Even though the premier ran on a platform of “unmitigated disaster,” there are signs that Chow and Ford can work together.
Olivia Chow just won a by-election to be mayor of Toronto. Now she has to try to get Premier Doug Ford to support her plans, which could be a much harder task.
During the campaign, the premier made it clear that he did not want Chow to be the next mayor of Toronto. Chow was a left-leaning city councillor for 14 years and a New Democrat MP for eight years.
“If Olivia Chow gets in, it’ll be an unmitigated disaster,” Ford said.said just last week“Toronto is going to lose its businesses. Companies are very worried. Because of this, the workers should be scared.”
At the beginning of the campaign, Fordsaid Toronto would be “toast”If someone he called a “lefty mayor” was chosen. Then, after saying he wouldn’t run, Ford made it clear that he would.endorsedMark Saunders, who came in third with only 8% of the vote, was a long way behind.
Ford’s harsh words about Chow, as well as his actions,A strong desire to get involved in Toronto municipal politics—might make it look like Queen’s Park and Toronto city hall will be at odds with each other for the next three years.
But people who are close to both Ford’s government and Chow’s campaign say that they think the conservative premier and the progressive mayor can get past the campaign rhetoric and work well together.
Observers say that the key for both of them will be to find places where their political interests match up with the best interests of the people of Toronto. Both the new mayor and the leader of the government say they will be able to do that.
“I’m sure we can find some common ground,” Chow told the CBC News Network on Tuesday. “At the end of the day, what’s possible is politics. How can we do it as a group?”
Ford’s words about Chow are already much nicer than they were during the campaign.
“During an election, you throw some mud back and forth,” Ford said at a news conference on Tuesday that had nothing to do with the election. He said, “People expect us to work together, so that’s what we’re going to do.” “When we sit down, we’ll find things we have in common, because she’s a nice person.”
There are many examples of political opponents putting the mudslinging behind them and making peace after a campaign.
For example, political parties always need to heal after a bitterly contested race for the top spot. Ford has a good working relationship with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, even though Trudeau criticized Ford at every chance during the 2019 federal election, when Ford was Ontario’s deeply unpopular premier.
Zach Taylor, an associate professor of political science at Western University, said that Chow’s victory speech showed that she wants to work with Ford rather than fight against him.
Taylor said in an interview, “They both know that they need to work together to solve the problems facing the city, and that doing so is good for their political careers.”
Ford has more power than the mayor, but Chow doesn’t have nothing to use. The Progressive Conservatives have 12 ridings in Toronto, and Ford won’t want to be seen as not helping the city because he wants those seats to stay blue.
Taylor, who is also the head of Western’s Centre for Urban Policy and Local Governance, said, “He has to take seriously the depth and breadth of support for Chow across the city.” “The prime minister should realize that Saunders’ poor performance in the election shows that he didn’t have much of an impact on the campaign as a whole,”
If you don’t think Ford can work with a mayor who was once a political opponent, look at Hamilton and Vaughan, where former Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath and former Ontario Liberal leader Steven Del Duca are mayors.
Horwath says that the way Ford treats her now is “magnanimous.” She said that he made time to talk to her in January of last year, when they made their first joint announcement. This was soon after she took office.
“It was wonderful. Since then, everything has been great, Horwath said in an interview. “There are a lot of things we won’t agree on because of our different ideas… but we look for what we have in common.”
Horwath says a mayor can be an effective advocate for their city without being too confrontational, and she thinks Chow can do that with Ford.
“Make your point, but back it up with facts. She said, “It’s not about yelling at the government.” “A number of cabinet ministers have also told me great things and talked to me about it. It’s very well done.”
Del Duca has also said that Ford is willing to work with him as mayor of Vaughan and has shown himself to be open and easy to get in touch with.
WATCH | Olivia Chow’s plan for working with the prime minister:
Kim Wright, a political strategist who focuses on city politics, says that Chow has always tried to find ways to work with others, and she thinks that will continue as long as he is Toronto’s mayor.
“Olivia is very good at finding ways for people to work together. “It’s really who she is at her core, not what people like to say about her on the campaign trail,” said Wright, who runs the government relations firm Wright Strategies.
“She can start to build a new relationship with Ford by building housing, building affordable housing, and helping young people get ahead. This will be very important.”
Shakir Chambers, a principal at the government relations firm Earnscliffe Strategies, says that the outcome will depend on how the mayor and premier handle the situation.
“If Olivia Chow… works with [Ford] in a way that doesn’t involve ideology, they’ll get things done. But if they both go their separate ways, it will be hard for Toronto,” Chambers said in an interview.
All of this doesn’t mean that working with Ford and Chow will be all sunshine and unicorns.
The billion-dollar hole in the city’s budget, Chow’s plan for Toronto city hall to become a developer of affordable housing, and the future of Ontario Place could all cause problems.
Ford has made it clear that Chow will have to show that the city’s finances are in order before the province will give the city more money.
No matter what Chow does with the province, he will need the support of the city council. She can’t expect that Ford will do what she wants if most councillors don’t agree with her.
On paper, Chow will have the same “strong mayor” powers that Ford gave Toronto. This means that the mayor will be able to pass important budget and housing plans with only one-third of council’s support. But she has said she won’t use them.
During the campaign, she was constantly asked if she would be able to work with Ford.
A Toronto Star editorial, which backed the eventual runner-up for mayor, Ana Bailo, said, “We have concerns about her ability to bring council together and build good relationships with senior governments.” “Ford’s tendency to get involved needs a firm hand.”
No matter how strong any Ontario mayor tries to be with the premier, the provincial government is much stronger than any municipal government, which is just a part of the province. When Ford cut the size of Toronto’s city council in half or when the province cut the amount cities can charge developers for new infrastructure, then-mayor John Tory couldn’t do much to stop it.
During his news conference on Tuesday, Ford told Chow who’s in charge.Ontario Place “is a provincial site,” he said. “We’ll do what’s best for the province.”
Chow will hope that there is a lot of overlap between what the premier thinks is best for the province and what she thinks is best for Toronto in a Venn diagram.