 2.0 of the new deal.
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Ford → ’ → deal
Not a great start to this trip around the loop, but Chow should consider two things as negotiations continue.
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negotiations → consider → things
First, Ford left the door open enough to keep hope alive.
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Ford → leave → hope
At the same time he was denying a newer new deal, Ford said, “But are we willing to sit down and talk to Mayor Chow about certain priorities?
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we → deny → priorities
Maybe put policing into the subways to make it safer.
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it → put → subways
We’re all in.”
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We → ’re → ?
That speaks to a real opportunity to have some real talks about a new police funding model.
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That → speak → model
Any move to provide municipalities with some per-capita or per-officer funding for police would be a serious game changer for Toronto, where the rising cost of the cops has eaten into much of the new revenue Chow has raised with property tax increases.
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Chow → provide → increases
A permanent change to police funding is a huge ask for Toronto to make, but so was the highways upload.
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upload → make → funding
It’s worth taking another big, bold swing.
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It → ’ → swing
Speaking of big and bold, those qualities directly relate to the other thing Chow should remember.
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Chow → speak → thing
I’ve been thinking a lot over the past week about an earlier version of the loop involving another Ford.
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I → think → Ford
In 2011, the premier’s late brother Rob Ford — fresh off a commanding electoral win — came to then-premier Dalton McGuinty with a demand for hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for the TTC, road maintenance and child care.
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brother → come → TTC
Back then, the mayor didn’t approach Queen’s Park like a beggar.
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mayor → approach → beggar
Instead, he came with a swagger befitting someone who had just pulled off a big electoral win.
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who → come → win
“If they choose not to help us, then I have no other choice but to get out, as I call it, Ford Nation, and make sure they’re not re-elected in the next election.
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re → choose → election
But I do not want to do that,” he explained in a radio interview.
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he → want → interview
I’m not suggesting Chow adopt the exact same strategy.
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Chow → suggest → strategy
But the evidence does suggest Chow’s base of support — you could call it Chow Country, I guess — is just as strong as Ford Nation, if not stronger.
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I → suggest → Nation
She won in more parts of the city, including in six of the 10 wards with boundaries that line up with Toronto ridings held by PC MPPs.
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that → win → MPPs
She got an outright majority of votes in all four Scarborough ridings held by the PCs.
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She → get → PCs
Outside of Scarborough, one of the other wards she won was Etobicoke North, which is represented at the provincial level by some guy named Doug Ford.
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which → win → guy
The mayor can very credibly — and perhaps bluntly — suggest to the premier that she’s not looking for a handout.
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she → suggest → handout
Instead, after a consequential election, she’s looking for Ford to be a partner in delivering on the kind of city people voted for.
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people → look → city
Democracy should rightly generate a lot of energy.
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Democracy → generate → energy
The Aporia
