Former councillor Joe Cressy rules out run for Toronto mayor

Former city councillor Joe Cressy has ruled out returning to municipal politics to run in a potential byelection to replace the vacancy left when Mayor John Tory abruptly resigned Friday.

Cressy resigned last April as the chair of Toronto’s Board of Health and councillor for Spadina–Fort York to become an executive at George Brown College.

Following Tory’s bombshell announcement late Friday that he was resigning as mayor after having an “inappropriate relationship” with a former member of his staff, Cressy’s name immediately surfaced as a potential replacement.

Cressy admits that years ago he seriously planned to run for mayor, but will not be a candidate this time around.

“I couldn’t be the Mayor our city deserves while being the type of parent I want to be,” he said in a tweet Sunday morning.

“Last year I left politics to spend more time with my young family. While recent events have changed the political landscape, they haven’t changed my desire to be a more active and present dad.”

Last year I left politics to spend more time with my family. While recent events have changed the political landscape, they haven’t changed my desire to be a present dad.

I couldn’t be the Mayor our city deserves while being the type of parent I want to be.

My full statement: pic.twitter.com/rwiCphQyvz

— Joe Cressy (@joe_cressy) February 12, 2023

Torontonians could get more clarity on when a potential byelection will take place on Wednesday when city council meets to discuss the proposed 2023 budget.

At that time Tory is expected to formally step down as mayor, after which council will need to declare the office vacant.

Deputy mayor and councillor for Scarborough-Rouge Park Jennifer McKelvie will likely take on the role of interim mayor.

In previous years, the city was able to appoint a successor to fill the mayor’s seat, but the new provincial legislation means Toronto is required to hold a byelection within 60 days of the mayor’s office being declared vacant.

According to at least one political observer, Wednesday’s budget debate could lay the groundwork for potential Tory successors.

“The fact that there is now a mayor’s race is going to mean that potential allies on things like this budget vote will start looking at each other as potential rivals to be the next mayor of Toronto,” Renan Levine, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto Scarborough tells CityNews.

“People who might normally be cooperating might be looking warily at each other.”

Advocacy groups say Tory’s abrupt resignation comes at at time when so many complex issues urgently need to be addressed. In recent weeks the mayor has faced growing pressure to address an uptick in violence on the streets and the TTC, the deepening homelessness crisis, and the rising cost of living.

“Having been in the civil service and knowing the level of effort that goes into getting to this point in the budget process, just ripping it up would actually set the city farther behind. That doesn’t mean it can’t be tweaked,” said former city planner Jennifer Keesmaat, who ran against Tory in 2018 and lost. She has indicated she is not interested in running to replace Tory this time around.

“This is an opportunity for the city. We missed out on having a really good debate in the last election because we had a powerful incumbent. Now, looking forward, let’s actually have that conversation.”

“This should be a moment of rich, rich civil discourse and dialogue.”

A number of former mayoral candidates have already indicated their intention to run in a byelection including Gil Penalosa, who finished a distant second to Tory last October, and Blake Acton, who finished fourth in the race. Former councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, who is coming off a failed mayoral bid in Wasaga Beach, has also indicated an interest in running.

While voter turnout for municipal elections is typically low, Levine says with no clear incumbent its possible we could see a replay of 2014 when Tory, Olivia Chow and Doug Ford battled it out.

“We could potentially have a replay of that even if the candidates may not be as well known as Chow, Tory and Ford. But if its a very crowded race, voters are going to be like ‘I don’t know.'”

“Name recognition and the ability to mobilize people to volunteer and to give money for campaigns is going to matter a great deal because this campaign is going to happen relatively quickly,” Levin goes on to explain. “So the faster people can ramp up campaigns and have an infrastructure and have a volunteer core, the more likely they are to be successful.”

Advocacy group Progress Toronto is already preparing to campaign for a progressive mayor.

“We’ve had a number of years of Conservative rule at City Hall and it hasn’t been working,” said Michal Hay. “The city is actually in a worse place now than it was a decade ago.”

In last October’s municipal elections, five new progressive candidates were elected to council – Amber Morley, Alejandra Bravo, Ausma Malik, Chris Moise, and Jamaal Myers.

Files from Melissa Nakhavoly, Tina Yazdani and The Canadian Press were used in this report