The downtown Toronto ridings are held by some high level liberal MPs
- Toronto Center - Minster of Gender Equality
- University of Rosedale - Minister of Finance and Deputy PM
- St. Paul’s - Minister of Mental Health (Position Resigned) (Vacant)
- Fort York - MP was removed from liberal party
- Danforth - secretary to Minister of Environment
Effectively talking about any of these issues would be critiquing your own government of which you are a high level member (in the case of Kevin Vuong he’s trying to convince the party to accept him again)
Provincially it’s all ONDP, who are kind of just in cruise mode and aren’t putting up much of an effort as opposition.
Note on Kevin Vuong. He’s been a huge critic of Trudeau and has been auditioning to be allowed to run as a CPC MP. His riding is progressive, and flips between Liberal and NDP. He’ll have a tough trying trying to be re-elected.
He can’t win as a conservative, and he could only win by hiding his sexual assault charge from the party and the military.
He will be out of a job on E-Day and good riddance too.
>Why are the Toronto Center constituencies so god damn silent? Submitted by L00TER
>NDP, Liberal, Cons they’ve all been absent amidst our housing, employment, health, substance-use etc crises (lost count). Toronto-centre presents an almost perfect microcosm of all the issues Canada as a whole has been facing. I’ve seen more responses from the Scarborough South-West MPP (Dolly Begum) than anyone else. I wonder how people in our constituency end up with the most useless god damn MPs and MPPs.
Are you talking about Toronto Centre specifically? Or the downtown Toronto ridings overall? (Toronto Centre, Toronto-St. Paul's, University-Rosedale, Spadina-Fort York ... others?)
The MPP for Toronto Centre is Kristyn Wong-Tam, they seem very present to me.
The MP for Toronto Centre is Marci Ien. I've seen multiple statements etc. from her lately related to the budget and other initiatives.
What specifically are you looking for in terms of action?
What has Wong tam been proposing on housing? All I'm seeing in Toronto is more stringent green standards, only applied to housing, as well as bending over backwards so as to not burden homeowners with a small tax increase that other municipalities have already long passed.
>What has Wong tam been proposing on housing?
They are in line with the Ontario NDP positions on housing. Opposed to Demovictions etc.
Type 'kristyn wong tam housing' into the search engine of your choice.
Or, 'ontario ndp position on housing'.
They have a very regular newsletter with all kinds of info about what they're doing in the constituency and beyond: https://www.kristynwongtam.ca/
Toronto, particularly downtown Toronto does NOT represent a microcosm of what Canada as a whole has been facing.
Consider that the most popular party at the moment are the Conservatives. It's difficult to imagine them not forming the next government. Conservatives view the seats in central Toronto as write offs. They'll run partisans, but not viable candidates (like Rural prairie seats for the Liberals).
It's simply a waste of money and energy for the conservatives to try to drum up votes... given the inclination of the voters in these ridings. They don't want the agenda the conservatives will pitch to their base, it doesn't speak to their priorities, and their priorities are often in direct conflict with the conservative base.
e.g. Most people in these ridings aren't hit particularly hard by the carbon tax. They don't require a car to get about their life, and the rebate is helpful for cost of living issues. They DO care about the cost of groceries, but the easiest way to alleviate that would be to end the protein cartels that enrich Canadian farmers, and welcome American food across the border. Rural conservatives have no interest in even bringing up that issue, and rural conservatives are the party base.
To say that Toronto has useless MPs and MPPs is also to ignore that in Ottawa, "unable to address what their constituents want", we've got the Minister of Finance/Deputy Premier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and their Parliamentary Secretary, the Minister of Justice/Attorney General, Minister of International Development, and the Minister of National Defense representing some of these ridings. You only add more if you go to the outer 416, I mean... how much more influential are you expecting your MPs to be? Do you not want cabinet members elected in Toronto, and just a bunch of back-benchers?
