Toronto Centre-Rosedale city councillor Kyle Rae has informed friends and colleagues that he does not intend to run for re-election in the 2010 municipal election. In his letter, he wrote:
Last week, I began my 19th year as City Councillor for Ward 27. After lengthy and thoughtful consideration over the last year, I have decided that I will not run in the 2010 municipal election.
My time on Council has been a remarkable partnership with the residents and businesses of Ward 27. We have transformed the central core into a place where families and entrepreneurs can thrive. That was not so 20 years ago. Families, couples and singles, many of whom are new immigrants, have decided to call the downtown their home. The central core’s population, which shrank from the 1950’s through to the 1970’s, has increased very recently to pre-World War II levels.
I spent the first two terms on council being described as “the first openly gay City Councillor of Toronto,” in just about every press story. From this vantage point, I was able to calm the fears of many a councillor, who had never knowingly known, or worked with a queer person. Being at the decision making table has allowed me to change people’s attitudes, and I am grateful for the opportunity to transform homophobia into acceptance. Leadership on equality issues for queers, using Toronto City Council as an ally, has repeatedly advanced the queer community’s agenda for equality. I am proud of the work we achieved on a local level which has influenced provincial and federal governments. We have become THE city in the world with the least restrictions on same sex marriage, so that now, the world’s gays and lesbians come here to wed; then take their marriage certificate to their homeland to demand equality there. Toronto has a proud place in queer history.
…
I have not decided how the next phase of my work life will look. I know that local public service, though rewarding, is particularly relentless in a constituency that is so vibrant, diverse, and has a healthy mix of commercial, residential, and institutional interests. I look forward to new challenges and new opportunities, but will certainly not miss parking complaints, oversized fences, noisy neighbour issues, garbage questions and dogs in parks.
I wish I could say that I have left the City in a better state than I found it. I arrived before the Harris amalgamation and download. Queen’s Park has hobbled the City’s ability to deliver municipal services. Downloading provincial programs and services onto the municipal taxpayer has wrecked havoc on our parks, recreation centres, libraries, community services and culture. The federal and provincial aversion for responsible tax policy and appropriate tax increases has resulted in more than 15 years of cowardly downloading onto the City.
In many ways, Ward 27 has been able to weather the provincial storm. Each of us will have our own accomplishments that we realized together, such as: a new home for the Lesbian & Gay Archives; remaking of Seaton House; transformation of Bloor Street; a space for Buddies in Bad Times to call its own; defending the Pussy Palace; legally skinny dipping at Hanlan’s Point; restoration of the St. Charles Tavern Tower; creation of Build Toronto; development of the MaRS Centre; redesign of the Cumberland subway entrance; new research facilities at St. Michael’s and SickKids hospitals; the new Women’s College Hospital; redevelopment of Maple Leaf Gardens; expansion of the 519 Church Street Community Centre; redevelopment of the Wellesley Hospital site for housing; formation of the St. Lawrence, Downtown Yonge, Church-Wellesley Village and Rosedale Main Street BIAs; the phenomenal growth and embrace of Pride festivities; and most importantly – the continued evolution of the downtown into a place where people choose to live, invest and play.
In another 2010 election development, Liberal Party national director Rocco Rossi says via his Twitter account he’s running for mayor. The Globe and Mail and National Post both have short article on it.
photo by Tanja Tiziana Burdi
15 comments
I find it a bit odd that Yonge-Dundas Square isn’t mentioned anywhere in his statement, especially with his list of accomplishments. Perhaps it’s inferred with the mention of the Downtown Yonge BIA.
He worked actively against Bloor bike lanes.
Good riddance.
Why in the world would an unknown Liberal backroom type run against a well-known Liberal cabinet minister? Did he learn nothing from the joke that was Stephen LeDrew?
So that’s why Enza Anderson is running in Ward 27! I thought she would have split the vote running against Kyle Rae. She must have know Kyle was stepping down when she announced she’s running back on November 25th.
JM: well, Rossi did fundraise for John Tory in 2003 and the provincial and federal Libs don’t see eye to eye. This is completely speculative, but this may be Rossi trying to help Tory more than to win a mayors race. If you can keep Liberal money away from Smitherman and potentially Shelly Carroll (the only councillor that is openly a Liberal on council).
Best news I have heard yet!
