In an election year Toronto’s differences are smoothed out and can be overlooked by mayoral candidates who need to deliver uncomplicated ideas, to the whole city, as quickly as possible.
asserted
who → smooth → city
Yet issues can look different depending where in the city you’re standing.
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you → look → city
It’s easy to forget how big and complicated Toronto is.
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Toronto → ’ → ?
That’s why your local council race is as important as the mayoral one.
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race → ’ → one
Congestion can seem different in Liberty Village than it does in the Malvern and Morningside neighbourhoods of Scarborough, for instance.
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it → seem → instance
The former is a high density zone with relatively few ways in and out, hemmed in by railway corridors.
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former → hem → corridors
On foot or bike it’s fine, but driving a car to or from there is an exercise in guaranteed frustration.
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driving → ’ → frustration
Public transit could help a lot, but the long-promised King-Liberty GO Station has been in funding limbo since 2024, with construction deferred indefinitely.
uncertain
construction → help → 2024
The better access it promised — essentially the equivalent of a Liberty Village subway station — is likely a reason many people moved there, but nobody is really talking about prioritizing King-Liberty with any urgency today.
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nobody → promise → urgency
Sprawling neighbourhoods, it has wide, multi-lane arterial roads with clusters of density here and there but lots of open space in parks, ravines and hydro corridors too.
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it → sprawl → parks
Residents will say traffic is a problem, but it’s not as acute as Liberty Village, not something that can be immediately seen from the front door, rather a general feeling that getting around the broader city isn’t easy.
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getting → say → city
Getting downtown, across town or being stuck on the 401 are bigger issues, rather than simply getting out of the neighbourhood.
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Getting → get → neighbourhood
The attention-grabbing Scarborough subway extension of elections-past, now under construction, will still be a bus ride away, and getting around such sprawling neighbourhoods themselves can be a challenge on public transit.
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getting → grab → transit
It’s nuances like these that local councillors can advocate for, making the council races incredibly important to pay attention to.
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races → ’ → attention
Unfortunately, people have limited bandwidth for municipal politics compared to other levels of government, and of that attention the mayoral race tends to suck up most of the oxygen.
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race → have → oxygen
What your councillor stands for, and what they’re willing to fight for, can sometimes affect your neighbourhood more than the mayoral race.
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they → stand → race
Since the Ford Government’s council cut, wards are immense, sometimes covering vast geography, each around 110,000 people.
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wards → cover → people
Medium-sized cities on their own, akin to St. John’s, Milton or Thunder Bay, so even though democratic representation was diminished with the cut, it’s even more important to watch your local council race now.
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it → diminish → race
As we have a generally “weak mayor” system, the mayor is still just one vote on council on many matters.
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mayor → have → matters
Even if a mayor chooses to use “strong mayor” powers where allowed, councillors do matter, and most issues have a hyperlocal angle.
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issues → choose → angle
Affordability is another issue discussed by mayoral candidates.
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Affordability → discuss → candidates
The focus is rent and the cost of homes, but it’s related to issues of homelessness, encampments and people using TTC vehicles for shelter.
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it → relate → shelter
The local level is where more nuance comes in around solutions.
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nuance → come → solutions
The interconnected nature of the city becomes apparent too.
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nature → become → city
If tackling affordability is important, if you don’t want to see people sleeping on TTC vehicles or in parks, where your local councillor stands matters.
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stands → tackle → parks
Have they, or would they, oppose housing or shelters in their ward?
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they → oppose → ward
Pointing out a problem but suggesting solutions belong elsewhere in the city is a cop out.
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solutions → point → city
Sharing in Toronto’s prosperity means sharing the burden.
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Sharing → share → burden
Over the last few years Toronto has seen local councillors object to shelters in their wards, or have opted their wards out of the multiplex pilot project.
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councillors → see → project
Doing so makes it difficult to be upset about affordability and all its related issues without a whiff of hypocrisy.
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it → do → hypocrisy
Toronto’s economy is another issue that has local roots.
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that → have → roots
In the recent mayoral debate hosted by the Toronto Region Board of Trade and the Toronto Star, economic development was a central issue, particularly in encouraging small business to establish and flourish.
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business → host → Trade
Yet over the last few years there was a sometimes-bitter debate around allowing businesses to open within neighbourhoods.
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businesses → be → neighbourhoods
Ultimately some councillors opted their wards out of the expansion of commercial activity, and where it is allowed the kinds of businesses that can open is severely constrained and streets where it can happen are limited.
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it → opt → businesses
Regulation of the where and what kind of commercial activity is allowed in a city is reasonable, but Toronto largely maintained an overly-restrictive status quo.
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Toronto → allow → quo
Yet during an election we wonder why it’s so hard to start a business here.
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it → wonder → business
It can be easy to make broad, citywide statements, but it’s at the local, ward level where the rubber hits the (sometimes literal) road, so don’t neglect your council race.
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rubber → make → race
The Aporia
