Council cut hasn't hurt, according to poll

Torontosun.com
July 16, 2019
Brian Lilley

A year after Premier Doug Ford moved to shrink Toronto City Council from a proposed 47 councillors down to 25, the response of most Torontonians could be summed up in one word.

Meh.

People don’t really care all that much.

At least that is the findings of the latest poll from Forum Research, provided exclusively to the Toronto Sun.

“I think Ford had good political instincts sensing that people felt that there were too many politicians,” said Forum CEO Lorne Bozinoff. “In some ways, this is one of those beltway issues, I don’t think were that aware of how many politicians there were then or how many there are now.”

Bozinoff said the call to increase council rubbed people the wrong way. Prior to Ford’s move to slash the size of council and align ward boundaries with federal and provincial ridings, the city had looked to increase from 44 wards to 47 in time for last October’s election.

When Ford announced that he would cut the size of Toronto council, it was denounced as an attack on democracy itself.

“This is unprecedented, anti-democratic and reckless,” tweeted leftie stalwart Josh Matlow, a city councillor apparently ignorant of both the constitution and the precedent that saw Toronto’s amalgamation back in 1998.

“Doug Ford doesn’t care about the people of Toronto, or the courts,” Councillor Gord Perks fumed to CBC at the time.

Well, since then the courts have sided with Ford, so far anyway, and the people mostly aren’t noticing a change.

When asked if the quality of representation had gotten better or worse since the cut in council size, 43 per cent said representation had gotten much worse or a little worse while 14 per cent said representation had gotten much better or a little better.

Most importantly, 42 per cent said neither, meaning they didn’t notice.

So, between those that feel things are better and those that don’t notice a difference, we are looking at 56 per cent.

But wait, weren’t we told the sky would fall if council was cut to 25 wards?

And who is it that is actually thinking they can notice a difference?

“There was a party split on this question,” said Bozinoff. “Where there is opposition, it is among the progressives.”

That is an understatement.

Among Conservative voters 29 per cent say things have gotten better while 51per cent of Conservative voters say neither better nor worse.

NDP and Liberal voters continue to be outraged at the cut in council size. Among NDP voters, 56 per cent say that things have gotten worse while 52 per cent of Liberals say the same.

The number of those opposed is bolstered by a large contingent of voters, 18-34 years of age. Allow me to point something out here, these are the people least likely to be calling about their street not being plowed in the winter or about the quality of the local swimming pool lessons.

So, this is likely more driven by partisanship and a dislike of Ford, among young NDP and Liberal voters, than by those that actually pay city taxes and use city services, something that Bozinoff concedes.

“They are unlikely to be ratepayers or taxpayers in that category,” Bozinoff said. “Millenials are concerned about voices being heard.”

Well, having voices heard is not a bad thing but hearing voices for the sake of hearing voices is why Toronto council was cut. No one needs meetings that last days on end, no one needs debates that never end.

At a certain point, decisions need to be made and having 25 councillors and a mayor seems just about right to most of the people in Toronto one year later.