If a city of three million with a duly elected council and mayor can’t make a decision for itself about something as local and so clearly within its jurisdiction as constructing a bike lane, what is the point of even having a municipal government? Cyclists ride in north on Spadina Avenue, on July 30, 2020.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Being premier of Canada’s most populous province seems like a pretty big job. Not big enough for Doug Ford, apparently. He wants to be mayor of Canada’s biggest city, too. At least that is the way he is acting.
Mr. Ford, you will remember, actually ran for mayor of Toronto in 2014. He stepped into the campaign when his scandal-plagued brother Rob, the incumbent, withdrew because he was suffering from cancer. Doug ended up coming second to John Tory. Veteran NDPer Olivia Chow, who is now mayor, came third.
The loss clearly stung. Ever since, Mr. Ford has been trying to avenge it. One of the first things he did after becoming Ontario’s premier in 2018 was cut the size of Toronto city council by nearly half. Reducing the number of councillors had been a hobby horse of the Ford brothers when Rob was mayor and Doug was his right-hand man – part of their much-trumpeted campaign to “stop the gravy train.”
Council refused to answer the trumpets and the Fords retreated to fight another day. When that day came, Doug wasted no time. He didn’t even wait till the end of the municipal election campaign, which was already under way when he took office. He just got out the old meat axe. Slash, slash, hack, hack – council was reduced to 25 seats.
So began a pattern of meddling and bullying that has gone on ever since. Mr. Ford, who grew up in a Toronto suburb, just can’t seem to keep out of his hometown’s business. In 2022, emboldened by his second provincial-election victory, Mr. Ford decided to redesign municipal governance and give Ontario’s two biggest cities (Toronto and Ottawa) “strong-mayor” powers. He later gave the same power to many smaller cities as well. Among other things, their mayors were given the authority to veto city-council votes that got in the way of provincial priorities, like building more housing.
The latest example of Mr. Ford’s interference is the silliest and most flagrant. Last month, his Progressive Conservative government brought in legislation empowering it to remove bike lanes from city streets if building them had removed a lane of car traffic. The law is aimed initially at three lanes: on Yonge Street, on University Avenue and on Bloor Street West in Etobicoke, Mr. Ford’s home turf.
Here again Mr. Ford is singing from an old songbook. Back in 2011, under his brother, Toronto spent a quarter of a million dollars to take out a lane on Jarvis Street that had been installed only a year before.
Removing bike lanes in an era when big cities around the world are expanding their bicycle networks at a rapid rate is regressive to say the least. Paris, for one, just announced a plan to restrict the entry of cars and trucks into its historic centre, part of a widely praised multiyear plan to make what was once an autocentric metropolis more walkable and bikeable.
Of course, not every bike lane is a success. If a lane slows traffic without attracting many cyclists, it may prove sensible to remove it.
But should the Premier of the province be making that call for Toronto? Of course not. If a city of three million with a duly elected council and mayor can’t make a decision for itself about something as local and so clearly within its jurisdiction as constructing a bike lane, what is the point of even having a municipal government? The Association of Municipalities of Ontario calls the government’s bike-lanes bill a “significant overreach” – a power grab, in other words.
As Mayor Chow points out, Toronto’s bike-lane plans, including the three lanes in question, are the result of several years of study and consultation under two mayors. Now Mr. Ford comes along and says: Nope, not happening.
If the bill passes, says Ms. Chow in a council motion, “one government would, at tremendous cost to the taxpayer and without collaboration, undo another government’s work.” Toronto’s city manager is already demanding that the province reimburse the city for the expense. Whichever level of government ends up paying, the bill will land on the hard-pressed taxpayer that Mr. Ford is always claiming to represent.
Being premier of Ontario really is a big job. Mr. Ford should stick with it.