See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source
We don’t officially have political parties in Toronto municipal politics, but voters should know that organized political factions exist. One of the most influential is Progress Toronto, the activist group backing Olivia Chow and a slate of candidates pushing policies that would make this city worse.
The top priorities of Progress Toronto include decriminalizing all drugs, defunding the police, ending fare enforcement on the TTC, hiking taxes and ending security patrols in public parks. This is literally a case of the barbarians at the gates calling for an end to civilization, and yet some Toronto residents are cheering them on.
In the last full municipal election, Progress Toronto took credit for five new councillors being elected from the far left. They included Amber Morley, Alejandra Bravo, Ausma Malik, Chris Moise and Jamaal Myers.
In the 2023 byelection to replace John Tory as mayor, Progress Toronto was fully behind Chow. Their executive director, Michal Hay, moved over from Progress Toronto to become Chow’s chief of staff in the mayor’s office.
Now, she’s returning from maternity leave to help run Chow’s re-election campaign.
This election has seen some left-wing heavyweights decide to leave council, such as Gord Perks in Parkdale-High Park and, more recently, Paula Fletcher, the longtime councillor for Toronto-Danforth and former leader of the Manitoba Communist Party.
Same playbook, new candidates
So now, Progress Toronto is looking for new communists. Sorry, I should say “progressives,” to run for council. Their list of key issues for the future mayor and council should scare any resident of Toronto who hasn’t drunk the proverbial Kool-Aid of leftie politics.
“City Council must support the Toronto Medical Officer of Health’s call to decriminalize simple possession for personal use and expand harm reduction services,” Progress Toronto posts on its website under the heading “Key City Council Issues.”
This is a position that even the NDP government of British Columbia walked away from a few years ago. After years of liberalized drug laws, B.C. decided, with federal approval, to decriminalize all drugs. The results were a disaster, and the province was asking the feds to end the pilot program long before it was over.
Despite Toronto’s streets already struggling with open drug use, meth, crack and fentanyl, Progress Toronto wants more of the same failed policies.
Defunding by another name
“City Council must invest in alternative non-police responses, like making permanent and city-wide the Toronto Community Crisis Response service, and redirect funding to rapidly expanding alternative response services and community programs,” Progress Toronto writes on its website.
This is the new language of defunding the police; they call for funding to go elsewhere. With concerns about community safety running high, Progress Toronto is calling for police funding to be directed to social programs. These programs do not want for money; it is simply a dislike of police that drives this.
While you pay for your commute to work or school, Progress Toronto wants to end enforcement against fare evaders.
“City Council must end the harmful and costly TTC fare inspector program,” they claim.
The claim by Progress Toronto is that fare inspectors are racist and against climate change. I wish I was making this up. These are their actual claims on their own website.
Who shows up wins
In this election, Progress Toronto will back council candidates and mayoral candidates who support higher taxes, decriminalizing all drugs, defunding the police, only making fools pay for their TTC rides, because why would you pay if no one else does, and who want to expand bike lanes everywhere.
This is not what the city needs at this point.
The last time we picked a mayor and council, less than one-third of eligible voters showed up. That’s why activist groups like Progress Toronto are able to be so successful. It’s not that they hold popular ideas; it’s that they and their supporters show up on voting day.
This year, get informed, get involved and vote. If reasonable people stay home, activist groups will keep deciding Toronto’s future for everyone else.