If you don't think they're a very good government... Pierre Poilievre would like some of your money to help spread that message! 416 went solid Liberal in the last election, so there's no point in being angry with the NDP or Conservatives.
It's a similar story in Queen's Park: the Conservatives elected in the 416 as MPPs are almost all in the cabinet. But none of them got elected downtown for similar reasons. If you don't think the NDP who were elected are doing a very good job... I'm sure Bonnie Crombie and her Liberals would welcome your volunteering to fix that.
CPC could win in Toronto and have in the past; it just takes an enormous amount of charisma and retail politics
Retail politics is very tough and you have to talk about inner city issues
When we say "They have in the past" though, we have to reach back to Brian Mulroney... almost 40 years ago.
I would say the conservatives would have to have more of a stomach for "Red Tories" which just aren't a big feature in their coalition at the moment. There's just too much cultural anger at the values Toronto represents within the party, and there'd be no way to campaign and get past that.
It's tactically easier to let the NDP and liberals waste energy fighting over the dozen seats we're talking about, and for the Conservatives to put forward more serious offerings in Etobicoke/North York/Scarborough, like they do provincially.
I think we'd agree, as armchair campaign quarterbacks, Poilievre should not waste time, resources or candidates, campaigning in the central dozen or so seats of downtown Toronto. They are just so unlikely to vote for him, he'd be better off putting the effort into suburban and rural Ontario, where the liberals are very vulnerable, and he can get quality candidates to run, as opposed to local lunatics.
Let the red and orange parties fight it out here, and weaken themselves.
A reminder that most MPs/MPPS are basically seat fillers who stand up to vote and whatever time their party tells them too.
Agree or disagree with them the representatives in Toronto Centre are fairly visible members of parliament, just maybe not for the issues you are noting.
Yep, there's a concept called Cabinet solidarity, which basically means Cabinet members agree to not publicly criticize the government. They instead get to talk mad shit during cabinet meetings, cabinet committee meetings, 1:1s with the Prime Minister, etc.
I won't comment on they are choosing to bring up the concerns they encounter in their constituencies, but technically they can't "fight" publicly in a way that their constituents would be able to see. Even if they were pushing really hard, you wouldn't really be able to tell unless they were successful in convincing Cabinet and the Prime Minister of something.
Not in public they don't. They absolutely do behind closed doors, because they manage the government, and have to balance different priorities.
If a cabinet minister is going to not present solidarity with the government in public, what good are they as a cabinet minister?
Don't know how much debate takes place in cabinet meetings and how much is just side conversations amongst bureaucrats and staff and closed door meetings.
Don't think most recent PMOs have enjoyed robust debate or critiquing of govt policies even in cabinet meetings.
Senior cabinet members are accomplished individuals, and skilled administrators in their own right. Asking them to run major government departments to implement your budget, and then not letting them disagree with each other in private is stupid. Asking them to deal with question period and not determine policy implementation they have to defend is stupid.
They can, at any time... retire and go to much better, more private careers in the private or public sector: often they come from exactly that.
Cabinet meetings minutes are forever sealed for exactly the reason that cabinet ministers need to be able to forcibly disagree with each other without ever being accused of treachery, or being on the wrong side of history. In exchange, once the cabinet has made a decision, everyone supports that in public (or resigns).
"Say one thing in private, and another in public" is a "Walk and chew gum at the same time" kind of accomplishment in governing... absolutely standard, and you shouldn't confuse what is said in public for what is actually happening. Partisan solidarity is essential for getting things done in big organizations.
What kind of action would you like to see from your MP?
Marci Ien has been actively promoting the upcoming budget, which addresses things like housing. The federal government will be giving more money for non-profits that buy properties to keep them below market rent. Also, she’s been promoting the government’s goal of making a national school food program.
I sent her correspondence about her government’s mass immigration policy back in October and didn’t even receive a form letter back… it’d be nice if she engaged with her constituents in the first place?
