Tory wins, Mammoliti out, little changes -- Toronto's election brings neo-liberal continuity

After the drama of Doug Ford's undemocratic downsizing of Toronto City Council mid-election, the new, smaller results represent neo-liberal continuity. Very little of any fundamental significance has changed.

John Tory won a landslide victory over his main opponent, Jennifer Keesmaat, which is unsurprising given that there was almost nothing that separated them. Disappointingly, neo-fascist candidate Faith Goldy garnered more votes than leftist candidate Saron Gebresellassi, though neither broke 3.5% of the vote.

Meanwhile, council races were a mixed bag.

Michael Ford's result in Ward 1 has to have been uncomfortably close for his uncle given all the political resources he invested in it. A loss would have been politically catastrophic for him though it did not happen. Ford beat another reactionary Vincent Crisanti by almost eight percent of the vote.

In a silver lining Giorgio Mammoliti, who ran a disgraceful, dog-whistle campaign and who has been a disruptive far right presence on council for all too long, went down to a richly deserved defeat. He lost to Anthony Perruzza by nearly 12 points. This was, at least, a minor setback for Ford style bombastic stupidity at City Hall.

Many of council's "progressive" establishment "heavyweights" have been returned for what that is worth.  Family heritage crew Mike Layton and Joe Cressy are still there, as are centrists like Kristyn Wong-Tam. Gord Perks won easily in Ward 4 which is a positive given that he is likely the sole Councillor that can honestly be described as a leftist. Labour Council endorsed (surprise, surprise) Paula Fletcher defeated fellow progressive Mary Fragedakis whose personal connections were perhaps not quite as close.

In a fascinating example of the paucity of politics now, Josh Matlow -- a liberal notable largely for his fierce and correct resistance to Tory's inane Scarborough subway plans -- handily defeated the supposed New Democrat Joe Mihevc in Ward 12 by over 10 points. Mihevc might be remembered by The Left Chapter readers for his relentless nonsense about alleged TTC fare evasion and his musings on making sure kids get on the Presto train. He also, in what was a truly cynical and telling move, asked for John Tory's endorsement and received it. It likely, and deservedly, did more harm than good.

Deeply ironically Labour Council endorsed Jennifer Keesmaat ganged up with John Tory to back Brad Bradford over Labour Council endorsed former NDP MP Matthew Kellway in Ward 19. Bradford won. Sadly, I doubt this will cause the Labour Council to reflect on its pattern of often terrible, short-sighted decisions.

Overall, despite the hyperbole and the Ford machinations, the results indicate continuity. They do not appear to show any shift significantly to the right or ideologically otherwise at all. In fact, only 12 of 25 candidates endorsed by Doug Ford's de facto official organ the Toronto Sun won. The composition and balance of power between what passes as a left, the centrists and the right remains largely the same.

The lack of an organized socialist civic movement, though, is as glaring as its consequences are telling.

The council also continues to lack anything remotely like the diversity of the city it supposedly represents.

With this council we can anticipate little serious or significant resistance to the Ford provincial agenda municipally. When understood within the broader politics of disillusion in Ontario, it is clear that any fightback will have to be organized outside of and in spite of existing mainstream electoral channels.

See also: Ontario’s 2018 Election: Pessimism Today, Strategic Organizing Tomorrow

Toronto budget prioritizes policing -- Yet again

When it comes to the passage of John Tory's second "austerity-without-the Ford spectacle" budget of his term, there is a least the small silver lining that -- unlike in the farce of last year's near budget unanimity -- this time 9 Councillors voted against it.


33, however, voted for it.

In doing so they voted for a budget that continues to, quite literally, nickle-and-dime city residents when it comes to city social programs and services, infrastructure, maintenance, housing and anti-poverty initiatives. Despite attempts to claim otherwise and despite minor new gestures that are trumpeted as far more substantive than they really are, these services and budgetary items are pushed to the breaking point while the largest single item in the city budget, policing, continues its relentless and staggering expansion -- an expansion that has continued in inverse proportion to a long term decline in crime rates!

It has now reached the stunningly bloated level of over $1 billion. Yet another in a long line of yearly increases to this budget came at least in part  due to a pay increase for police just last year -- all while the city's mayor and political class insist, obviously falsely, that alleged fiscal constraints make necessary its ongoing attempts to roll back benefits and job security (among other things) for all its other unionized front line workers providing the services that actually allow the city to function.

While an almost absurdly token $220,000 was taken from the police budget and allocated instead to "crime prevention programs", this came in the wake of failed attempts (also basically token) to take between $12-24 million from the police budget.

The attempts failed (and failed by a very large margin) in large part due to the, by now very familiar, over-the-top rhetoric of Tory and Police Chief Mike Saunders that sought to claim that such a small diversion of funds relative to such a huge budget would result in the "loss" of 400 officers and the police not being able to properly "protect" the public -- an obviously and transparently absurd contention that sadly neither the media nor most of council were willing to call them out on.

In the lead up to these votes Tory's office had described the proposed police cuts as "arbitrary" with no apparent sense of irony as to the totally arbitrary way the city has been launching an outright assault on the benefits of city workers or the entirely arbitrary choices that have led to persistent waves of cutbacks, underfunding or non-funding of critical social and infrastructure objectives under two successive Toronto administrations.

The political choice -- and make no mistake that it is a choice -- to prioritize the increasingly militarized wing of austerity enforcement, the police, ahead of the programs, services and infrastructure for Torontonians that so desperately need greater funding, says a lot about the nature and ideology of government in the neo-liberal era. Especially as this choice is occurring, yet again, despite the shift in public perceptions of police in the wake of cases of police brutality, the murder of Sammy Yatim and the shameful and ongoing racist practice of "carding", and despite the fact that it is now known that a report the city paid for but essentially attempted to shelve showed that the police budget is likely substantially higher than it needs to be.

While Councillors and the Mayor then voted, (with the sole dissenting vote of far-right police stalwart Giorgio Mammoliti), nearly unanimously for "radical change" to the police budget next year, there is no reason -- given the long history of promises like these followed by political capitulation to police pressure and the police manipulation of short-term crimes waves or incidents -- to take this remotely seriously.

Mammoliti, at least, was being upfront.

The reality is that the money is there to increase funding for the staff, programs, infrastructure and services that would be of most benefit to those living-in-poverty and the marginalized communities and neighbourhoods that have been left behind by and that face ever greater obstacles and pressures as a result of this city's supposed economic and real estate "boom".

But Toronto's Mayor and Councillors would rather spend it on policing those communities and neighbourhoods instead.

See also: It is not just the police spending in Toronto that is out of control -- it is the police themselves

See also: 42-2: John Tory, Toronto City Council and the austerity consensus

See also: John Tory's Stupid Track derails transit in Toronto yet again