Premier Doug Ford is slashing the size of Toronto city council almost in half before the October election, the Star has learned.

In a stunning development, Ford is also cancelling planned regional chair elections in Peel and York, thwarting the ambitions of his political foe Patrick Brown, the former Progressive Conservative leader, as well as those of former Liberal cabinet minister Steven Del Duca.

The surprise moves, which were never broached during last month’s provincial election campaign, come as the deadline for candidates entering the Oct. 22 municipal election looms at 2 p.m. on Friday.

“This is something the premier wanted to do even when he was on council,” said a senior government official, referring to the one term Ford spent at Toronto city hall between 2010 and 2014.

The overhaul of wards will wipe out a 2016 decision by Toronto council to redraw the city’s boundaries, which increased the number of wards to 47 from 44 for the 2018 election. That was the result of a four-year review that determined the increase was essential for effective representation.

Sure, seems totally reasonable and not at all spiteful. Also this change during an election period is illegal, and I'll donate to help people with court costs.
(Submissions welcome for updated graph tomorrow.)

1. Eight years ago I produced a graph showing how Toronto's post-amalgamation population size, in comparison to the number of City Council wards, leaves us with a crisis of under-representation:


2. This is the commentary that accompanied the graph:


3. Now our Premier wants to cut that representation in half, turning a crisis into a nightmare.

4. This is what the chart will look like, if Doug Ford implements his proposal to bludgeon our Council:


5. Some are comparing our local council to provincial or federal govt, saying "If they can manage with 25 seats, why can't Council?". The answer is simple: Queen's Park and Ottawa are partisan legislatures, where elected members have almost zero influence. Every vote is whipped.

6. City Council is the opposite: Every vote is a free vote and Councillors are expected to represent their constituents each and every time. Municipal government is designed explicitly to be closer to the people, with two-way feedback happening in-between elections.

7. Doug Ford was rejected by 66% of Toronto's voters when he ran for mayor in 2014. Then, just a few weeks ago, his party was rejected by 60% of Ontario voters. Yet he's now is a position of power allowing him to dominate both the legislature and council, with an iron fist.

8. Our democracy is on life-support. A leader who claims to be "for the people", yet was actually rejected by a majority of those people, is moving ahead like a bulldozer to erode democratic representation even further. We need to fix our broken system. We deserve so much better.