Spacing Magazine

To prepare you for the Toronto municipal election happening now until October 26, we’ve prepared an expert panel on the council races that stand out across the city. Matt Elliott is a Toronto Star Columnist and publisher of the City Hall Watcher newsletter, and Inori Roy is Features Editor at The Local who’s been working to track every candidate for every ward in Toronto. Please enjoy, and don’t forget to hit the polls.

The housing crisis is a well-trod matter in municipal election debates, and concerns about cost of living and housing affordability have remained at the top of polls for months. Politicians running in Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, where unaffordability has hit disastrous levels, need to be speaking more about this crisis for middle-income households.

The © Urban Cartoon Syndicate was launched in May 2024, jointly with Spacing Vancouver. Coming out roughly weekly from a group of cartoonists and illustrators, each cartoon captures a timely message about civic affairs and life in our cities. New submissions are welcome (write us at CitizenYVR@gmail.com). Re-use by media or others is welcome, with credit to the © Urban Cartoon Syndicate, and we appreciate an e-mail to let us know.

Is there somewhere to sit in your local park? Do people linger, or hurry through? Is there a safe, shaded way to get there? Do neighbours who disagree about most everything still nod hello by the splash pad? These are small questions, but they tell us a lot about how a city is doing. On October 26, Torontonians will elect a new Council. That Council should make beautiful, resilient parks central to Toronto’s identity and to residents’ daily lives.

The © Urban Cartoon Syndicate was launched in May 2024, jointly with Spacing Vancouver. Coming out roughly weekly from a group of cartoonists and illustrators, each cartoon captures a timely message about civic affairs and life in our cities. New submissions are welcome (write us at CitizenYVR@gmail.com). Re-use by media or others is welcome, with credit to the © Urban Cartoon Syndicate, and we appreciate an e-mail to let us know.

This article is part of a series by Christopher Balkaran on ways to approach and engage with the municipal election campaign. Toronto faces a long list of challenges, and the televised September 22 mayoral debate at Victoria University offered residents a chance to hear how the candidates proposed to address them. In an hour. For some viewers, this would be an introduction to the candidates themselves. Could Mayor Olivia Chow persuade undecided voters that her record deserved another term?

Recently, a family member told me about a survey they participated in concerning municipal taxation. The questions gradually worked toward a familiar dilemma: would they prefer to freeze their property taxes, even if it meant reducing municipal services, or pay more to maintain those services? They chose the tax freeze. Their reasoning was simple.

Whether it’s buck-a-beer, easier access to alcohol, or tunnelling under Highway 401, Doug Ford has proven himself to be a master of distraction, diverting attention from his government’s failures and scandals. His threats to rip out bike lanes are merely one scene in the same political theatre. Debates about bike lanes inflame passions, albeit in different ways across the province.

For every municipal election since we started Spacing, we’ve published a special election-focused issue in advance of the polls. This year, we decided to do something a little different. Rather than look into the policies around key city issues, we’ve cast our gaze on the people and organizations who influence those issues.

The © Urban Cartoon Syndicate was launched in May 2024, jointly with Spacing Vancouver. Coming out roughly weekly from a group of cartoonists and illustrators, each cartoon captures a timely message about civic affairs and life in our cities. New submissions are welcome (write us at CitizenYVR@gmail.com). Re-use by media or others is welcome, with credit to the © Urban Cartoon Syndicate, and we appreciate an e-mail to let us know.