Toronto city council banned corporate and union campaign donations in 2009 to improve transparency and accountability and reduce the influence of special interests in municipal politics.“Let’s face it, the amount of money you can raise does have an impact on who gets elected,” then-mayor David Miller said at the time. “If you allow corporate donat...

May Rob Ford rest in peace. That was, for good reason, the major sentiment of the week of his funeral, during which the man was mourned and remembered fondly — or at least respectfully — by thousands, including many who were his political opponents in life. I expressed some good memories and admiring thoughts as well, and meant them sincerely. But I want to write one more remembrance...

Mayor John Tory and his top aides were briefed last spring about a provincial rate change that would squeeze more profits from a sale of a minority stake of city-owned Toronto Hydro.Joe Pennachetti, the recently retired city manager, confirmed that on April 27 he walked Tory, his chief of staff Chris Eby and principal secretary Vic Gupta through the changes during a routine morning meeting. The St...

Premier Kathleen Wynne and Mayor John Tory (open John Tory's policard) are digging in on plans to build the Scarborough subway, despite growing concern about a lack of evidence to justify the $3.56-billion plan.The leaders’ unwavering support as they stood side by side at a Queen’s Park news conference Wednesday morning, has drawn criticism that the subway plan — which will co...

The vote that reopened the debate over the Scarborough subway would not have happened if council procedure hadn’t been broken, the Star has learned.That vote in May 2013 set in motion council’s switch from a fully funded LRT in Scarborough to a three stop subway — at an additional $2-billion cost. It was a successful attempt by both subway-friendly councillors and a senior mem...

It has happened as she drives down the street, prepares to leave the house for work in the morning and mingles with locals at community events.Wherever she goes, Julie Collins finds herself being flagged down by neighbours who are amazed at just how lush and green she manages to keep her Scarborough lawn.To her surprise, her local councillor even handed her an award for its beauty a few years ago....

Mayor John Tory (open John Tory's policard) has opened the door to big change in the way Torontonians choose their city representatives, throwing his support behind ranked ballots in the next civic election.Tory said this week, for the first time, that he backs ranked ballots, assuming the Ontario government delivers on Premier Kathleen Wynne’s directive to make that option available. A new...

Fire somebody!Thirty years have come and gone and the subway to York University is still stalled up the track.Hold somebody responsible, please.Rarely, even for stereotyped governments, does a public project so infuriatingly pile insult on top of injury.And there’s no hell to pay.It’ll cost nearly twice as much as advertised; on Thursday an estimated $400 million was added to the fil...

Who would you guess is further to the political left – former Ontario premier David Peterson or rapper Kardinall Offishall?We asked nine notable Torontonians to take the Political Sentimeter, a values survey launched by the Star last month that places respondents in one of eight political categories.More than 50,000 people have already used the tool, which is meant to highlight the city...

Olivia Chow’s staff has removed 312 comments from her Facebook page since she registered to run for mayor of Toronto.It’s the highest number of Facebook page deletions among the five main candidates, and a Star investigation of the deletions shows Chow has been subjected to a torrent of racist, misogynistic and abusive comments.The most comments removed from a single wall posting was...

Mayoral candidate Karen Stintz has swiftly changed her position on the Porter Airlines proposal to fly jets in and out of the island airport.Stintz was the first prominent city councillor to express opposition to the jets proposal. She wrote on Twitter in April: “I hope that Porter intended

Sheila Paxton, the city hall staffer who testified to participating in a scheme to defraud the federal government of hundreds of thousands of dollars, has taken a leave of absence from her job as Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly’s policy director.Kelly confirmed Paxton was on leave, but would not specify if it was paid or unpaid. “She’s on leave,” he said Wednesday. “That...

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says he was unaware that a former senior aide, Sheila Paxton, had participated in a federal kickback scheme about a decade ago.“I didn’t know any of the history,” Ford said Friday at City Hall.“It’s unfortunate, but I guess we’ve all made mistakes and she never did anything wrong to me. I like Sheila, and that’s all I have to ...

A word of advice from Toronto’s tree advocate: blow the whistle if you hear chainsaws firing up at development sites on weekends.“When trees come down illegally, it’s usually after 5 o’clock on Friday and before 9 a.m. on Monday,” said Councillor Sarah Doucette, council’s tree advocate.“We need residents to be our ears and our eyes out there to let ...

It’s likely that public transit will play a deciding role in the outcome of municipal and provincial elections next year. Gridlock is considered a leading issue with voters, and the Scarborough subway has already played a key role in a summer provincial by-election. RELATED: Subway, LRT or bus: the pros and cons Here’s where the declared candidates for mayor and t...

The federal government will help pay for a Scarborough subway extension, joining forces with the provincial government and city hall to foot the multi-billion-dollar bill.Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged financial support for the subway project Sunday afternoon at a meeting with Mayor Rob Ford, but he did not provide details of how much Ottawa plans to pay.“Mr. Flaherty and I, subject ...

TTC chair Karen Stintz has fired off a terse letter to Metrolinx demanding immediate assurances that the TTC won’t be on the hook for any of the costs of building Ontario Transportation Minister Glen Murray’s shorter Scarborough subway.In the Friday letter to Metrolinx chair Rob

It would take 10 years to build the truncated Scarborough subway Transportation Minister Glen Murray envisions — and five years before shovels even go in the ground, says a Metrolinx consultants’ report obtained by the Toronto Star.More than 40,000 daily Scarborough RT riders would spend at least three of those years relegated to buses while the $1.4 billion Danforth line extension i...

The unelected champion of Toronto area transit taxes is calling out politicians of every stripe in the region — including Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, Premier Kathleen Wynne and their adversaries — to muster the humility to get the job done.In a blunt lunch speech to the Empire Club, John Tory is beseeching Toronto city councillors, including Ford, to climb out of their “pit of pol...

Some Scarborough councillors want to put a subway back on the map as part of the province’s upcoming talks on taxes for transit. Glenn De Baeremaeker, who represents Ward 38 Scarborough Centre, said if the province does adopt new taxes and fees to pay for transit infrastructure, the $500 million needed to extend the Bloor-Danforth line should come out of that money.That would mean scrapping...

Porter Airlines president and CEO Robert Deluce wants to get “an exemption” for the CSeries airplane to fly at Toronto’s island airport, but not lift the ban on jets altogether.“We think that’s the elegant way of doing it,” said Deluce during a meeting with the Star’s editorial board on Wednesday. “I don’t think it really ultimately is...

Olivia Chow, the NDP MP and potential Toronto mayoral candidate, opposes jets landing at an expanded island airport — setting up a potential 2014 campaign fight with Mayor Rob Ford.“I don’t support the proposed expansion of the island airport,” Chow told the Star in an email Thursday, one day after Porter Airlines announced controversial plans to start flying jets out o...