Doug Ford got it right with his ‘strong mayor’ plan

By giving Toronto “strong mayor” powers, Ontario can help the city one day balance its budgets, sparing us the annual tug of war on council. But it will not be easy, Martin Regg Cohn writes.

Thestar.com
Aug. 12, 2022
Martin Regg Cohn
OPINION

Flexing his strength as premier, Doug Ford is imposing a “strong mayor” system upon Toronto.

He’s not wrong.

The alternative is to perpetuate the “weak mayor” system that has paralyzed the mighty megacity ever since another tough--minded premier, Mike Harris, strong--armed Toronto into amalgamation decades ago.

Whatever you think of them as “strong premiers,” Harris just did the right thing back then, just as Ford is doing it right today. This is the logical next step, long overdue.

A weak mayor system keeps Toronto weak. That’s because municipal amalgamation, paired with mayoral emasculation, equals political gridlock.

By restoring balance to the equation, Ontario can help Toronto balance its budgets, sparing us the annual fiscal crisis on council. But it will not be easy, for in our partisan times the temptation is to conflate political personalities with political realities.

Yes, this plan has Ford’s fingerprints on it, but rather than making it personal or partisan, consider its provenance: Dalton McGuinty, a former Liberal premier, first proposed the strong mayor system for Toronto, inspired by a similar configuration in cities around the world.

A blue--ribbon panel created by Toronto also endorsed the idea, and then--mayor David Miller, hobbled by budgetary standoffs, backed it ---- until he backed down. History tells us that Miller’s grip on council continued to erode as a weak mayor, and the resulting voter dissatisfaction led to the election of the late Rob Ford as mayor ---- with all the disruption that came with it.

Today, Miller has joined the chorus of reflexive criticism from opponents who still cling to the weak mayor system as the epitome of municipal democracy.

In fact, most people never vote in municipal elections. Even those who do likely have no idea just how underpowered the mayoralty is.

Lest we forget, Toronto’s mayor is elected directly by the citizens of the city. Yet he is chief magistrate in name only.

In practice, Mayor John Tory wields but one of 25 votes on council. In effect, a mayor with a personal mandate from nearly 500,000 voters ---- who won every single ward in the city ---- has no more say or sway than any local councillor who typically wins election with fewer than 25,000 (and as low as 5,500) votes in wards with low turnouts.

Relegating a directly--elected mayor to the role of regular councillor is a false equivalency that distorts their quite different democratic mandates. It is misplaced parity, leading to a lack of priorities and ultimately to paralysis.

“I think people right now, they think that I have the authority to do a whole lot of things, and in fact I have authority to do very little,” Tory said after winning the mayoral election in 2018, which explains his support for the current reforms.

Ontario’s big cities have always been underpowered. Legally and constitutionally, they are creatures of the province, subject to the constraints and caprices of premiers.

Without question Ford overreached in 2018, shortly after winning his first provincial election, by halving the size of Toronto council in the middle of a municipal campaign. He was wrong on process ---- proceeding without notice ---- but reducing the number of councillors was far from a radical idea.

At the time, Toronto’s mayor was merely one of 45 votes on council, which is why the expert panel had also recommended cutting councillors down to size. Unsurprisingly, most of them were unwilling to vote themselves out of a job (until Ford did it for them, four years ago ---- albeit in the wrong way).

The strong mayor plan unveiled this week ---- first revealed by the Star’s Robert Benzie last month ---- uses Toronto and Ottawa as test cases. If the system works well, it could be expanded to other large cities that are expanding rapidly yet remain underpowered, from Mississauga to Brampton.

Even if opponents are prone to demonizing Ford’s handiwork, the devil, as ever, is in the details. The proposal empowers the mayor to disallow council bylaws related to provincial priorities, while allowing councillors to override that veto by a two--thirds vote -- hardly a heretical concept given traditions elsewhere.

More to the point, it empowers the elected mayor to put forward his or her own vision for the annual budget, rather than remaining captive to a budgetary document written by committee; councillors can still amend the budget and vote it down (or override a veto). The legislation also codifies a mayor’s right to pick their own senior staff ---- hardly subversive stuff.

Will this make council more adversarial than collegial? As admirable as consensus can be, voters also expect leadership from a mayor who wins a democratic mandate and deserves the chance to enact it.

“This is an issue that is independent of personalities, political leanings,” McGuinty said in 2008, referring to the outdated form of governance he wanted to reform. “I don’t think that we’ve got the model in place that allows (city council) to do that.”

If Ford as premier can now see his way to taking a page from McGuinty’s early vision on municipal governance, so much the better.