Who Controls Toronto - People or Developers?

In the 2018 Toronto Municipal Election, 34% of all campaign contributions came from people with ties to the development industry. Many important decisions on the right to housing are being influenced by these donors, to the detriment of regular people in Toronto. An excerpt from Acorn Canada Research.

In 2018’s election for Toronto City Council Toronto over four million dollars was donated to the winning candidates alone, not to mention countless other donations to those who lost or dropped out. The election was a strange one, with newly elected Premier Doug Ford intervening mid-election to cut the number of wards eligible for representation on council in half, from 47 to 25.

Of the 23 councillors elected, who still sit on council, to represent all Torontonians, donations totalled $2,776,359 and Mayor John Tory received $1,288,650 in donations to his campaign for reelection. This money all came from private donors, who did not necessarily live in the City but who were motivated to play a role in who would make important decisions on how the city was run for the next four years. PDF