AuthorMatt Elliott

A proposal to overhaul Yonge Street in North York was among those delayed last week by Toronto politicians.
Here’s what your Toronto City Council did last week: They delayed some stuff.
On two of the most significant items to come before them, Mayor John Tory and councillors decided the best course of action was inaction. Why make a decision today when you can make one tomorrow?

Protesters rally with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty at city hall to confront Mayor John Tory on the lack of shelter beds during a budget meeting in February. Hey, remember Toronto’s shelter crisis? The one where it got really cold outside, the city’s shelters were near their maximum capacity, homeless people were reporting being turned away, and then Mayor John Tory got yelled at...

Then Mayor Rob Ford, left, listens to his brother and campaign manager Doug Ford during a commercial break as Rob takes part in a live TV debate leading up to the 2014 Toronto municipal election. When former mayor David Miller left the job in 2010, he practically gift-wrapped Toronto City Hall for his successor. There was an operating budget surplus of about $350 million. Hard-won new taxes...

A plan to transform Yonge between Sheppard and Finch, and make it more bike and pedestrian friendly with bike lanes, was nixed by the public works committee last week. Imagine your local government decided to take your neighbourhood main street and make it worse. Imagine they proposed adding traffic lanes and narrowing sidewalks, all in the name of making sure cars can always go fast. Imagine...

Mayor John Tory deserves credit for not bending on the King Street pilot project that prioritizes transit over cars, writes Matt Elliott. Let’s give it up for Mayor John Tory, who has refused to compromise on King Street. During the uproar and ice sculptures that followed the transit pilot's kick-off last November, it must have been tempting to strike a deal with the restaurant owners along...