New MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam reflects on switch from Toronto City Hall to Queen’s Park

One of the veterans of Toronto City Hall made the big move up to Queen’s Park in 2022. After 12 years as the Toronto Centre City Councillor, Kristyn Wong-Tam threw her hat into the ring during the June provinical election and was elected as the NDP MPP for the same region.

“The experience of joining the NDP and becoming a member of the caucus has been great and certainly a lot of the skills that I picked up at city council. It has served me extremely well I’m able to climatized and jump right into the deeper policy dive, which I’m actually really enjoying,” Wong-Tam told CityNews in a one-on-one interview.

But Wong-Tam did say she misses being at City Hall.

“I miss the incredible staff at the City of Toronto and I feel like at the city there was far more decorum, so we wouldn’t necessarily heckle each other. There was no bang of desks and there

In her opinion, the banging of the desk doesn’t produce “a better discussion or more specifically, sophisticated debate.”

“If anything, it feels like it’s a bit of bullying you,” she added.

When asked if she sees the difference between Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario, and from when he was a Toronto city councillor, Wong Tam said she thinks the Progressive Conservative party has him on “a tight leash” that he didn’t have while a councillor.

“He’ll oftentimes show up for a question period. And that’s just literally one hour of the day, and he will probably speak for 30 seconds. At most he may answer one or two questions, which I think is probably good for him because he oftentimes can say things that are outrageous, very provocative in some cases, insulting.”

“When we saw Doug at city council, he often times did end up saying things that were highly outrageous which then made him an outlier in council so we could tell that he wasn’t disciplined,” said Wong-Tam.

This year, she was also named the NDP Critic for 2SLGBTQ+ Issues.

“It has kept me very busy. We know that the pandemic has affected everyone quite adversely across Ontario, but there are those other populations where they’ve we’ve seen additional harm so for example, mental health and crisis for the community that is oftentimes discriminated against around housing, and an appointment especially or trans community,” said Wong-Tam.

That work has included introducing a private member’s bill called the Gender-Affirming Health Care Advisory Committee Act in November in hopes of expanding access to gender affirming surgeries and health care trans, two-spirited, non-binary, gender diverse and intersex people in Ontario.

However, the motion by Wong-Tam to pass the bill by unanimous consent was denied.

“We’re seeing a lot of harm coming at them. And so bringing their stories for the house and amplifying their voices and making sure that their needs are met is part of the privilege of I have as being named the critic.”