Will John Tory’s ‘prudent’ leadership be tough enough to tackle Toronto’s big issues if he’s re-elected?
The city’s top vote-getter in last fall’s mayoral race — or, at least, the top vote-getter among the 14 who came in with the second highest total of all — appears poised to be elected by City Council on Monday.
That would put Tory in a good position to deal with some of the big issues the city has in the pipeline, most notably the downtown transit and congestion challenges, along with a long list of other critical challenges.
In a word, he’s got the stuff to be a good mayor, but on Tuesday, that’s exactly what he’ll have to prove to City Council.
City Council members will be voting on what they consider the most important issues facing the city during an emergency budget session Tuesday at City Hall.
A poll conducted by Metroland Research on Tuesday morning, with 1,912 respondents, will be an important barometer on what the public wants to see at Monday’s Council meeting.
That poll found that only 28 per cent of respondents said they favoured a transit referendum. Those percentages would be the highest for any local government election in decades, if not decades upon decades, says Metroland Research pollster Paul Hunter.
So, you can bet that when they ask the public which issues are most important — and put the mayoral question to council — an answer will follow.
The Metroland Research survey found that only 28 per cent of respondents said they favoured a transit referendum. These are the percentages of respondents who would be the highest for any local government election in decades, if not decades upon decades.
Some of the top issues that Metroland Research found were
• 33 per cent favour a city income tax hike, which would bring an additional $1.3 billion to the council’s budget.
• 29 per cent favour a sales tax hike, which would bring $9.6 billion to the budget.
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