Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says it’s the Ontario government’s responsibility to help backstop Toronto’s pandemic-ravaged finances, offering no new federal dollars in a letterresponding to Mayor Olivia Chow’s request for help. The two-page letter from Freeland to Chow says the province has the constitutional responsibility and fiscal capacity to support the city. Freeland, who…

The city of Toronto is opening up hotel rooms for 150 asylum seekers following a $97-million pledge from the federal government toward shelter spaces for refugees and those seeking asylum. “We know that Torontonians are generous. We know that together we can be welcoming for refugee claimants so they have dignity, so they don’t have…

Toronto city council has declared gender-based violence and intimate partner violence an epidemic in the city. The declaration was part of a motion from newly-minted mayor Olivia Chow and calls on the provincial and federal governments to make the same move, which Ontario recently declined to do. It also urges the other levels of government…

A day after the federal government announced nearly $100 million to provide shelter for refugees sleeping on the streets of Toronto, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and newly elected Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow jointly urged Ottawa to take further action. “While we welcome the federal government’s recent investment as a great first step, it is not…

Commentary During my recent run to become mayor of Toronto, one line I heard from a lot of people was that they were considering moving out of town if Olivia Chow won the election. The challenges on our streets have become so dire on a number of fronts—crime, affordability, gridlock—that an exodus from the cities…

A 32-year-old man from Toronto has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder over the death of a woman who was killed by a stray bullet in Toronto’s east end last week. Karolina Huebner-Makurat, a 44-year-old mother of two, was killed while walking in Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood on Friday shortly past noon, an incident that…

Commentary Olivia Chow was elected Mayor of Toronto in the June 26 byelection. The former NDP MP/city councillor earned 269,372 votes (37.16 percent), edging out former city councillor Ana Bailão (235,175 votes, 32.46 percent). The two conservative candidates, former Toronto police chief Mark Saunders (62,167 votes, 8.59 percent) and former Toronto Sun columnist Anthony Furey…

Toronto’s newly elected mayor Olivia Chow promised a number of changes during her two-month campaign, the most notable being plans to build affordable housing on publicly owned land and expand eligibility requirements for renters. Chow, a former NDP MP who also ran in the 2014 Toronto mayoral election, losing that race, focused mainly on her…

Torontonians are headed to the polls on June 26 to elect their new mayor about five months after longtime mayor John Tory stepped down from the role because of an “inappropriate relationship” he’d had with a former staffer. Polling throughout the mayoral race has mostly favoured former NDP MP Olivia Chow, who previously ran in the city’s…

Torontonians are headed to the polls on June 26 to elect their new mayor about five months after longtime mayor John Tory stepped down from the role because of an “inappropriate relationship” he’d had with a former staffer. Polling throughout the mayoral race has mostly favoured former NDP MP Olivia Chow, who previously ran in the city’s…