Will John Tory’s ‘prudent’ leadership be tough enough to tackle Toronto’s big issues if he’s re-elected?
On Monday, the day after the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) announced it will not be seeking a third provincial funding increase and instead will only be seeking a small increase for each year in the five-year funding plan, the Board of Education’s chief negotiator announced his resignation effective “Wednesday, January 20.”
I’m hearing this will be by then. But let’s not make too much of the date to give us a sense of what the outcome of this negotiation will be.
I’ll be curious to know how the board, especially the board’s director of strategy, will deal with the issue of “poverty” in the city. In their most recent annual report, the board’s CEO announced that under the new funding arrangement in place now, “our staff will have a mandate to work on poverty,” a mandate which seems to have been given to them in the new fiscal environment.
Will John Tory’s leadership be tough enough to tackle Toronto’s big issues if he’s re-elected? Is he going to be as tough as his critics are making him out to be?
Here’s a few of my questions.
What would be different if John Tory was re-elected?
First, I’m not trying to defend John Tory against the criticism that he doesn’t want to get to work on poverty. There’s also a good deal of truth in this. Tory is a person of deep values who doesn’t want to be known for not wanting to get to work on poverty issues. It’s important not to overrate this, but the truth is that the mayor has shown that he can take bold action