TOP 6 Debate Topics that will end Mayor Tory's re-election bid
Largely due to Torontonians' voter apathy, Mayor Tory has managed to win his last two terms of office. But this time, voters will turn out in record numbers because their way of lives are at stake - and they will want to make a difference. Tory's opposing rivals will have more than enough issues to expose years of political blundering that have slowly eroded the hopes and dreams of constituents in their outlook for Toronto's fortunes. Here are the TOP SIX TOPICS that the Mayoral candidates will fiercely debate Mayor Tory can not defend himself against them.
1) DUNDAS STREET WEST NAME CHANGE HOAX
Is this even a valid issue? NO..... - if one believes Toronto City Hall rationale on the name change issue then shouldn't Henry Dundas be targeted for name elimination in the Caribbean islands public spaces?
So, explain why JAMAICA CURRENTLY HAS A HISTORIC FORT - 'FORT DUNDAS' - NAMED AFTER HENRY DUNDAS, and operating as a tourist attraction next to a public school - and listed as a Jamaican National Heritage site.... That's correct - in Jamaica, where staggering losses of slaves lives accumulated from the horrors of slavery there. YET many other tourist sites in Jamaica still retain slave-owners/traders names. http://www.jnht.com/site_fort_dundas.php
Each year, Toronto councillors will get tens of thousands of requests from constituents to act on proposals for various issues. Unknown to most Torontonians, is that the overwhelming majority of these communications are simply ignored or shelved forever. The few proposals that councillors act upon on behalf of constituents, typically involve either a prestigious self-serving opportunity for publicized accolades, or to avoid embarrassing resulting blowback if the issue was ignored.
This is the basis of the Dundas St. West name change hoax by Toronto City Hall. In normal times, the citizen's request for a street name change would be laughed at, ignored, and tossed aside. It was that person's right to request it regardless - even if like a hail Mary pass. https://www.renamedundasstreet.ca/
But in this instance, Mayor Tory and his band of minions in council, desired to TAKE ADVANTAGE of the BLM period of effective social activity, by pretending they were reformed and dedicated anti-racists themselves. Their baseless claim was that they were correcting historical wrongs. Unfortunately MOST TORONTONIANS AND THE MEDIA BOUGHT INTO THAT PLOT. Mayor Tory is using history as a ruse. Councillor Thompsn publicly claimed arrogantly, that the name-change was about being on the right side of history! The petition of the citizen who 'won' the lottery ticket of getting their ordinarily non-issue proposal taken seriously, only had a petition of 15,000 online signatures; yet that person's twitter page for the issue ONLY HAS 100 followers - proving nobody actually really cared on the issue anyway in the end!!! https://twitter.com/DundasRename
Most Torontonians and the Black community in Toronto DID NOT ASK FOR NOR CARE ABOUT THIS ISSUE. So how is it that Mayor Tory and his 17 council minions felt they could put on jackboots and FORCE the self-serving plot upon Toronto tax-payers and the burdened Dundas St.West residents and businesses? Because - THERE IS ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY AT TORONTO CITY HALL. This issue more than most others, will lead to Toronto's removal as Mayor. People will decide to vote against Tory and his minions because of this FALSE-NARRATIVE history ploy.
If it were to be an issue, council could easily vote to choose what has been done in Scotland in this issue. PLACING OF ANTI-SLAVERY THEME STREET PLAQUES BESIDE THE 'OFFENDING' STREET SIGN. Simple and almost zero cost to tax-payers. Toronto's planners proved themselves too dim-witted to bother properly researching alternative options. This doesn't even include costly legal actions that will proceed against the City, launched by justifiably irate and shunned Dundas Street residents and store owners.
