Toronto councillors vote to fight Ford's plan to slash city council
Just three days after Premier Doug Ford announced he wants to slash the number of Toronto City Council members in half from 47 to 25, councillors are battling back.
On Monday, councillors voted in favour of Mayor John Tory’s urgent ‘emergency motion‘ which requests the provincial government to conduct a binding referendum on the number and boundaries of wards before proceeding with the proposed legislation.
The motion passed 28-13.
Following the vote, Mayor John Tory said City Council sent a strong message to Queen’s Park and that it opposes the process around the change to Toronto’s ward boundaries.
“I have said clearly that you don’t change the rules in the middle of an election. That’s why I believe the municipal election should proceed as is,” reads a tweet from Tory.
Today, Council sent a strong message to Queen’s Park that it opposes the process around the change to Toronto’s ward boundaries. I have said clearly that you don’t change the rules in the middle of an election. That’s why I believe the municipal election should proceed as is.
— John Tory (@TorontosMayor) July 30, 2018
But it’s not just Toronto City Council that disagrees with Ford’s plan to shrink council.
A new poll from Forum Research has found almost half of Torontonians oppose Ford’s plans.
The poll found that about half of Torontonians (47%) say they disapprove of Ford’s plans to reduce the size of Toronto city council, while a third (35%) say they’re in favour of the ward reduction.
The remaining 19% of survey respondents say they were neutral on the idea or don’t know how to feel about it.
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