Mayor-elect John Tory spoke to voters outside of Sherbourne Station on Monday. (Ramna Shahzad, The Ryersonian)
A triumphant John Tory held his first news conference, one day after being elected the new mayor of Toronto.
Tory endured the afternoon rain to address strategies for his upcoming mayoralty, including transition plans.
While he won’t officially take up the role until Dec. 1, he’s eager to begin the shift from Ford to Tory administrations, he said.
He announced that former city councillor and deputy mayor Case Ootes will be leading his transition team.
Tory said he still wants to work with his mayoral opponents in order to create an integrated platform for addressing Toronto’s issues. He invited former mayoral candidates such as Olivia Chow and David Soknacki to put in their two cents.
“I want all hands on deck to build up the city,” he said.
Tory said he has big plans to raise morale in the city by unifying the political spirit of Toronto’s often-polarized communities.
In a conversation with the Toronto Sun editorial board, Tory said his day-one goal will be to tackle traffic issues in the city, like organization of road closures. He vows to “get some construction timing sanity so you don’t rip up all the roads in the same area at one time.”
Tory won Monday’s mayoral election with over 40 per cent of the vote, while Doug Ford came in second with 33 per cent.
Humanistic halfling who cares about stuff. Ask me what my favourite Pokémon is.
Haley graduated from the Ryerson School of Journalism in 2015.