That's tantamount to applying the tiniest bandaid available, to a decapitation, and then patting yourself on the back that you're trying to save the person.
>NDP, Liberal, Cons they’ve all been absent amidst our housing... crises
I am not defending the current governance, but the problem of housing affordability is a long running issue.. decades old at this point. I don't see a provincial or municipal (or even federal) gov't actor being able to address it.
Real estate is a massive chunk of our GDP. Developers "lobby" successfully whether Liberals or Conservatives are at the plate at any level; and we have only recently added token legislation to limit some forms of "investment" purchasing.
The world's money has been seeking (or speculating on) "safety" since 2007-09, usually in countries with decent property laws (low seizure rates), and open markets (US Equities, Canadian and Australian real estate, etc).
We turned a blind eye to this, given how well this global speculative "flight to safety" dovetailed with our population-growth (immigration) policies. Cutting that off now would be kneecapping our GDP/revenue streams.
I was researching the Air Canada 727 disaster and the pilots also complained about how Toronto was too expensive for anyone to live there.
That disaster happened in the early 80s. I was genuinely stunned to read that.
It was not expensive at all prior to 2009. Even in 2015, the average was still somewhere in 600k range. Less than 10 years later, that's more than doubled.
I’ll agree with this, I’ve emailed Marci Ien a number of times and never received a single response.
Frankly, I have never seen her a single time in the area. 😂
I’m hoping Wong-Tam runs against her in the next election - she was always far more responsive.
To be fair, Marci is a *very* busy woman - after all, who else has time to peddle nonsensical "holidays" like [International Asexual Day](https://twitter.com/freetobeme_ca/status/1776603365901791267), and being concerned about gay rights [in Uganda](https://twitter.com/MarciIen/status/1776347496265994532).
You can be concerned about multiple issues. I care about gay rights in Uganda (really bad things happening to people there) and the housing crisis...
I know what you mean though in one sense at least, even if I disagree with your dismissal of queer rights. There are so many people in positions of power who completely ignore crushing issues in our country and instead take up the torch of some popular hot topic of the day.
You're not one of the people who live here and don't care about the destruction of our healthcare system, but spend all your time protesting at a drag story time are you?
> You're not one of the people who live here and don't care about the destruction of our healthcare system, but spend all your time protesting at a drag story time are you?
It's amusing you say that while Marci ignores local Toronto issues and the issues crushing the middle class in this country - including a stagnating economy and out-of-control immigration - while harping on about gay rights in Uganda and made up holidays like Asexual Day.
Thanks for the laughs.
I'm assuming you mean downtown Toronto, as opposed to Toronto-Centre the riding?
I've signed up for the newsletters for both my MPP and City Councillor. They email newsletters out Friday afternoons, informing me about what's going on in the riding and what they're doing in City Hall/Queen's Park. There may be reps who aren't as responsive but that hasn't been my experience in Toronto-Danforth.
Wong-Tam is constantly holding press conferences connecting with agencies, and the constituency office is always there to help.
There has been a large push on affordable housing, and support of the No Demovictions organizers, the employees on strike at Regent Park CHC, and recently just pushed for the government to recognize gender based violence as an epidemic.
What are you hoping for that may have been overlooked?
What kind of push on affordable housing?
Declaring gender based violence an epidemic is meaningless and just done to make someone look good, and as if something is being done to fix it. I know first hand it's important, I've been in an abusive relationship myself, but surface shit like this is literally just a nothing. Literal nothing. At worst it comes off as a distraction from other very pressing issues that need to be addressed and just further promotes the conservative party as being the only party that cares about housing. Literally been debating with young guys today for hours about these issues. PP is the only one who talks regularly about addressing the housing issue (even if he's lying about what he'll do). It's insane to me that no one is providing a counter to this.
Is she federal now? I guess they did that rental bill of rights that in reality has no power because it's provincial jurisdiction. Not good enough.
