Front Burner - How Toronto’s 'boring' mayor resigned in scandal

Episode Date: February 13, 2023

An hour after the Toronto Star published an article about his affair on Friday, mayor John Tory was standing before reporters at Toronto City Hall. He offered his resignation. During his over eight years in office, some praised Tory as a boring mayor, a return to normalcy after the explosive Rob Ford years. But his critics have also accused him of presiding over a historic decline in Toronto, pointing to decaying services and failures for the most vulnerable. Today, a conversation with Canadaland editor Jonathan Goldsbie about why Tory resigned this quickly, and what will become of his increasingly complicated legacy.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Jamie Poisson. Well, good evening and thank you for coming. I want to update Torontonians on a difficult personal matter.

As someone who covered Rob Ford pretty extensively, I wasn't sure I could still be shocked by the mayor of Toronto. But then, on Friday night, Ford's successor stepped up to this podium and, well... During the pandemic, I developed a relationship with an employee in my office in a way that did not meet the standards to which I hold myself as mayor and as a family man. This is Mayor John Tory speaking just an hour after the Toronto Star published an article about his affair. And just months into his new term.

As a result, I've decided that I will step down as mayor so that I can take the time to reflect on my mistakes and to do the work of rebuilding the trust of my family. Until Friday, Tory was expected to become the longest serving mayor of Toronto. He's already been in office for more than eight years. longest-serving mayor of Toronto. He's already been in office for more than eight years. He was sometimes affectionately called a boring mayor, a return to normalcy after the explosive Rob Ford years. But his critics have also accused him of presiding over a historic decline in Toronto, pointing to decaying services and failures for the most vulnerable. So today, I'm talking to Jonathan Goldsby. He's an editor at Canada Land and co-host of the Wag the Duck podcast about Premier

Doug Ford. Together, we're going to discuss why Tory resigned this quickly and try to make sense of his increasingly complicated legacy. Hey, Jonathan, thanks so much for coming on to FrontBurner. It's great to have you. Hi, Jamie. Thanks for having me on. Okay, so lots to talk about today, but take me through how this wild Friday night in Toronto unfolded. First, at about 20 to 8 p.m., the Toronto Star published a report about Mayor John Tory. And what did that report say? So the report, which in its first iteration was headlined,

a serious error of judgment, in quotes, Mayor John Tory had a relationship with former staffer, essentially explained that during the pandemic, John Tory was working even longer hours at City Hall in relative isolation. He began a relationship with a member of his office staff, who I believe is 31 now, so that presumably would have put her in her late 20s at the start of this relationship. She left the mayor's office sometime in early 2021, and apparently their relationship continued, according to the mayor, up until earlier this year, which means that stood in contrast to his, what

he's talked about often over the years, his relationship with his wife, Barbara Hackett. Yeah. They've been married for, I think it was something like nearly 45 years. Yeah. Over four decades. Yep. Exactly. Like they had a whole thing in 2018 where they talked to the star about like what it

takes to have 40 years of marriage. And even before he was elected mayor the first time, John Tory said, I'm only going to serve two terms. That would have put him up through 2022. I'm only going to serve two terms. My wife, Barbara, will make sure of that. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. He likes to talk about her a lot. It's been brought up a lot. And for people who paid attention to such things, it was very likely notable that she was not present at his victory party for his second re-election campaign in the fall of 2022. Yeah, I know the Star mentioned that in their piece too. And also that when Tory got up to that podium, he talked about how they had spent quite a bit of time apart during the pandemic when I guess this relationship that he had with his former staffer developed. I recognize that permitting this relationship to develop was a serious error in judgment on my part.

