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Governor General’s office closes social media of Toronto for budget process

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John Tory will stay on as Toronto’s mayor to see his budget get debated at city council, his office said Monday, despite his announcement last week that he planned to resign following an affair with a former staffer.

Tory’s office said the 68-year-old was working to ensure the fiscal plan – the first he proposed under new “strong mayor” powers – is approved.

“Mayor John Tory will be attending Wednesday’s budget meeting to ensure the 2023 City of Toronto operating and capital budgets are finalized,” his office wrote in a statement.

Further details on Tory’s transition out of power were expected after the budget meeting, his office said.

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The move appeared to be a way for Tory to hold on to the “strong mayor” powers recently granted to Toronto’s mayor by the province, one political observer said.

Under the provincial legislation, Tory has the ability to veto changes council makes to the budget, which can only be reversed by a two-thirds council majority. The province has said those powers would not transfer to an interim or acting mayor.

“It’s a play to hold on to what I would characterize as uncollegial and ultimately undemocratic strong powers over the rest of council,” said Myer Siemiatycki, professor emeritus of politics at Toronto Metropolitan University.

The development laid out some of what the city could expect after Tory’s stunning announcement Friday that he would be stepping down following an “inappropriate relationship” with someone who used to work on his team.

Coun. Gary Crawford said Tory has indicated he will stay on as mayor until the budget is finalized, which could drag on for weeks.

“He has stated that he is committed to finishing the budget and the budget process, “Crawford said. “That could end Wednesday afternoon, Wednesday evening, or it may be continued for another couple of weeks.”

Meanwhile, the Toronto Star has reported that some of Tory’s allies are trying to persuade him to finish out his four-year term, which began in October after he was elected for a third time as mayor.

Crawford — who is among Tory’s supporters — said earlier in the day that he would have “preferred” that the mayor did not announce plans to resign.

“If he decided to change his mind and stay, I would support that, but again that is something I cannot comment on because it is really a decision he needs to make with his family,” Crawford said.

As of Monday, the city said Tory had not submitted a letter of resignation.

The mayor’s office has signalled that Tory does intend to leave once budget talks end. Its statement Monday said he met with Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie and city staff that morning to discuss how to “best ensure an orderly transition.”

If Tory had resigned before the budget passed, some councillors may have looked to seize the chance to undo some of his controversial proposals, Siemiatycki said, including a $48.3-million hike to the police budget and cuts to transit service.

Councillors could also try to undo the Tory-backed decision to scrap a recommendation to keep the city’s warming centres for the homeless population open until mid-April, Siemiatycki said.

But a successful challenge is significantly harder to mount with Tory in the mayor’s chair, he said.

If Tory does veto a council change to the budget, it could add weeks to the budget process — and his tenure. If council amends the budget, the mayor has up to 10 days to exercise his veto, according to budget scenarios published by the city. After that, council then has up to 15 days to vote to override the veto.

Given the impending resignation, the budget debate will likely be even more politicized than usual, said Zachary Spicer, an associate professor in York University’s school of public policy and administration.

Councillors testing a run for mayor could look to publicly stake out their positions on key issues as they look to line up support from allies, he said.

“There’s going to be a bit of an informal primary for both the left and the right for those who are hoping to get the broad support of that side of the political spectrum,” he said.

“There could be more political theatrics than what would be expected at a sort of traditional budget meeting.”

Coun. Josh Matlow, a vocal Tory critic, said his focus ahead of the budget deliberations remained on improving the city’s services, social supports, parks and infrastructure.

“We need a better budget before Mayor Tory’s announcement, and we still need a better budget to support our city’s priorities — regardless of what he chooses to do,” he said in a tweet.

Coun. James Pasternak, speaking before the mayor’s office’s announcement, said he was “relieved” to learn Tory would be at Wednesday’s budget meeting.

“I’m actually relieved he is going to be there in council Wednesday to make sure that it doesn’t turn into a chaotic mess because there is a leadership vacuum now in city hall,” he said.

Coun. Dianne Saxe said Tory should resign as promised, saying the more he delays, the more uncertainty he creates. But she doesn’t think the budget approval process will take weeks.

“He has said he is going to stay as mayor until the budget is delivered, deliberated and presumably passed, and so I guess I would say the sooner the better,” she said.

Tory’s bombshell resignation was at odds with the image he attempted to cultivate as a straitlaced moderate conservative.

He was first elected in 2014, promising to restore order after the scandal-plagued tenure of former mayor Rob Ford.

