Democracy is dying. The last municipal election saw 40.9% of eligible voters cast a ballot, and the last provincial election had the lowest voter turnout ever at 43.53%. Less than half of voters are deciding which people have the power to decide for us. We must strengthen our democracy before we lose it.
Voting and Elections
Doug Ford assaulted Toronto’s democracy last municipal election when he slashed Toronto’s wards in half in the middle of the election. Worst is our courts held up this anti-democratic move and said it was above board. I suggested to the Special Committee on Governance that Toronto should have just ignored Ford’s dictate, there really is nothing he could have done if we just said no.
In my last platform I have sections on a community voice and direct democracy, and I still stand by them. We need far more decisions made by residents, we need referendums on certain important issues, and we need online voting, as is done in other jurisdictions. There are also excellent crowd-sourcing platforms like Polis, the computational democracy project.
We need ranked ballots in Toronto elections. Not only does it improve the distortions of our first-past-the-post system that can see candidates elected with far less than a majority of votes, having such choice would likely give voters more interest, and most importantly, would not unduly favour incumbents. It could lead to voters choosing someone more commonly considered a good fit for the community.
We should also lower the voting age to 16 and allow anyone with their primary residence in Toronto to vote. There is simply no reason someone living and paying taxes in Toronto should not be able to vote here.
The easiest way to encourage more voting is to have it online. That ensures no one needs to leave their house or work to vote, and it would save a lot of money on elections and polling stations. It’s already being done in other Ontario municipalities, there is no reason other than lack of political will it can’t be done here.
A Charter City
We need Toronto to be a charter city, which means a city that is not under the thumb of the province. I was on the advisory board of Charter City TO, a group formed after Doug Ford’s meddling in our elections.
A charter city would mean we can decide many of our own rules without going begging to the province, and the city would also have more powers of taxation. It can come with other powers too, like enacting ranked ballots. It requires a cooperative provincial government, but it has been done in other Canadian cities like Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Saint John.
Strong Mayor Powers
Any concentration of power is a weakening of democracy. I do not agree our mayor should have strong mayor powers, able to override the democratic decisions of council. Worse is Ford’s reasoning, that it’s meant to steamroll development over any concerns of council.
Revenue Tools
One of the main reasons Toronto needs to be a charter city is so we have more powers to generate revenue. Cities have to deal with most of the concerns of residents, including providing affordable housing, and yet have the least ability to collect revenue. Toronto is the tax revenue cash cow of the province and the feds, sending far more to senior governments than we receive back in services or transfers, so we need to find new ways to fund the needs of our residents.
Payment in lieu of taxes
The federal government is exempt from paying property taxes, but has agreed in many cases to payment in lieu of taxes. The problem is they sometimes do not pay up, or have left certain things exempted (like wharves and dry docks). We must pressure the feds to continue paying their fair share for the property they own in our city, and ensure it is even across all properties and paid in a timely manner.
Vehicle registration tax
We need our vehicle registration tax back, but a progressive one that takes into account the gas mileage of the vehicle, the number of drivers sharing the vehicle, the number of dependents living in the household, and the number of vehicles at that address. I have devised a possible formula for such a tax:
(1/miles per gallon) x 2000 / (# of dependents + 1) / (# of drivers / # of vehicles/1.5)
For example, a Lexus LX570 with one driver, one car, and no dependents at 14 MPG would be $214.29, whereas a Hyundai Elantra Hybrid Blue with two drivers, one car, and 2 dependents at 48 MPG would be $10.42. There would be no charge for fully electric vehicles and perhaps a $5 flat fee for gas-powered motorcycles. You can play with the formula yourself here.
Road tolls
One of the few progressive moves Tory has made as mayor was calling for road tolls on the Gardiner, unfortunately Premier Wynne denied him. All our major highways should have road tolls, but only for non-residents, cars registered at Toronto addresses should not have to pay.
Gas tax
We do not just need a larger share of the gas tax, we need our own gas tax on top of that. Yes this may cause drivers on the outskirts to cross out of Toronto to buy their gas, but as long as the gas tax is not too exorbitant that behaviour should be minimal while still bringing in a few millions dollars.
Municipal Land Transfer Tax
The MLTT is the only progressive property tax we have because it has brackets for different home values. But it needs updating to reflect higher home prices, and should have one extra bracket at the top for the truly extravagant homes that take up so much more space and services than other homes, like the monster mansions on the Bridle Path.