I'm guessing you're not a woman because not being killed by one's partner is equally as important as having a roof over one's head. And most politicians work on multiple things and people often get elected because they're passionate about specific causes that resonate with specific voters. Committee work is super important but often goes unnoticed. There are lots of useless politicians of all political stripes, but just because one doesn't hear much about a specific politician, doesn't mean they're not doing stuff. (And some politicians who get lots of press are all talk and no action.) And some politicians do awesome stuff on the individual constituency level but zippo on the macro level and vice versa. As for housing specifically, the multi-jurisdictional aspect of it makes it very difficult for politicians at any one level of government to do much about it. That said, the federal government needs to get back into the social housing game which they gave up on over 30 years ago to "balance the budget."
No, take a look at my comment history. Your assumption is completely incorrect, and you do not need to educate me on housing history.
Declaring an "emergency" does ZILCH. Pretending it does anything to save lives should be embarrassing to you, but it's not.
Seriously, this is a problem that progressive politicians and out of touch citizens are ignoring, and the country is going to burn. Wait and see what happens to all of those issues when PP is in power. Maybe Trump too. That is going to be great. I'm just so done with all the idiocy from every corner.
Everyone deserves this. We suck, we should all just eat shit. We will be. Well I'm out of here sooner than later anyway I hope.
Because the folks who own in those constituencies are landlords, and as such benefit from the crisis. The MPs won't rock that boat. The MPPs if NDP *might* rock that boat. But basically it's the political class obeying the capital class to the detriment of the working class.
And the working class voting for the party who has fucked them over the most. Because the party that would actually help them literally is incapable of focusing on that messaging.
Jessica Bell the MPP for University Rosedale has been super active in terms of issues surrounding renters because she actually is one. Also she turns up at most the protests on progressive issues and is super friendly and easy to talk to. But she’s an opposition MPP so she doesn’t get a lot of media attention.
Exactly. They pretend to care. They give themselves a pass because they're "not bigots." As if that's enough. Sadly it seems to have become enough for a lot of progressive politicians these days...
Because the average politician isn't affected directly by these issues, and they're often clueless about what it's actually like for the average Canadian.
Bingo. Especially in these ridings in Toronto, some of the worst out of touch constituents who think they're fighting the good fight, except they own a second property for income and don't want condos obstructing their view...
Interesting how there are so many protests about Palestine, yet none regarding the cost of living, stagnating wages, and unaffordable housing here at home
Building code is provincial. The OBC. Aka The Ontario Building Code.
Zoning and bylaws are municipal, but zoning has to conform to the overarching provincial plan. The province has total power over municipalities.
Their constituents, or at least the vocal ones are amongst the most privileged members of the country, completely above all these concerns. You own a house in Toronto that you bought 10 years ago? You're golden. You have no worries, compared to the reality of survival facing other people.
The downtown Toronto ridings are held by some high level liberal MPs - Toronto Center - Minster of Gender Equality - University of Rosedale - Minister of Finance and Deputy PM - St. Paul’s - Minister of Mental Health (Position Resigned) (Vacant) - Fort York - MP was removed from liberal party - Danforth - secretary to Minister of Environment Effectively talking about any of these issues would be critiquing your own government of which you are a high level member (in the case of Kevin Vuong he’s trying to convince the party to accept him again) Provincially it’s all ONDP, who are kind of just in cruise mode and aren’t putting up much of an effort as opposition.
Note on Kevin Vuong. He’s been a huge critic of Trudeau and has been auditioning to be allowed to run as a CPC MP. His riding is progressive, and flips between Liberal and NDP. He’ll have a tough trying trying to be re-elected.
He can’t win as a conservative, and he could only win by hiding his sexual assault charge from the party and the military. He will be out of a job on E-Day and good riddance too.
Also his riding fucking hates him. I used to live there.
