Malvern mall proposal, transit among priorities for Toronto councillor-elect Jamaal Myers

With the death of Coun. Cynthia Lai days before the Toronto election, it dramatically changed the race to be the councillor for Ward 23 Scarborough North.

Jamaal Myers was elected to the role Monday evening. However, the journey to become the ward’s next councillor was one that began in earnest months ago after being among the first to register to run in early May.

“Malvern welcomed me with open arms. Back when I started the campaign it was just me, my bike, my helmet, and my lit(erature), and my backpack knocking on people’s doors, introducing myself one door at a time,” he recalled during an interview with CityNews at his Malvern Town Centre (also referred to as Malvern Mall in the community) campaign office on Tuesday.

“It could be raining, they’re like, ‘Here’s an umbrella. You hungry? Here’s an apple. You thirsty? Here’s some water.”

Malvern is an area that leaves Myers sentimental, reflecting on how when he was growing up he would often visit his cousins on Horseshoe Crescent and then going off to visit Malvern Mall. He added he was born and raised in Scarborough, and lives in the Scarborough home his family first moved into back in 1968.

After seven-and-a-half years away from the community to work as a lawyer for TD Bank and as a capital markets attorney on Wall Street, he turned to community organizing by becoming an advocate for improving transit in Scarborough and then serving as vice-chair of the TAIBU Community Health Centre as well as serving on the Scarborough Business Association.

Fast-forward to Friday when the three candidates facing off against Lai, who was seeking her second term, when they and the rest of Toronto learned she died in hospital. That announcement shook up the race as all of the advance votes for Lai were disqualified under Ontario law and any votes in her name on Monday wouldn’t be counted. Myers won with 51 per cent of the vote. Phillip Francis and Virginia Jones came second and third, respectively.

When asked about how Lai’s death affected the tragedy of the campaign, he began by extending condolences to everyone who supported her personally and electorally.

“In terms of the campaign itself, we’ll never know. It was a very, very untimely and a very unfortunate set of circumstances. It was shocking and it was very sad, a lot of people were sad in this community, especially the people she personally helped,” Myers said.

“I carry that weight I have a huge responsibility to make sure that her supporters, many of them were disenfranchised their votes didn’t count, making sure that they feel that I’m their councillor as well and they are included in this community because it’s their community as well.”

He said he wants to make sure residents who were helped by Lai and those who supported her will be able to connect with him in the months and years ahead.

“I’m going to reach out to them the same way I reached out to Malvern, knocking on their doors, saying, ‘Hi, I’m Jamaal, I’m your new councillor, is there anything I can do to help?’ I’m going to make sure I show up with material in their language so they feel comfortable talking to me,” Myers said.

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Ward 23 Scarborough North is one of Toronto’s most diverse wards with a strong majority of its residents being racialized. With many East Asian residents, Myers said he’s looking at possibly having some of his staff be fluent in other languages or having access to translation services to help people for whom English isn’t their first language.

Dr. Joseph Y. K. Wong is the founder of Yee Hong Centres. He said their facilities provide care to hundreds of Chinese Canadians in the ward. He publicly endorsed Lai ahead of the election.

“I found her to be a very decent, honest and straightforward person. So we worked together quite nicely and she has a lot of the issues in her mind,” Wong told CityNews on Tuesday.

He praised her work on taking care of issues important to seniors, her work helping coordinate the delivery of personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic, and highlighting her efforts to combat anti-Asian hate.

Despite that endorsement, he said he looks forward to meeting Myers and working with him during the upcoming term.

“I believe that he has good reason to be confident, he has good reason to be comfortable because he is among friends who would like to work together with him,” Wong said.

He added there won’t be a shortage of issues that need addressing, saying the average income of residents is lower than other wards and Scarborough hasn’t seen the same level of investment as other communities.

“I really hope and believe that Jamaal can bring this issue not only to the City government but also work with other parts of different levels of government,” Wong said.

“For example, parks, recreational areas, swimming pools, community centres, all of these are very, very lacking in the ward. I believe that those are the key things he needs to pay attention to during his term at city hall.”

The election of Myers is also being celebrated by organizations like Operation Black Vote Canada, a nonpartisan organization aimed at helping Black candidates get into office. Toronto saw three new Black councillors elected: Myers, Amber Morley (who defeated incumbent Mark Grimes in Ward 3 Etobicoke Lakeshore) and Chris Moise in Ward 13 Toronto Centre. They join Coun. Michael Thompson who, for years, has been the sole Black councillor at Toronto city hall.

“For far too long, we’ve only had one person representing us in Toronto and the diversity of Toronto. Now we have four, including a Black woman that we haven’t had in such a long time … Now I think our community has a larger voice at the City level and we’re very happy with that,” chair Velma Morgan said during an interview on Tuesday.

“We’re going to have four very distinct voices representing us at the community. They’re going to bring their lived experiences to the city council, they’re going to bring their lived experiences to policies that are going to come out of council.

“It tells our young people that you know what we can lead, we are also leaders, we can sit at decision-making tables and make decisions that are going to affect us and everybody else.”

What are Jamaal Myers’ priorities for the 2022-2026 term?

The ward Myers will represent beginning in mid-to-late November makes up a large portion of the north end of Scarborough (the rough boundaries are Midland Avenue, Steeles Avenue East, Neilson Road and a portion of Rouge Urban National Park, and Highway 401).

He said a top priority of his was addressing proposals to demolish Malvern Town Centre and Woodside Square Mall in favour of condo developments.

“The proposal to just tear down the (Malvern) mall and build condos is a non-starter with many people in this community, myself included. You can look around and you don’t see many businesses you can walk to,” Myers said, noting it’s the only place in Malvern with a walkable Service Canada location, a West Indian grocery store, a gym and a bank.

“A condo is not going to replace those essential services.”

He said he’s in favour of new developments, but ones that take into account the needs of residents.

“Seeing a vast empty parking lot, this is wasted space. There should be people living on this space, but I want to make sure whatever development happens is affordable for people living in this community so that they can stay in this community because that’s what they want to do,” Myers said.

He also ran on a platform of addressing affordability concerns and pushing for fare-free transit for seniors and students.

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“We’ve got to make sure that paying for transit isn’t an impediment for pursuing your education, going to a doctor’s appointment or seeing your friends … and if the cost is a barrier to accessing it then we need to remove it,” Myers said.

His platform also talked about advocating for building more affordable housing, improving traffic and pedestrian safety, setting aside 10 per cent of jobs on public projects for local residents and improving municipal parks and recreational facilities.

When asked what he would like to see accomplished by the end of the term, he didn’t have a firm list in mind yet.

“I want to be able to walk around in my community and say, ‘OK, this is how you made a difference,’” Myers said.

“Like not something aspirational, I want to see concrete results. I chose the slogan ‘results matter’ for a reason. I want people to judge me for my results, to say, ‘Did this guy do what he said he’s actually going to do or at least make a very, very good effort?’

“I’m not thinking I’m going to change everything overnight, but I’m going to work hard and I’m going to make sure I have the right team to help execute that plan.”