It came at a time when Barb, my wife of 40 plus years, and I were enduring many lengthy periods apart while I carried out my responsibilities during the pandemic. Tell me a bit more about what he said when he got up there and spoke. In this very hastily organized press conference, you don't usually get notification that the mayor is making an announcement at 8 o'clock on Friday night. No, I had just, frankly, I had just gotten out of a movie and saw on my phone, oh, an updated itinerary for the mayor's office today. Please note the added event at 8.30 p.m. Oh, something very major is going on because they don't normally add an 8.30 p.m. Oh, something very major is going on because they don't normally add an 8.30 p.m. press conference on an hour's notice on any night, let alone a Friday evening. Well, I deeply regret having to step away from a job that I love

in a city that I love even more. I believe in my heart it is best to fully commit myself to the work that is required to repair these most important relationships. As well I think it is important as I always have for the office of the Mayor not to be in any way tarnished and not to see the city government itself but through a period of prolonged controversy arising out of this error in judgment on my part especially in light of some of the challenges that we face as a city. I'm deeply sorry and I apologize unreservedly to the people of Toronto and to all of those hurt by my actions including my staff, my colleagues on City I think it's fair to say that we do live in a time where politicians tend to cling to office,

even during pretty extreme scandals, more extreme scandals than this one. And I think maybe a lot of people are wondering why this was different and why he resigned so quickly after news about the affair came out. You know, he said it ended by mutual decision earlier this year. And, you know, these are both adults. Yeah, no, that's, I mean, it's an excellent question. I mean, in his remarks, he said, you know, basically this relationship did not meet the standards to which he holds himself as mayor and as a family man.

And he's decided to step down so he could take the time to reflect on his mistakes and to do the work of rebuilding the trust of his family. I think it's important to look at it in the context of who he promised to be and also who he sees himself as. So John Tory, of course, when he was first elected, he succeeded Rob Ford as mayor of Toronto. He defeated Doug Ford in that municipal election and likely would have defeated Rob Ford had Rob continued in that race. But his whole thing, to the extent he was promising

something that you could picture and build towards, it was boringness. I think people are ready for a bland approach, if you want to call it that. If you want to call bland getting results for people, getting better transit, getting the housing fixed, getting more jobs here, then bland it is. Following on Rob Ford, that was very much, that was highly welcome. I do not use crack cocaine, nor am I an addict of crack cocaine. I'm happily married. I've got more than enough to eat at home. You asked me a couple of questions. And what were those questions? Do you smoke crack cocaine?

Exactly. Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine. But no, do I? Am I an addict? No. Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors. Please welcome Mayor Rob Ford. You're done with alcohol. Finished. I've had a come to Jesus moment. I will never be able to change the mistakes that I have made in the past. How do you think your mayoralty is going to be remembered? It will to be remembered? It will definitely be remembered.

So the fundamental element of John Tory's political persona is this idea of being unscandalous, of at least I won't be an embarrassment. And so although he has arguably done a number of things or not done a number of things in his tenure as mayor that could be seen as missteps, in this case, however, it strikes me that this may have been the first thing that at the time it had ever occurred to him that he would have something to be embarrassed about. Something that does run contrary to basically the one thing he promised or the one thing he really tried to do or tried to be. And how could he continue to have legitimacy in spite of that? And then there's the element of

perhaps he genuinely just wants to salvage his marriage if that's my family is genuinely more important. Yeah. And maybe try to stop the new cycle from dragging out and dragging more people into it. And the fact that I see a lot of people homing in on here is that this woman was his report, right? And that that is really where people are saying serious questions are being raised about inappropriate behavior. Of course, in recent years, those kind of relationships are questions about consent and also, you know, appropriateness. So I mean, he obviously was her boss by virtue of him being mayor and her working in the mayor's office. I suspect there may have been at least one level of supervision between like in terms of official reporting lines. But that said, yes, of course,

like there was no suggestion this was anything other than a consensual relationship. But of course, in terms of the power dynamics there, there is necessarily an asterisk at best. And it certainly complicates that. You talked a little bit about how he came to office in the wake of the chaos of the rub for Mayoralty. Tell me, over the last eight years, what would his supporters say his greatest accomplishments were, you think? What would they say that he's done for this city? That's an excellent question, and it's going to be really interesting to see what do they point to in terms of individual accomplishments, because the way he is typically characterized his own success and the way that I suspect his supporters will try to largely frame it is around keeping a steady hand on the city, running a relatively quiet municipal government that does all the things it needs to do. Cititron is a large, extremely complex institution and just making it function on a basic level, to the extent that it does, that is an achievement. That is something you