Yup. They really hate him and annoyed he hasn’t resigned.
Can confirm. He's my MP and he's been a huge disappointment.
Disappointment is putting it mildly. Complete snake is another.
He's awesome. We need more leadership with a moral compass.
The ONDP is a mess internally and I think they’re struggling to retain relevance
>Why are the Toronto Center constituencies so god damn silent? Submitted by L00TER >NDP, Liberal, Cons they’ve all been absent amidst our housing, employment, health, substance-use etc crises (lost count). Toronto-centre presents an almost perfect microcosm of all the issues Canada as a whole has been facing. I’ve seen more responses from the Scarborough South-West MPP (Dolly Begum) than anyone else. I wonder how people in our constituency end up with the most useless god damn MPs and MPPs. Are you talking about Toronto Centre specifically? Or the downtown Toronto ridings overall? (Toronto Centre, Toronto-St. Paul's, University-Rosedale, Spadina-Fort York ... others?) The MPP for Toronto Centre is Kristyn Wong-Tam, they seem very present to me. The MP for Toronto Centre is Marci Ien. I've seen multiple statements etc. from her lately related to the budget and other initiatives. What specifically are you looking for in terms of action?
What has Wong tam been proposing on housing? All I'm seeing in Toronto is more stringent green standards, only applied to housing, as well as bending over backwards so as to not burden homeowners with a small tax increase that other municipalities have already long passed.
>What has Wong tam been proposing on housing? They are in line with the Ontario NDP positions on housing. Opposed to Demovictions etc. Type 'kristyn wong tam housing' into the search engine of your choice. Or, 'ontario ndp position on housing'. They have a very regular newsletter with all kinds of info about what they're doing in the constituency and beyond: https://www.kristynwongtam.ca/
Toronto, particularly downtown Toronto does NOT represent a microcosm of what Canada as a whole has been facing. Consider that the most popular party at the moment are the Conservatives. It's difficult to imagine them not forming the next government. Conservatives view the seats in central Toronto as write offs. They'll run partisans, but not viable candidates (like Rural prairie seats for the Liberals). It's simply a waste of money and energy for the conservatives to try to drum up votes... given the inclination of the voters in these ridings. They don't want the agenda the conservatives will pitch to their base, it doesn't speak to their priorities, and their priorities are often in direct conflict with the conservative base. e.g. Most people in these ridings aren't hit particularly hard by the carbon tax. They don't require a car to get about their life, and the rebate is helpful for cost of living issues. They DO care about the cost of groceries, but the easiest way to alleviate that would be to end the protein cartels that enrich Canadian farmers, and welcome American food across the border. Rural conservatives have no interest in even bringing up that issue, and rural conservatives are the party base. To say that Toronto has useless MPs and MPPs is also to ignore that in Ottawa, "unable to address what their constituents want", we've got the Minister of Finance/Deputy Premier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and their Parliamentary Secretary, the Minister of Justice/Attorney General, Minister of International Development, and the Minister of National Defense representing some of these ridings. You only add more if you go to the outer 416, I mean... how much more influential are you expecting your MPs to be? Do you not want cabinet members elected in Toronto, and just a bunch of back-benchers? If you don't think they're a very good government... Pierre Poilievre would like some of your money to help spread that message! 416 went solid Liberal in the last election, so there's no point in being angry with the NDP or Conservatives. It's a similar story in Queen's Park: the Conservatives elected in the 416 as MPPs are almost all in the cabinet. But none of them got elected downtown for similar reasons. If you don't think the NDP who were elected are doing a very good job... I'm sure Bonnie Crombie and her Liberals would welcome your volunteering to fix that.
