TORONTO — Ontario's political leaders are ramping up efforts to court influential mayors who preside over vote-rich areas of the Toronto region, little more than one year from the election.
A public schism between Premier Kathleen Wynne and Toronto Mayor John Tory has provided the opposition leaders with an opportunity to swoop in and make a play for the support of the leader of a city that holds about two dozen ridings in the 2018 election.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath met with him Monday, promising that an NDP government would fund one-third of social housing repairs. Tory has been decrying a $2.6-billion backlog in repairs and has slammed the Liberal government for a lack of support in last month's provincial budget.
"We're exhausting the city's contribution of close to $1 billion and I certainly would intend to make sure the people of Toronto know when they come to vote in the election that parties have taken the positions they have," Tory said Monday after welcoming Horwath's commitment.
That meeting comes a week after Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown made overtures of his own at city hall, pledging that if he was premier Toronto would have a partner, though he stopped short of making a specific social housing funding pledge.
The opposition leaders see a window, which Tory has created on purpose by saying he won't endorse any leader in particular, but will endorse policies, said his former director of communications.
"It's kind of like dating," said Amanda Galbraith, now a principal at Navigator Ltd. "He's being courted."
Ryerson University politics professor Myer Siemiatycki said everyone has their eye on the June 7, 2018 provincial vote.
"The election is going to be decided in urban Ontario and in particular in the (Greater Toronto Area), with the incredible population concentration," he said.
"I think it's quite the spectacle going on, where the mayors are trying to leverage an upcoming election and the three provincial leaders knowing that they're likely headed into an open election race where any of the three leading parties could end up victorious."
The Wynne-Tory relationship hit a major speed bump earlier this year when Wynne denied him the power to enact road tolls. It would have been unpopular for provincial voters in the regions surrounding Toronto, and Tory continued to rail against it Monday, saying it was a "politically motivated" decision.
Tory will talk to whoever he chooses to, Wynne said, but she is committed to the relationship between the province and municipalities.
"Will there be moments where there are notes of discord between us?" she said. "Absolutely, but that doesn't mean that the relationship is broken. That doesn't mean that we stop talking to one another."
Wynne and Tory have not met since Jan. 30, shortly after the road tolls decision, when they eschewed the traditional joint media availability and instead went their separate ways after a quick post-meeting handshake. They last chatted April 22 at James' Journey Walk to Support Youth Mental Health, said Tory's spokesman.
Wynne invited another mayor to the legislature on Monday, holding a joint press conference after with Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey, who used to be a Liberal cabinet minister.
"Our relationship with the towns and the cities and the villages in this province is extremely, extremely important," Wynne said.
The optics of that meeting are good, said Galbraith.
"I do think given the attention that the spat with Mayor Tory has been getting, I think it absolutely makes sense for her to be seen with other municipal politicians, working and reaching out with them," she said.
"I think she does need to demonstrate she has allies, especially going into the election campaign and start that outreach. Toronto is the biggest city, but it's one part of the equation in the GTA."
Allison Jones, The Canadian Press