would many people devote their entire lives towards. Tory is very much about more or less maintaining the status quo, which for some people, people who are perhaps think the status quo, which, you know, for some people, people who are perhaps think the status quo is all right, would definitely be a plus. He's kept property taxes relatively stable. He did a decent job handling the pandemic, though that was, should be, I want to give the credit to the then chair of the Board of Health, Joe Cressy, who largely informed the city's strategy and was able to get vaccination rates quite high. I remember I got my second dose at the Scotiabank Arena, which like, wow, that would take to be able to put together events like that. Like there were things that the city, especially during the

pandemic, handled well, and that he has done a good job of keeping functioning in spite of some extraordinary obstacles. Yeah. And then let's move on to what some of his detractors will say, which I think if I were to kind of sum it up more broadly, advocates for housing and transit and the most vulnerable accuse him generally of like neglecting or even gutting city services. And so why do you think they see his time in power as almost a decade of decline for the city? The degree to which he prioritized the stabilization of property taxes over the funding of city services, it was definitely troubling. And it was definitely the sort of thing that the immediate effects of that are seldom apparent. We're at a point where everything has gotten just a little bit worse.

I was watching, you know, a Vox video the other day, but why is this everything? Why are all products a little bit worse? And, you know, about how manufacturing is just a little bit, everything's done just a little bit more on the cheap in a way that, you know, companies make these small adjustments all the time to how they make things that are almost in themselves never noticeable until you get to a point where it's pretty much impossible to find like a microwave that works for more than two years. The city of Toronto has kind of been like that in terms of both its services and its infrastructure, such that for most people, the perception of it has come so gradually

that we look around and you realize that things that just basic things you would take for granted, like garbage bins and parks not overflowing or things being fixed or a roadkill being picked up or even, frankly, people being housed simply does not happen in the way that it did. And there is, frankly, a significant psychological effect to being in a place that always seems like it's getting a little bit worse for this public institution of the city always seems like it just gradually eroding and while at the same time everything becomes more expensive yeah and and certainly this i've heard this criticism and do you think that's backed up by by data by facts like or or is it just kind of a narrative where you know people start posting broken garbage bins on Twitter and then it like gets its own life. It gets its own steam. I mean, there's been any number of things

backing this up. It isn't just the general sentiment. I mean, one figure that pops into my head just to generally show like how they where things are is that as of last fall, it was taking an average 12 to 14 days for the City of Toronto's Animal Services to respond to reports of dead animals like roadkill and such. The standard is supposed to be 48 hours. And there's just like little things like that. It's like, that's not supposed to be like that. And how did it get to this point? You know, reduced TTC subway frequency, for example.

point, you know, reduce TTC subway frequency, for example. They spent how many ever many years installing this new automatic train control, which would allow subways to run more closely together so they could have more running at rush hour. And now there's going to be, you know, a reduction in frequency, at least in off-peak times to a point where that we don't normally see in Toronto. It's not unusual in some other cities for, you know, subways to come more than five minutes apart or up to 10 or even more apart. And that for the first time, we're going to be starting to see things like that. And it's all these little things where the services that people rely on or the people who rely on city services rely on the most are just being very slowly eaten away at, seemingly in service of property taxes for homeowners being kept relatively stable. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem.

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A bit complicated, but over like basically this decision to open up more roads that were closed during the pandemic, something Rogers was in support of because of the Rogers Center where the Blue Jays play. But he was cleared of that. But there were real optics problems for him around this. Hey, I remember this being a big issue in the last mayoral campaign. There are certain things you would hope would be a big issue. The way that, for example, Rob Ford would brush off accusations around things that could be characterized as his personal behavior is kind of the way that John Tory brushed off things, accusations around things that could be characterized as conflicts of interest. And he did not do anything illegal. He did not do anything that was unethical in the sense of violating any sort of codes

of ethics so far as we know. But it is also interesting to think of how many places can the head of any government receive like consistent payments on the side for a matter of years without that ever having been disclosed in any respect. I mean, maybe that's just maybe that's at least as much a gap in the system, but it is remarkable. And the fact that we don't even talk about that as one of like the top five things we talk about when reflecting on Torrey's legacy is astonishing.