Mayor Tory and his ilk, and the citizen who proposed the name change, and the 100 twitter page followers are probably saying 'HUH!.... HUH!' now that they realize, name-changing IS NOT an issue in slavery ground-zero located Jamaica. https://www.my-island-jamaica.com/forts_in_jamaica.html
If Tory was genuinely pro-BLM inclined, why did he only fast track police body-cams during BLM protests. The police bodycams had its pilot project in 2014, yet it took over 6 years to finally force its official adoption. Had the usage been in place more would have been known about the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet.
2) Affordability - Rent - Homelessness
Mayor Tory's claims that a massive infusion of 'affordable housing' for renters will get rid off the high rents plaguing Toronto, has proven to be another of his false narratives. Toronto's average rents are easily double those of Montreal in comparison. Housing shortage became a plague under Tory, and the same way the exodus of ex-pat Hong Kong elites to Vancouver radically drove up its real estate market, now ex-pet Torontonians are doing the same to their new areas of residences in the GTA and even as far as the east coast provinces. Toronto, under Mayor Tory, climbed among the top 10 least affordable cities in the world. 2022 https://www.visualcapitalist.com/10-least-affordable-housing-markets/ 2021 https://www.visualcapitalist.com/least-affordable-cities-to-buy-a-home/
Of course, only shallow-minded property developers and greedy real estate brokers are all for Ford's proposed self-serving play to give Tory (strangely his one-time ultimate political nemesis), dictatorship jackboot powers to push City Council agendas ahead with no democratic oversight against dubious building projects. Would Tory accept stooping to be a collaborating Ford puppet? The problem with slowed city policies are the wrong councillors being at City Hall. Get rid of them, but DO NOT usurp democratic processes to discuss stalling potential bad planning.
Mayor Tory has infamously stepped in muck on many notable and publicized occasions, related to being dismissive of the plight of the homeless and imposing absurd homeless shelter policies, which affected neighbourhoods with collateral damages from related poor planning. He's never taken responsibility for the scandals caused from his lack of leadership in this issue - notably the unprecedented arrest of journalists covering one such episode. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/programs/metromorning/tory-shelter-armouries-1.4433669
Mayor Tory used to babble with overloaded pride about the TTC as if being the greatest thing since Swiss cheese. Under Tory's reign, the TTC has declined into a messy proposition for transit riders. Violent crimes are up significantly on the TTC, and while TTC employees seem despondent to work there, the Head Office seems to be AWOL as problems of every kind mount up in the system. During the pandemic the TTC had issued a mask mandate which by their own stunning admission, they were not actually enforcing! Problems glared during the pandemic as a result. Homeless and violent-minded individuals (typically unmasked) populated subways, streetcars and buses. TTC employees turned a blind eye to these disturbing encroachments - allowing risks to the public riders to prevail.
And then there's Tory's false-narrative of trying to encourage more ridership on the TTC. Why is Toronto's monthly pass fare more than $50 costlier than Montreal's own similar pass. Montreal's system is far safer for riders too. TTC Head Office has seemingly issued orders for their constables to not monitor for potential violent activities - because typically they're poorly trained to handle such instances; often over-reacting and incurring lawsuits.
THIS IS A MAJOR FUNDAMENTAL FLAW AT TORONTO CITY HALL. Among Toronto's top civil servants and Council, are bad operators who are allowed to get away with dereliction of duty. Indeed, the worst councillors and City Staff bosses cover-up for each other in their hideous lack of dedication to civil service. The Toronto Ombudsman and Integrity Commissioner Offices are hardly credible services for citizens seeking civic remedy assistance; they are kept understaffed and in their apathy, they seemingly routinely dismiss valid cases brought to them by citizens.
TORONTO CITY COUNCIL SEEMS CONTENT TO ROLL AROUND IN THEIR INFAMOUS ZERO-ACCOUNTABILITY MUCK AND SLIME. Nobody except the hardiest can break that vicious circle to get social justice. This is one reason why many who decide not to vote, should never give up voting - that's the coward's way out and just what the bad officials love to see happen - not voting keeps their jobs safe.