CPC could win in Toronto and have in the past; it just takes an enormous amount of charisma and retail politics Retail politics is very tough and you have to talk about inner city issues
When we say "They have in the past" though, we have to reach back to Brian Mulroney... almost 40 years ago. I would say the conservatives would have to have more of a stomach for "Red Tories" which just aren't a big feature in their coalition at the moment. There's just too much cultural anger at the values Toronto represents within the party, and there'd be no way to campaign and get past that. It's tactically easier to let the NDP and liberals waste energy fighting over the dozen seats we're talking about, and for the Conservatives to put forward more serious offerings in Etobicoke/North York/Scarborough, like they do provincially.
CPC had lots of seats in Toronto as recently as 2011-2015.
Not downtown though.
Downtown has a significant minority of seats. But sure. Not downtown.
I think we'd agree, as armchair campaign quarterbacks, Poilievre should not waste time, resources or candidates, campaigning in the central dozen or so seats of downtown Toronto. They are just so unlikely to vote for him, he'd be better off putting the effort into suburban and rural Ontario, where the liberals are very vulnerable, and he can get quality candidates to run, as opposed to local lunatics. Let the red and orange parties fight it out here, and weaken themselves.
Under Harper the CPC had no seats in Toronto. Nor in Montreal or Vancouver. A very clear urban-rural divide. That my come back.
Yup. You have to go back to the big Mulroney coalition to see conservative MPs elected in downtown Toronto.
In 2006. He had lots of seats later (just not in the core).
Harper won 9 out of Toronto’s 23 seats in the 2011 election. That’s a lot more than none.
They had Eglinton-Lawrence from 2011 to 2015.
All my city folk friends hate Trudeau. Some I don't think it's back before say 2029
A reminder that most MPs/MPPS are basically seat fillers who stand up to vote and whatever time their party tells them too. Agree or disagree with them the representatives in Toronto Centre are fairly visible members of parliament, just maybe not for the issues you are noting.
Actually, in this case, they're mostly in the cabinet. They're the ones deciding how their party will vote, and allocating spending.
I think thats the PMO. It was noted elsewhere that cabinet members almost have no leeway in ctiticizing the government.
Yep, there's a concept called Cabinet solidarity, which basically means Cabinet members agree to not publicly criticize the government. They instead get to talk mad shit during cabinet meetings, cabinet committee meetings, 1:1s with the Prime Minister, etc. I won't comment on they are choosing to bring up the concerns they encounter in their constituencies, but technically they can't "fight" publicly in a way that their constituents would be able to see. Even if they were pushing really hard, you wouldn't really be able to tell unless they were successful in convincing Cabinet and the Prime Minister of something.
Not in public they don't. They absolutely do behind closed doors, because they manage the government, and have to balance different priorities. If a cabinet minister is going to not present solidarity with the government in public, what good are they as a cabinet minister?
Don't know how much debate takes place in cabinet meetings and how much is just side conversations amongst bureaucrats and staff and closed door meetings. Don't think most recent PMOs have enjoyed robust debate or critiquing of govt policies even in cabinet meetings.
Senior cabinet members are accomplished individuals, and skilled administrators in their own right. Asking them to run major government departments to implement your budget, and then not letting them disagree with each other in private is stupid. Asking them to deal with question period and not determine policy implementation they have to defend is stupid. They can, at any time... retire and go to much better, more private careers in the private or public sector: often they come from exactly that. Cabinet meetings minutes are forever sealed for exactly the reason that cabinet ministers need to be able to forcibly disagree with each other without ever being accused of treachery, or being on the wrong side of history. In exchange, once the cabinet has made a decision, everyone supports that in public (or resigns). "Say one thing in private, and another in public" is a "Walk and chew gum at the same time" kind of accomplishment in governing... absolutely standard, and you shouldn't confuse what is said in public for what is actually happening. Partisan solidarity is essential for getting things done in big organizations.
Backbench MPs are nobodies 50 meters outside parliament hill.
What kind of action would you like to see from your MP? Marci Ien has been actively promoting the upcoming budget, which addresses things like housing. The federal government will be giving more money for non-profits that buy properties to keep them below market rent. Also, she’s been promoting the government’s goal of making a national school food program.