And I think it is also a function of how he conducts himself. Like the way he conducts himself, the overwhelming majority of the time is a way that frankly discourages engagement. And I would argue that that is a deliberate strategy, frankly, a way to keep doing it, flying sort of under the radar in a way that is frankly has been terrible for civic engagement. Everything about him right down to the manner in which he speaks and sort of very long, circular sentences, constantly interrupting himself to second guess or qualify a thought. I followed the rules. I think people trust me to follow the rules. I've done it, you know, very, in a very deliberate manner over the time that I've been mayor. And the integrity commissioner, I respect a great deal. And he has not yet been in touch with me about this. I've seen nothing about it except what was provided by the star

when they called to ask about it at CP24. So, you know, we will deal with it as we've dealt with these kinds of things before, but I'm confident that I follow the rules and I continue to follow the rules and I will continue to follow the rules. I've been very transparent about this. He's never going to be or seldom going to be the most important or interesting story in the world on a given day. So let's talk a bit about where this leaves the city of Toronto, right? Because Tory is making his exit at a difficult time. They are about to debate his budget proposal on Wednesday, the first he introduced under the strong mayor powers given to him by the province. And what's going to happen to this budget? eliminated or drastically reduced the power of and weakened Toronto City Council,

centralizing all that in the offices of the mayor, it isn't really clear what's going to happen because the mayor in the mayor's office has extraordinary powers that do not automatically transfer to an interim mayor or a deputy or an acting mayor in the event of a vacancy. So we don't really know. We also don't even know when does his resignation actually take effect. I guess this may have also changed at any given minute, but we don't even know. We also don't even know, like, when does his resignation actually take effect? I guess this may have also changed any given minute, but like, we don't even know. He could theoretically stay on through the duration of this budget process. But it's also not clear that this new legislation even gives much of an answer as to what is supposed to happen. Or does the budget get put on pause? Can it be put on pause? This would be the first budget passed under this new regime where basically the mayor's office gets to write the budget on its own and has the final say on it. What happens

next? Do things revert back to council? The wild card, of course, is that the province can step in at any moment, basically pass a new piece of legislation saying how they want this all to go. So right now, as the time we're recording this, it's very much an open question as to how the rest of this week and the upcoming or the coming weeks will proceed with regard to at what levels are this various city departments being funded? I don't know. Maybe that'll become clear. Maybe not. Yeah. And just when we talk about these strong mayor powers that Tory and the mayor of Ottawa got, they basically are allowed to enact bylaws that are deemed to align generally with like, quote, provincial priorities with

support from only eight of 25 city councilors. So not a majority, right? Yes. And so I know you said there's a bunch of question marks about what happens in the coming days, although there does seem to be some real consensus here that, you know, right now, the deputy mayor will at some point take over. That's Jennifer McKelvey. She is a Tory appointee. And then at some point, the most likely outcome is that there will be an election fairly soon, which I imagine many Torontonians are not super jazzed about considering there was just an election and, you know, the cost of another election. I don't think people are election fatigued in Toronto simply because I don't think there was much engagement in the previous election to begin with. Really low turnout. There appears to be a serious lack of political engagement here in Toronto. Of the 1.89 million eligible voters, only about 550,000 made their mark, dropping turnout to about 30%, the lowest ever. Yes, absolutely. And Tory's victory was largely seen as a foregone conclusion, and it was unclear by whom or how he would be seriously challenged.

And ultimately, in the end, he was not – there was no one running against him who could – who stood serious prospect of defeating him. An open mayoral race, though, where with no incumbent, is something that's only happened a handful of times in the modern city of Toronto, we should say over the past 25 years or so. And if there are so many directions it could go, and there are so many people who could conceivably run, that I do think it will engage the imagination of Torontonians in a way that elections haven't in some time. I mean, goodness knows what characters from the past may pop up.

Goodness knows what interests the Ford government may try to advance via a candidate. Goodness knows who the progressives may try to have as a standard bearer. And there are so many ways it could go. And it also would also be likely a very compressed campaign. Elections in Toronto are typically about six months. This would probably be about two to three, maybe up to four. So I don't think anyone is necessarily wary of it happening again, simply because for very few people did one even occur last year. I mean, a significant degree of continuity between the last term and this one to a point where the election may as well not have happened. That's a fair point. I hadn't thought about it like that. We could be moving into a more exciting time. And also, I think probably a nice note to end this conversation on.

Jonathan, thank you so much for this. This was great. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having me. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having me. All right, that is allbc.ca slash podcasts.