City council is about to look a lot more like the city it represents thanks to the election Monday night of diverse candidates, including council’s first hijab-wearing Muslim.
Council has long been older, whiter and more male than Toronto, where more than half of residents were born outside Canada. But voters and candidates, some of whom won after multiple attempts, boosted representation significantly for the upcoming term.
For Mayor John Tory, easily re-elected to a third term Monday, it means facing some progressive voices eager to tilt the right-leaning council to the political left on a host of issues, including climate action, city services and property tax levels.
“We made history tonight,” declared Ausma Malik, a Muslim woman and former school trustee who won the Ward 10 Spadina—Fort York seat vacated by Joe Cressy.
“And I want to see many more firsts, and many more people being able to imagine taking up progressive political leadership in this city and to make it more equal and just.
“We need a renewal at city council. For me it was taking my local knowledge, my experience, to make sure our communities had a champion at city hall and … continuing to break down the barriers to leadership in our city that have been there for too long.”
Amber Morley, a young Black health promoter upset longtime Ward 3 Etobicoke-Lakeshore councillor Mark Grimes in a bitter rematch from the 2018 election.
“I genuinely believe our collective consciousness has elevated a little bit over the last few years in terms of what people value,” Morley said after her victory. She cited “democracy, leadership, fairness, equity and justice.”
“There’s been a huge portion of the community that have not been happy with the outgoing councillor for many, many years,” she said, “but unfortunately (they) haven’t had a strong enough candidate who knew how to do the work, to build a team and get over the top.”
In Ward 9 Davenport, Alejandra Bravo, a Chilean-born former community organizer, won in her fifth shot at office, after losing three municipal elections and one provincial contest.
“It feels like if you fight alongside people for more than 20 years, you get a really great mandate to take a progressive voice and a vote to city council,” said Bravo, who replaces Coun. Ana Bailão, who is retiring from politics.
“One of the best things about tonight is honestly that it looks like a bunch of progressive new voices — so embedded in community, so driven by the same values — are going to council.”
In Ward 18 Willowdale Lily Cheng, the Chinese-Canadian executive director of NeighbourLink North York, beat Markus O’Brien Fehr, an aide to the ward’s retiring Coun. John Filion, as well as pharmacist Daniel Lee.
Cheng campaigned on wanting to revisit a 59-person supportive housing building planned for Cummer Avenue, setting up a potential fight with Tory who endorsed O’Brien Fehr and strongly supports the council-endorsed plan.
Cheng said Monday night: “I’m in tears. I’m deeply grateful for the support that the community has shown me throughout this campaign. I’m still shocked actually. I really had no idea what was going to happen tonight.”
In Ward 13 pc28Centre, former school trustee Chris Moise adds another progressive voice to council after decisively beating eight other candidates in the open race.
Black and openly gay, Moise replaces three-term councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, who left city hall for a successful foray into provincial politics.
Wong-Tam called Moise a candidate who “championed equity and social justice throughout his many years as a pc28District School Board trustee.”
In Ward 23 Scarborough North Jamaal Myers, a Black lawyer and community advocate, will succeed Cynthia Lai, the councillor elected in 2018 who was seeking re-election but died suddenly on Friday.
Myers called his win a “big deal,” especially for Malvern, where people “opened their hearts. “I am over the moon,” he said from his victory party.
He called the death of Lai, a businesswoman and Tory ally, unexpected and tragic. “We obviously had very different visions of where we wanted to take things. But you know, we both shared a very strong love for our community. She was very loved in the community. And it’s a part of a legacy I hope to continue.”
A couple of races saw wire-thin margins that could be the subject of recount requests.
In Ward 5 York South—Weston, veteran councillor and Tory ally Frances Nunziata beat challenger Chiara Padovani, a tenant advocate and social worker, by only 94 votes — 47.61 per cent of the vote compared to 47.16 per cent.
“I’m very pleased with the results,” Nunziata told the Star, “and it’s very clear that my constituents have spoken, and they’ve been very happy with the service and how I’ve been representing them over the years.”
“A win is a win,” she said. “It’s been a long day, like any other campaign.”
The city’s election website showed that in Ward 11 University-Rosedale, Dianne Saxe, former Ontario environmental commissioner, appeared to beat pc28Catholic District School Board trustee Norm Di Pasquale by 120 votes.
But that vote count remained unchanged after the city’s website said votes from the final seven polls were added, close to midnight. Confusion abounded.
“They added seven polls and nothing had changed and there has been no explanation from the clerk,” said Di Pasquale’s campaign manager Marco Bianchi.
At about 12:40 a.m. the city confirmed all ballots were counted, with Saxe beating Di Pasquale by 123 votes. City spokesperson Brad Ross cautioned that, as with all the vote totals, they are unofficial until confirmed by the city clerk on Thursday.
Ontario’s Municipal Election Act says recounts happen automatically only when votes are tied, but candidates can ask the municipal council to order a recount.
Candidates can also go to court seeking an order for a recount.
The new council will officially take office in about a month, with speeches and smiles for the official photo. Then, reality will set in for leaders of a city with massive post-pandemic challenges.
They include a $875-million budget hole that could balloon to $1 billion by February when council needs to approve a 2023 spending plan.The city can’t legally run a deficit so will need either massive bailouts by the provincial and federal governments, new revenue sources, or deep cuts to balance the books.
TTC ridership and revenues have yet to recover, downtown office towers and the businesses that rely on them remain spookily quiet, and many residents are demanding improvements in basic services such as park maintenance and snow clearing.
While the complexion of council is changing, many familiar faces will be back in the city hall chamber.
In Ward 4 Parkdale—High Park, incumbent Gord Perks fended off challenges from Chemi Lhamo and Siri Agrell. Perks has been the de facto leader of council’s left flank, a budget watcher and thorn in Tory’s side.
In Ward 1 Etobicoke North, former councillor Vincent Crisanti is heading back to city hall. He bested 16 challengers vying to represent a ward that has been represented by the Ford family — from Rob to Doug to Rob again and then Michael — for more than two decades.
The ward came up for grabs when Michael left city council to run for provincial office, and was elected as the MPP for York South—Weston in June.
Also making a comeback is Jon Burnside, who was defeated in 2018 but triumphed Monday in Ward 16 Don Valley East. With a strong Tory endorsement, the former pc28police officer and food entrepreneur is replacing retiring Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong.
In Ward 21 Scarborough Centre, incumbent Michael Thompson was easily re-elected.
Thompson was charged with two counts of sexual assault in September. Thompson denied the accusations by two women, related to incidents in Muskoka in July, and continued his campaign which included no high-profile challengers.
In Ward 22 Scarborough-Agincourt, incumbent Nick Mantas beat a challenger with the same surname, garnering 49 per cent of the vote.
With files from Victoria Gibson, Betsy Powell, Lex Harvey, Katie Daubs and Ben Mussett
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