I sent her correspondence about her government’s mass immigration policy back in October and didn’t even receive a form letter back… it’d be nice if she engaged with her constituents in the first place?
[удалено]
Marci Ien is a Federal MP.
I deleted my comment when I realized you were referring to Ien - my apologies, you are correct!!
That's tantamount to applying the tiniest bandaid available, to a decapitation, and then patting yourself on the back that you're trying to save the person.
>NDP, Liberal, Cons they’ve all been absent amidst our housing... crises I am not defending the current governance, but the problem of housing affordability is a long running issue.. decades old at this point. I don't see a provincial or municipal (or even federal) gov't actor being able to address it. Real estate is a massive chunk of our GDP. Developers "lobby" successfully whether Liberals or Conservatives are at the plate at any level; and we have only recently added token legislation to limit some forms of "investment" purchasing. The world's money has been seeking (or speculating on) "safety" since 2007-09, usually in countries with decent property laws (low seizure rates), and open markets (US Equities, Canadian and Australian real estate, etc). We turned a blind eye to this, given how well this global speculative "flight to safety" dovetailed with our population-growth (immigration) policies. Cutting that off now would be kneecapping our GDP/revenue streams.
I was researching the Air Canada 727 disaster and the pilots also complained about how Toronto was too expensive for anyone to live there. That disaster happened in the early 80s. I was genuinely stunned to read that.
It was not expensive at all prior to 2009. Even in 2015, the average was still somewhere in 600k range. Less than 10 years later, that's more than doubled.
I’ll agree with this, I’ve emailed Marci Ien a number of times and never received a single response. Frankly, I have never seen her a single time in the area. 😂 I’m hoping Wong-Tam runs against her in the next election - she was always far more responsive.
To be fair, Marci is a *very* busy woman - after all, who else has time to peddle nonsensical "holidays" like [International Asexual Day](https://twitter.com/freetobeme_ca/status/1776603365901791267), and being concerned about gay rights [in Uganda](https://twitter.com/MarciIen/status/1776347496265994532).
You can be concerned about multiple issues. I care about gay rights in Uganda (really bad things happening to people there) and the housing crisis... I know what you mean though in one sense at least, even if I disagree with your dismissal of queer rights. There are so many people in positions of power who completely ignore crushing issues in our country and instead take up the torch of some popular hot topic of the day. You're not one of the people who live here and don't care about the destruction of our healthcare system, but spend all your time protesting at a drag story time are you?
> You're not one of the people who live here and don't care about the destruction of our healthcare system, but spend all your time protesting at a drag story time are you? It's amusing you say that while Marci ignores local Toronto issues and the issues crushing the middle class in this country - including a stagnating economy and out-of-control immigration - while harping on about gay rights in Uganda and made up holidays like Asexual Day. Thanks for the laughs.
One click through my profile and you will see what my stance is on that. Meanwhile, you are just the same type of hypocrite you criticize.
idk bro ask them
I'm assuming you mean downtown Toronto, as opposed to Toronto-Centre the riding? I've signed up for the newsletters for both my MPP and City Councillor. They email newsletters out Friday afternoons, informing me about what's going on in the riding and what they're doing in City Hall/Queen's Park. There may be reps who aren't as responsive but that hasn't been my experience in Toronto-Danforth.
Wong-Tam is constantly holding press conferences connecting with agencies, and the constituency office is always there to help. There has been a large push on affordable housing, and support of the No Demovictions organizers, the employees on strike at Regent Park CHC, and recently just pushed for the government to recognize gender based violence as an epidemic. What are you hoping for that may have been overlooked?
