Councillor backed by Tory defends abrupt departures from two boards
Christin Carmichael Greb quit the health board last week, the library board before that. “I have commitments at work. I have commitments with my family,” she says.

thestar.com
By BETSY POWELL and JENNIFER PAGLIARO
March 31, 2017

Councillor Christin Carmichael Greb told fellow Toronto board of health members recently she planned to vote against a motion banning so-called energy drinks on city property.

Unlike smoking, “I don’t see any adverse second-hand energy drinking,” she said.

But when it came to vote on the motion at last week’s public meeting, Carmichael Greb was nowhere to be seen.

Councillor Joe Cressy, filling in as chair, broke the news. Carmichael Greb had resigned from the board, leaving him scrambling to finish the agenda while maintaining quorum. The energy-drink motion passed unanimously, though rejected by council this week.

In December, Carmichael Greb also quit the Toronto Public Library Board, three months after Mayor John Tory appointed her as his designate, and after missing three regularly scheduled meetings.

The seemingly abrupt departures from the two boards, and Carmichael Greb’s fly-below-the-radar profile at city hall, have fuelled speculation around city hall: Is one of the mayor’s most loyal allies just not that into it?

If Carmichael Greb is offended by the suggestion, she doesn’t show it.

“I’m one of those people who want to do as much as possible,” she said last week in a coffee shop on Avenue Rd., in the northwest corner of Ward 16 (Eglinton-Lawrence.)

Scheduling conflicts were behind both resignations, she says. The board of health meeting dragged on longer than she had planned.

“I had to leave because I had meetings up here,” she says. “I was always going to...step down after that meeting and the mayor’s office knew about that.”

Nor was the timing right with her appointment to the library board.

“I have commitments at work. I have commitments with my family. I’ve got three little kids so trying to make everything work doesn’t always work so I felt it would be better for someone who had the time to do that job.” Her Linkedin profile, and her Facebook page up until recently, indicate she’s a consultant for a skin care line but Carmichael Greb says “it’s not like a job or anything.”

She also sits on the public works committee, audit committee, CNE board, the Board of Exhibition Place and the Toronto Atmospheric Fund Board.

Carmichael Greb landed at city hall after defeating 15 other contenders on Oct. 27, 2014. She won with the slimmest of victories, capturing 17 per cent of the vote, 1 percentage point more than lawyer Adam Tanel.

Before then, Carmichael Greb’s political experience mostly involved helping out with her father’s election campaigns. Her dad is John Carmichael, a one-term Conservative backbencher in Stephen Harper’s government - and long-time friend of the mayor’s.

The Toronto native says she always “swore” she would “never get involved in frontline politics. It was just something that never interested me.”

After graduating from Western University, she worked as a law clerk, then as a project manager at SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers), and later at Bombardier for three and a half years.

Carmichael Greb says she decided to jump into municipal politics after she got married and became a homeowner, which is when she realized “the city operates pretty inefficiently.”

“As I became more active as a homeowner in getting things done for my home...I decided rather than complaining about it I decided to do something.”

She filed nomination papers in January 2014, after incumbent Karen Stintz created a vacancy by running for mayor.

Carmichael Greb had some help. Her father stumped with her on the campaign trail.

Former federal finance minister Joe Oliver spoke at a fundraiser at her parent’s home. Tim Hudak, the former provincial Progressive Conservative leader, helped raise money. He and his wife, longtime Tory insider Deb Hutton, donated to her campaign coffers.

In mid-October, more than 5,000 voters in Ward 16 cast ballots in advance polls. Tanel got 912 votes, Youssefi Dyanoosh won 646 while Carmichael Greb came third with 612 votes.

With just days remaining, Carmichael sent his constituents an email touting his daughter’s candidacy for city council and asked them to share it with any voters in Ward 16.

“While my bias is clear, I truly believe Christin will make an excellent city councillor and bring constituents of her ward - and indeed all of Toronto - the leadership and experience needed at city hall.”

The email included the “growing list” of people endorsing Carmichael Greb, including Tory, who stood in front of the cameras alongside her father, a former car dealer, to throw his support behind the would-be councillor.

As he did with several other candidates, team Tory robo-called residents in Ward 16 with the then-mayoral-candidate’s voice offering his support.

A nod from Tory carries a lot of weight in Ward 16. He won more support there - 75 per cent of the vote - than any other part of the city. Rivals Olivia Chow got 13 per cent while just 11 per cent of the votes went to Doug Ford.

On election night, Carmichael Greb came out on top with 3,949 followed by Tanel with 3,680.

“It was certainly disappointing,” Tanel said this week. He feels Tory’s support gave Carmichael Greb the edge.

Around Ward 16, residents’ groups give the rookie councillor mixed reviews - at least one, France Rochette, chair of the Old Orchard Grove Ratepayers Association, believing she was in “over her head.”

Another, Jim Baker, president of Avenue Road Eglinton Community Association, applauded her work trying to limit speeds around schools.

No matter what, Carmichael Greb has every intention of running again next year.

“I love this job because I get to meet with people all the time,” she says. “I get to do fun things like redesign a park, or working with schools, or meeting kids.”

There are challenges, including development meetings, in a ward that has seen explosive growth - and change.

Also “trying to help residents when there’s not always a solution, is very difficult, but I do what I can for residents, and I do this because I wanted to effect change.”