5) Decadent failing City Infrastructure
Toronto's Infrastructure looks slick and dynamic on the outside, but it is a growing irreversible catastrophe due to Mayor Tory's ongoing lack of any common sense in effective City management.
Toronto's international airport has been exposed as a chaotic matrix. At the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020, it had zero leadership while no safety standards were put into motion at all for weeks as travelers arrived. Mayor Tory was just as mute and ineffective at that time as he was during the summer of 2022 when travel delay fiascos at the airport were only eclipsed by staggering amounts of passenger baggage losses.
As for Toronto's downtown core, once legendary lively neighbourhoods have been irreversibly transformed into gentrified stale shadows of their former glory - ugly clumps of disorganized condo and office towers reign supreme. Yonge St. is a stagnant ghost town, and Queen St is on the verge of being similarly corrupted by future planned major roadworks. Roadwork projects in Toronto are notoriously disastrous for local businesses because of cost over-runs and inevitable reckless over-extended delays for completion. Parking downtown when concerts and sports games are staged is a $50 rip-off. https://www.blogto.com/sports_play/2022/10/parking-near-rogers-centre/
AND Where are the needed downtown public washrooms? Mayor Tory has focused only on painting lipstick on a pig, rather than fixing what has long ailed Toronto's inner workings. He has fixated on pomp and cheerleading and bragging rites, groveling to major corporations to set-up in Toronto, to further over burden Toronto's stretched resources. Such antics include the proposed Rail Park and the $760,000 City Hall Toronto sign 'overhaul' in 2020 while the pandemic raged??? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Sign To top off Tory's insatiable desire to compound infrastructure miseries, he has brought the World Cup 2026 to Toronto - a colossal mis-step that will be costly for the city. https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/inflation-drives-toronto-2026-fifa-world-cup-cost-estimate-up-to-300-million-1.5974816
It's no surprise that Toronto's infrastructure is eroding from the inside. The Deputy City manager for infrastructure is Tracey Cook, someone who was strangely selected for the role in 2018 even despite her notoriously lack-lustre and often unpopular role as chief of Toronto's Municipal Licensing and Standards Division from 2014 - 2017 - primarily the flop policies related to B&B, Uber/Taxis, and restaurant patio fees.... all this while Toronto's structural problems mushroomed. Numerous bungled news-media appearances by City staffer Brad Ross, only further raised the ire of locals against the system. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-state-of-repair-1.6612766
6) Steve Bannon Hatemonger promoter allowed in Toronto - Frum-Munk Debate 2018
In 2018, Premier Ford, Mayor Tory, and Toronto City Council allowed the infamous hatemonger promoter Steve Bannon, to cross the border from the USA and give a paid veiled Hate-Rally appearance in downtown Toronto. The staged show was applauded by Far Right Wing supporters, and fondly attended by many of Toronto's simple-minded and naive, well-to-do neoliberal elites who were somehow too intelligent to research readily-available info exposing Bannon as a prominent hatemonger inciter. It was surreal enough to watch these neoliberal snobs smugly appear before news cameras uttering excuses about 'freedom of speech' and declaring they needed to hear (and pay) Bannon's crafted Goebbel's styled performance.
So if elitist neoliberal fans of pro-hatemonger speakers are still ignorant about their entertainer Bannon, he later showed his true colours by promoting in person the French Far Right party in 2018. He proudly appointed himself a rabid broadcasting gaslighter for the Capitol Insurrection in 2021, and currently he's about to go to trial for activities related to stirring up the legions of demented Alt-Right, Populist, MAGA and Proud Boys > ie, codewords for neo-nazis and Far Right lunatics.
Hopefully, from now on we'll have a new Mayor and councillors who will prevent hatemonger speakers from spewing divisive hate in Toronto, even if naive neoliberal elites will pout over it.
BELOW: Examples of BLM-related cheap and non-intrusive 'Street name changes' in the UK, that Toronto's Mayor and most councillors were too lazy and arrogant to bother researching about - for proper public consideration and democratic decision making.