But Tory’s time in office has not been without controversy. The clearing of homeless encampments during the pandemic and his ties to Rogers Communications Inc., have long been subjects of criticism.

Tory defended clearing encampments by saying they were unsafe and illegal, and that people had been offered shelter. He says he has always conducted himself carefully and declared any interests when it’s appropriate related to his dealings with Rogers.

Tory was re-elected to the mayor’s office in October, after saying he had gained the blessing of his family to run for a third term.

Tory said the relationship with the employee in his office developed during the COVID-19 pandemic when he was spending long periods of time away from his wife, Barbara, to whom he has been married for over 40 years.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2023.

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Opinion: Canada's foreign policy and its domestic politics on Israel's war against Hamas are shifting – The Globe and Mail

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The vote in the House of Commons last week on Israel’s war against Hamas represents a shift in both Canada’s foreign policy and its domestic politics.

The Liberal government is now markedly more supportive of the rights of Palestinians and less supportive of the state of Israel than in the past. That shift mirrors changing demographics, and the increasing importance of Muslim voters within the Liberal coalition.

Both the Liberal and Conservative parties once voiced unqualified support for Israel’s right to defend itself from hostile neighbours. But the Muslim community is growing in Canada. Today it represents 5 per cent of the population, compared with 1 per cent who identify as Jewish.

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Although data is sparse prior to 2015, it is believed that Muslim Canadians tended to prefer the Liberal Party over the Conservative Party. They were also less likely to vote than the general population.

But the Conservative Party under Stephen Harper deeply angered the community with talk about “barbaric cultural practices” and musing during the 2015 election campaign about banning public servants from wearing the niqab. Meanwhile, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was promising to bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada if elected.

These factors galvanized community groups to encourage Muslims to vote. And they did. According to an Environics poll, 79 per cent of eligible Muslims cast a ballot in the 2015 election, compared with an overall turnout of 68 per cent. Sixty-five per cent of Muslim voters cast ballots for the Liberal Party, compared with 10 per cent who voted for the NDP and just 2 per cent for the Conservatives. (Telephone interviews of 600 adults across Canada who self-identified as Muslim, were conducted between Nov. 19, 2015 and Jan. 23, 2016, with an expected margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points 19 times out of 20.)

Muslim Canadians also strongly supported the Liberals in the elections of 2019 and 2021. The party is understandably anxious not to lose that support. I’m told that Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly often mentions the large Muslim community in her Montreal riding. (According to the 2021 census, 18 per cent of the people in Ahuntsic-Cartierville identify as Muslim.)

This is one reason why the Liberal leadership laboured so mightily to find a way to support last week’s NDP motion that would, among other measures, have recognized the state of Palestine. The Liberal caucus was deeply divided on the issue. My colleague Marieke Walsh reports that dozens of Liberal MPs were prepared to vote for the NDP motion.

In the end, almost all Liberal MPs ended up voting for a watered-down version of the motion – statehood recognition was taken off the table – while three Liberal MPs voted against it. One of them, Anthony Housefather, is considering whether to remain inside the Liberal caucus.

This is not simply a question of political calculation. Many Canadians are deeply concerned over the sufferings of the people in Gaza as the Israel Defence Forces seek to root out Hamas fighters.

The Conservatives enjoy the moral clarity of their unreserved support for the state of Israel in this conflict. The NDP place greater emphasis on supporting the rights of Palestinians.

The Liberals have tried to keep both Jewish and Muslim constituencies onside. But as last week’s vote suggests, they increasingly accord a high priority to the rights of Palestinians and to the Muslim community in Canada.

As with other religious communities, Muslims are hardly monolithic. Someone who comes to Canada from Senegal may have different values and priorities than a Canadian who comes from Syria or Pakistan or Indonesia.

And the plight of Palestinians in Gaza may not be the only issue influencing Muslims, who struggle with inflation, interest rates and housing affordability as much as other voters.

Many new Canadians come from societies that are socially conservative. Some Muslim voters may be uncomfortable with the Liberal Party’s strong support for the rights of LGBTQ Canadians.

Finally, Muslim voters for whom supporting the rights of Palestinians is the ballot question may be drawn more to the NDP than the Liberals.

Regardless, the days of Liberal/Conservative bipartisan consensus in support of Israel are over. This is the new lay of the land.

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Recall Gondek group planned to launch its own petition before political novice did – CBC.ca

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The third-party group helping promote the recall campaign against Mayor Jyoti Gondek had devised plans to launch its own petition drive, as part of a broader mission to make Calgary council more conservative.

