Toronto Star Opinion: ‘Anybody but Chow’? A new opposition voice may be what city hall’s chaotic politics needs — even if you agree to disagree
A new Toronto municipal political advocacy group — named ABC Toronto — launched this week with an event in Little Italy. And even for those of us unlikely to agree with the positions it advocates, that should be seen as good news for the city.
Visiting the group’s website, you might be forgiven for assuming the ABC of its name stands for “Anybody But Chow” — the lead headline is for a petition urging people to oppose “Chow’s massive tax hike” of 6.9 per cent. Another item toes the Ford government line supporting the removal of bike lanes on Bloor, University and Yonge. A further headline about Coun. Brad Bradford gets to the point that a bit of progress is “no thanks to Chow.”
Still, digging into the About page reveals that the name of the group actually stands for “A Better City Toronto.” And despite my broad disagreement with their stands so far — regular readers will know I use and value the bike lanes, and think the recent tax increases are overdue and not all that extreme — I think they stand a chance of helping Toronto live up to their name.
Toronto has no formal political party system like we have in our provincial and federal legislatures. Generally, I think that this is a good thing, because it means councillors are less likely to polarize over non-ideological issues like local speed bumps, and a lack of party discipline opens up the opportunity for pragmatic, issue-by-issue coalitions to spring up on the merits of given questions. No formally enforced party discipline means councillors can be flexible enough to serve the needs of their constituents rather than the demands of their ideological colleagues.
But this can make city politics uniquely hard to follow. The teams and alliances at city hall are always shifting — Coun. Paul Ainslie, for instance, was on Rob Ford’s executive team, and then John Tory’s, and now Chow’s. The 25 members of council can seem like they are 25 unique teams, each their own spokesperson with their own talking points. On many issues, even important ones, it can be hard to see the outlines of the debate, and come election time, it’s hard for voters to know how any of the council candidates aligns (or doesn’t) with their own ideological position, or that of their preferred mayoral candidate.
Which is where informal parties — voter coalitions and advocacy groups — can have a role to play. Organizing independently or with the co-operation of various members of council, they can participate in the major city hall discussions and argue and persuade. Come election time, they can endorse slates of candidates and participate in campaigns, helping make it clearer to candidates what the teams really look like.
Over the past few years, on the left wing of the political spectrum, a group called “Progress Toronto” has emerged to play that role. As a registered third-party advertiser in the last mayoral and general election campaigns, it endorsed council candidates, worked against some incumbents, and supported the campaign of Olivia Chow. It was given some credit (by all sides) with influencing the results in the recent byelection campaign in Don Valley West.
Smart observers from across the political spectrum might have thought it was only a matter of time before a version of that on the political right, or the centre-right, emerged to play the same role for a different set of voters and politicians.
That ABC Toronto has launched — though it tells the Star it hasn’t decided whether to register as an election campaign party and endorse specific candidates yet — seems especially useful given it is in opposition to the current mayor, just as Progress Toronto emerged in opposition to the previous mayor. All these voices are, in my opinion, always welcome additions to the debate, but given how city council has a way of forming up a line behind whoever is in the mayor’s office and there’s no “official opposition,” it’s particularly useful to have some group you can look to to clarify the points of dissent.
There’s room for more such groups. The political alignments and teams at city hall don’t directly mirror the parties of our provincial and federal systems, and there’s often more than two sensible takes on any given complex issue. You could envision a spectrum of groups — some broad ideological coalitions and some big single-issue organizers — participating in debates and endorsing various candidates, making the whole process more accessible to people on the outside trying to figure out where they stand.
You don’t have to agree with any of the groups. But if they help make the debate easier to follow by clarifying the major points on various sides, you might agree they’re providing a valuable service in an often chaotic system.
Originally published by the Toronto Star: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/anybody-but-chow-a-new-opposition-voice-may-be-what-city-hall-s-chaotic-politics/article_de33defc-de60-11ef-9e7c-cb7e014769b5.html