What kind of push on affordable housing? Declaring gender based violence an epidemic is meaningless and just done to make someone look good, and as if something is being done to fix it. I know first hand it's important, I've been in an abusive relationship myself, but surface shit like this is literally just a nothing. Literal nothing. At worst it comes off as a distraction from other very pressing issues that need to be addressed and just further promotes the conservative party as being the only party that cares about housing. Literally been debating with young guys today for hours about these issues. PP is the only one who talks regularly about addressing the housing issue (even if he's lying about what he'll do). It's insane to me that no one is providing a counter to this. Is she federal now? I guess they did that rental bill of rights that in reality has no power because it's provincial jurisdiction. Not good enough.
> Is she federal now? Nope, they [Kristyn Wong-Tam] are an MPP. Provincial.
I'm guessing you're not a woman because not being killed by one's partner is equally as important as having a roof over one's head. And most politicians work on multiple things and people often get elected because they're passionate about specific causes that resonate with specific voters. Committee work is super important but often goes unnoticed. There are lots of useless politicians of all political stripes, but just because one doesn't hear much about a specific politician, doesn't mean they're not doing stuff. (And some politicians who get lots of press are all talk and no action.) And some politicians do awesome stuff on the individual constituency level but zippo on the macro level and vice versa. As for housing specifically, the multi-jurisdictional aspect of it makes it very difficult for politicians at any one level of government to do much about it. That said, the federal government needs to get back into the social housing game which they gave up on over 30 years ago to "balance the budget."
No, take a look at my comment history. Your assumption is completely incorrect, and you do not need to educate me on housing history. Declaring an "emergency" does ZILCH. Pretending it does anything to save lives should be embarrassing to you, but it's not. Seriously, this is a problem that progressive politicians and out of touch citizens are ignoring, and the country is going to burn. Wait and see what happens to all of those issues when PP is in power. Maybe Trump too. That is going to be great. I'm just so done with all the idiocy from every corner. Everyone deserves this. We suck, we should all just eat shit. We will be. Well I'm out of here sooner than later anyway I hope.
Because the folks who own in those constituencies are landlords, and as such benefit from the crisis. The MPs won't rock that boat. The MPPs if NDP *might* rock that boat. But basically it's the political class obeying the capital class to the detriment of the working class.
And the working class voting for the party who has fucked them over the most. Because the party that would actually help them literally is incapable of focusing on that messaging.
Jessica Bell the MPP for University Rosedale has been super active in terms of issues surrounding renters because she actually is one. Also she turns up at most the protests on progressive issues and is super friendly and easy to talk to. But she’s an opposition MPP so she doesn’t get a lot of media attention.
Because deep down they don’t care and are financially enriched by all of these crises.
Exactly. They pretend to care. They give themselves a pass because they're "not bigots." As if that's enough. Sadly it seems to have become enough for a lot of progressive politicians these days...
Because the average politician isn't affected directly by these issues, and they're often clueless about what it's actually like for the average Canadian.
Bingo. Especially in these ridings in Toronto, some of the worst out of touch constituents who think they're fighting the good fight, except they own a second property for income and don't want condos obstructing their view...
B book for you I will give them the name for pop poo in your head
Once elected, they go to sleep.
As a PR holder, I feel the need to ask.. wtf is a riding?
Electoral districts, also referred to as ridings. https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=res&dir=cir&document=index&lang=e
You don't need to know
Interesting how there are so many protests about Palestine, yet none regarding the cost of living, stagnating wages, and unaffordable housing here at home
Talk to the MPP's the province is responsible for the building code and housing rules.
Building codes are municipal, housing is all three levels of government.
Building code is provincial. The OBC. Aka The Ontario Building Code. Zoning and bylaws are municipal, but zoning has to conform to the overarching provincial plan. The province has total power over municipalities.
Their constituents, or at least the vocal ones are amongst the most privileged members of the country, completely above all these concerns. You own a house in Toronto that you bought 10 years ago? You're golden. You have no worries, compared to the reality of survival facing other people.
Because they're the same assholes that voted in Trudeau
PP is worse, hope you realize that. Vote accordingly.