It’s nice to have some others ahead of my vexing about the sad and bad legacy of Mr. K Rae on bike issues. He’s been around since 1991; the first study of where to put in bike lanes in TO was in 1992 and that #1 rec for an east-west lane was on wider Bloor from Broadview to Spadina, but they now stop at Sherbourne. So Mr. Rae knew all along about how good that street is/should be for bikes, but all that could be done was an irregular bike lane on Wellesley, with one danger spot where the City couldn’t measure the road width properly, and one year later, couldn’t repaint the curve.
And in that fancy massive $25M public/private “partnership” that’s ripping up Bloor in Yorkville for the last 1.5 years with it only 1/3 done, all cyclists are getting is a wider curb lane to Metro minimum standards (4M), now with sharrows, which city staff at the last TCAC mtg said they truly prefer 4.2M.
Then there’s the EAvasion issue, where the tipping point into a more rigourous EA is $2.2M, but somehow staff and politicians like Mr. Rae weren’t so keen on “green” process and let this private paving party proceed.
The real tragedy is not that Mr. Rae and staff have kinda misled to fibbed to think that we could have bike lanes after it’s done, but in the too-tight by one metre road width that prevents bike lanes from ever going in – unless we remove a lane of car travel both ways, and add 24-hour parking back to the street, as the merchants had agreed to remove ALL parking on the street, which is usually the most awkward spot of having carterial bike lanes.
The dead space between planter and curb is .8M, and should be shrunk by .5M to let us have bike lanes.
So the true legacy of Mr. Rae (and Mr. Miller) in this area is really that of the Bryant/Sheppard death – and not of anything positive for bikes, nor for reducing climate change emissions, making all the sustained bull of Miller etc. etc. suspect.
Mr. Rae’s ward also has issues with really rough bike lanes eg. Sherbourne and Bay, and there are some other maintenance issues too – it’s not just a specific failure.
And it’s not just the civic failure – Mr. Smitherman and the province and the provincial NDP enviro critic Mr. Tabuns are NOT doing anything for bike safety in this natural corridor beside the big subway.
Pardon the length: but this mistake will endure for decades.
Kyle Rae has done a great job and been an advocate for a bigger, better Toronto. Viewed from my ex-pat post, I can overlook the small details and see that he did indeed work hard for the big picture. Best wishes for his next steps.
Re: iSkyscraper’s comment on Councillor Kyle Rae: “Viewed from my ex-pat post, I can overlook the small details and see that he did indeed work hard for the big picture.” … That sentiment is all well and good for ex-pats and others who only need to look at Toronto from afar. Unfortunately, people who actually live here have to deal with the nitty gritty that results from local political choices. Councillor Rae is not my councillor but I do know people in his ward, most of whom say they can’t stand him. My guess is that his decision not to run is a sign that his support has basicaly imploded.
samg> Inside city hall folk suggest Rae would have won handily again notwithstanding your anecdotal evidence and that this was a personal decision.
Shawn, as I said, my comment regarding Rae’s support or non-support was a “guess” made by someone not in his ward. But given that the 2010 election is still in the future, I’d be somewhat suspicious of claims by “Inside city hall folk” that Rae would have won easily. Some people might say comments like that are an effort to put the best face possible on a situation. (Would these by any chance be the same inside folk who were unable to see Mayor Miller’s support going into freefall?)I don’t pretend to be an expert on how the 2010 election will pan out… but I think that, at this point, things are so up in the air that a lot of incumbents who seem solid to “insiders” are worried about their re-election chances. I’m not saying that’s a good thing…but I think that mood is there to a greater extent than insiders would care to admit.
A curious question to all the bashers: As a relatively new resident to Toronto and not entirely up on all the inside politics, how is that a councillor who is hated by so many represent their constituency for two decades? Sounds as though they’ve done well enough to get re-elected several times.
Baray… I’ll answer your question (though I will point out I’m not a Kyle Rae basher, nor am I commenting on his record). The short answer is “name recognition” and “lack of party affiliations”. In an arena where ostensibly there are no party affiliations (yes, I know one often finds them if one digs below the surface) to identify municipal candidates, the incumbent has a huge advantage over challengers. Once in office, these people can do well or poorly, and the likelihood is that they will still be re-elected regardless. The increased size of municipal wards that resulted from amalgamation has exacerbated these problems, since people in one part of a ward often don’t care what a councillor has done in another part of the ward. This which is why many are calling for term limits on these offices.
What I have always liked about Rae is he didn’t have a fear of heights and pushed for towers in the appropriate spots (like, his ward). He faced condo-haters every election, and kept getting reelected. So there are many who like vertical cities just fine.
More on the disappointing bike legacy of Mr. K. Rae is here – http://takethetooker.ca/
followed by a link to the Copenhagen City of Cyclists 22min video