Project YYC had planned with other conservative political organizations to gather signatures demanding Calgary’s mayor be removed, says group leader Roy Beyer. But their drive would have begun later in the year, when nicer weather made for easier canvassing for supporters, he said.

Those efforts were stymied when Landon Johnston, an HVAC contractor largely unknown in local politics, applied at city hall to launch his own recall drive in early February. Since provincial recall laws allow only one recall attempt per politician per term, Project YYC chose to lend support to Johnston’s bid.

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“Now we have to try to do door-knocking in the winter, and there’s a lot of preparation that you have to contemplate prior to starting. And Landon didn’t do that,” Beyer told CBC News in an interview.

Project YYC has helped gather signatures, created a website and erected large, anti-Gondek signs around town. It has supplied organizational heft that Johnston admits to lacking.

Their task is daunting.

According to provincial law, in order to force a recall plebiscite to oust the mayor before the term is up, they have two months to gather more than 514,000 signatures, an amount equal to 40 per cent of Calgary’s population in 2019.

They have until April 4 to collect that many signatures, and by March 21 had only 42,000.

Beyer criticizes the victory threshold for recall petition as so high that it’s “a joke,” and the province may as well not have politician recall laws.

So if he thinks it’s an impossible pursuit, why is he involved with this?

“You can send a message to the mayor that she should be sitting down and resigning … without achieving those numbers,” Beyer said.

Project YYC founder Roy Beyer, from a Take Back Alberta video in 2022. He is no longer with that provincial activist group. (royjbeyer screenshot/Rumble)

He likened it to former premier Jason Kenney getting 52 per cent support in a UCP leadership review — enough to technically continue as leader, but a lousy enough show of confidence that he announced immediately he would step down.

Gondek has given no indication she’ll voluntarily leave before her term is up next year. But she did emerge from a meeting last week with Johnston to admit the petition has resonated with many Calgarians and is a signal she must work harder to listen to public concerns and explain council’s decisions.

The mayor also told the Calgary Sun this week that she’s undecided about running for re-election in 2025. 

“There used to be this thing where if you’re the mayor, of course you’re going to run for another term because there’s unfinished business,” Gondek told the newspaper.

“And yes, there will be unfinished business, but the times are not what they were. You need to make sure you’re the right leader for the times you’re in.”

The last several Calgary mayors have enjoyed multiple terms in office, going back to Ralph Klein in the 1980s. The last one-term mayor was Ross Alger, the man Klein defeated in 1980.

Beyer and fellow conservative organizers launched Project YYC before the recall campaign. The goal was to elect a conservative mayor and councillors — “a common-sense city council, instead of what we currently have,” he said.

Beyer is one of a few former activists with the provincial pressure group Take Back Alberta to have latched themselves to the recall bid and Project YYC, along with some United Conservative Party riding officials in Calgary. 

Beyer’s acknowledgment of his group’s broader mission comes as Premier Danielle Smith and her cabinet ministers have said they want to introduce political party politics in large municipalities — even though most civic politicians have said they don’t want to bring clear partisanship into city halls.

Although Beyer admits Project YYC’s own recall campaign would have been a coalition effort with other conservative groups, he wouldn’t specify which ones. He did insist that Take Back Alberta wasn’t one of them.

A man in a grey baseball cap speaks to reporters.
Calgary business owner Landon Johnston speaks to reporters at City Hall on March 22 following his 15-minute conversation with Mayor Jyoti Gondek. (Laurence Taschereau/CBC)

Johnston says he was approached by Beyer’s group shortly after applying to recall Gondek, and gave them $3,000 from donations he’d raised.

He initially denied any knowledge of Project YYC when documents first emerged about that group’s role in the recall, but later said he didn’t initially realize that was the organizational name of his campaign allies.

“They said they could get me signatures, so I said, ‘OK, if you can do it by the book, here’s some money.’ And it’s worked,” he said.

Johnston has said he’s new to politics but simply wants to remove Gondek because of policies he’s disagreed with, like the soon-to-be-ended ban on single-use plastics and bags at restaurant takeouts and drive-thrus.

He’s no steadfast conservative, either. He told CBC’s Calgary Eyeopener that he voted for Rachel Notley’s NDP because one of its green-renovation incentives helped his HVAC business.

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Larry David shares how he feels about Trump – CNN

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Larry David shares how he feels about Trump

“Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Larry David shares how he feels about former President Donald Trump and the 2020 election. Watch the full episode of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace,” streaming March 29 on Max.


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