Politics
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LORINC: Does Toronto need strong mayor powers or just a strong mayor?
Over the 16 years prior to the news last week that Premier Doug Ford’s Tories are planning to impose so-called strong mayor powers on Toronto...
By John Lorinc -
ELECTION: Rethinking progressive populism
If I’m a populist, it’s because I’m with the majority. And the majority want to live in a city with dignity. For decades, my practice of political...
By Alejandra Bravo -
PODCAST: Spacing Radio 066, Toronto Election Engagement
The Toronto municipal election is underway, and we’ll be spending the summer bringing you coverage, all the way up to E-Day on October 24th. But how...
By Spacing Radio -
REID: The Toronto vote in the 2022 Ontario provincial election
Municipal issues in the City of Toronto are deeply affected by the results of the provincial election. Planning regulations, Ministerial Zoning Orders...
By Dylan Reid -
LORINC: This fall’s election shouldn’t be a victory lap
Mayor John Tory was out and about late last week, talking up what was billed as a plan to revive the city’s economy but which looked mostly like a...
By John Lorinc -
WHY WE CAN’T GO: Debunking the Costs of Operating Public Washrooms, pt. 3
Parks Forestry and Recreation (PFR), according to City of Toronto data, operates over 1,500 parks, nearly 700 sports fields, 123 community recreation...
By John Lorinc -
REID: Sixty-two pages of overdue staff reports
Asking overburdened staff for reports is one of the favourite pastimes of Toronto city council. But what happens to those report requests? It turns out a...
By Dylan Reid -
LORINC: Highway 413 and Doug Ford’s tactical whataboutism
Going in to this election, did anyone really expect that it would come to focus so intensively on that great big ribbon of blacktop planned and now known...
By John Lorinc -
EXCERPT: The Islands In My Brain, from “I Own This Town” by Mayor Bert Xanadu
“I Own This Town” is a Toronto-centric collection of essays, screeds, proclamations, asides, orders, observations, outbursts and flattery that...
By Mayor Bert Xanadu -
How District Energy is Decarbonizing Cities
Although many communities in Ontario and across Canada have pledged support for the government’s commitment to achieving Net Zero Emissions by 2050, few...
By Glenn Miller -
LORINC: Doug Ford’s electrification plan is actually a gas-powered climate nightmare
It being election season (and Earth Day), the Ontario government news releases are arriving a dime a dozen right now, and many seem to feature the...
By John Lorinc -
LORINC: The horrible lies of Pierre Poilievre’s real estate lessons
Why do we have a housing crisis? Let me count the ways: Low interest rates, restrictive zoning, permissive zoning, contractor shortages, building material...
By John Lorinc