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Hahahaha... yeah, not like that dump of a country... Australia. Or his home country of England. Wisla? C'mon, shake your head.
Well with Tony Abbott in charge... :rolleyes:

I think this came up in the Toronto a World Class City? thread, but Toronto certainly ranks very high in livability compared to our competitor cities. Granted, Melbourne and Sydney are on par with us.
 
I think this came up in the Toronto a World Class City? thread, but Toronto certainly ranks very high in livability compared to our competitor cities. Granted, Melbourne and Sydney are on par with us.
Are they? I hear lots of comments that Australia, and particularly Sydney are still very racist compared to New Zealand or Canada. Less so for Melbourne.
 
Jennifer Keesmatt, head of Toronto City Planning, says that the division didn't use due diligence when creating the Scarborough Subway Extension ridership estimates.

Council didn't expect City Planning to do a proper analysis, as this was a politically driven process.

http://m.thestar.com/#/article/news...rborough-subway-analysis-was-problematic.html

It's also interesting to note that TTC CEO Andy Byford privately endorsed the Scarborough LRT plan. If I recall correctly, the TTC publicly endorsed the SSE. It looks like Mr. Byford was under pressure from Council to endorse the plan that he felt was inferior.
 
Are they? I hear lots of comments that Australia, and particularly Sydney are still very racist compared to New Zealand or Canada. Less so for Melbourne.
I'm not sure they measure racism when doing they're doing the "world's best/most livable cities" list.
 
And Jen goes first.


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City of Toronto Media Relations has issued the following:
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News Release

August 28, 2017

Chief Planner Jennifer Keesmaat to leave City of Toronto

The City of Toronto announced today that, after five years as Chief Planner & Executive Director of the City Planning division, Jennifer Keesmaat has decided to leave the City effective September 29 to pursue other interests.

Keesmaat joined the City in September 2012 and since then has successfully championed and led a wide array of projects including the first comprehensive plan for the downtown in 40 years (TOCore), the City's first Council-approved Transit Network Plan (Feeling Congested), OMB reform, Chief Planner Roundtables, the Ravine Strategy, Complete Streets Guidelines, Planners in Public Spaces and the Planning Review Panel as well as partnered with other City divisions and agencies on a number of significant transit projects including the King Street Pilot Project, Scarborough Subway Extension, SmartTrack, Eglinton Crosstown LRT, Waterfront LRT and the Relief Line.

"I want to personally thank Jennifer for her tremendous passion, leadership and innovation in driving forward a number of major projects for the City as we continue to move Toronto toward becoming a more livable, affordable and functional city," said Mayor John Tory. "Jennifer has used her platform and voice as Chief Planner to help guide Council's efforts to build a better city for all Torontonians and I wish her all the best in the next phase of her career."

Keesmaat's role with the City was her first foray into public service. Prior to joining the City, she was a principal at design firm Dialog and had a distinguished career as a planning consultant and strategic planner. Her career took her to international projects in the United States, Ireland and Greece as well as across Canada.

“I would like to extend my thanks to Jennifer for her leadership of the City Planning division as well as her contributions to my senior management team," said Deputy City Manager John Livey. "Jennifer is a strong and forthright proponent of complete communities, cross-sector collaboration and public consultation on every project she undertakes, which has helped achieve broad support for many of the City's major infrastructure projects."

“It’s been an honour to work with Mayor Tory, Council, City staff and my remarkable team in the City Planning division over the last five years," said Keesmaat. “I promised myself that after five years in public service I would review my future options. I look forward to new challenges in the important business of city building now enriched by invaluable lessons, new friends and colleagues acquired while serving the people of our great city, Toronto."

This news release is also available on the City's website: http://ow.ly/HOnm30eJGXY.

Toronto is Canada's largest city, the fourth largest in North America, and home to a diverse population of about 2.8 million people. It is a global centre for business, finance, arts and culture and is consistently ranked one of the world's most livable cities. In 2017, Toronto is honouring Canada's 150th birthday with "TO Canada with Love," a year-long program of celebrations, commemorations and exhibitions. For information on non-emergency City services and programs, Toronto residents, businesses and visitors can visit http://www.toronto.ca, call 311, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, or follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/TorontoComms and on Instagram at http://www.instagram.com/cityofto.

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What reasonably forward-looking planning professional who did their homework regarding the history of Toronto's peculiar mix of planning and politics since 2010 would apply to sip from that poisoned chalice?
 
That's an interesting statement- that certainly hints towards something.

Here's hoping it's something that leads to a mayoral campaign!
 
Here's hoping it's something that leads to a mayoral campaign!

Meh. If she wants to run that's fine, but John Tory would steamroll her in a head-to-head race and she'd be relegated to the same irrelevance as David Soknacki if there's another high-profile challenger. It's practically impossible to beat a mayor who gets 2-to-1 approval vs. disapproval. If she actually does want to be mayor, she'd be better off becoming a star councillor and then running in 2022, when John Tory seems more likely than not to retire.

I still expect her to run for Eglinton-Lawrence East if she is quitting to enter electoral politics, but I can't tell if a tweet like that is to test the waters or just her being a little bombastic.
 
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Meh. If she wants to run that's fine, but John Tory would steamroll her in a head-to-head race and she'd be relegated to the same irrelevance as David Soknacki if there's another high-profile challenger. It's practically impossible to beat a mayor who gets 2-to-1 approval vs. disapproval. If she actually does want to be mayor, she'd be better off becoming a star councillor and then running in 2022, when John Tory seems more likely than not to retire.

I still expect her to run for Eglinton-Lawrence East if she is quitting to enter electoral politics, but I can't tell if a tweet like that is to test the waters or just her being a little bombastic.

She would fair better than Soknaki but that's not saying much. She would have the empowered woman vote, which you can discount as nothing. Stintz tried but she didn't have the support of the Right media because of Tory and Ford. Keesmat is being lauded and woo'd by the Left media and she seems to like the spotlight and is good with self promotion, that coupled with a lot of media publicity I could see her do much better than Chow. But as you say, under the current polarizing "Left" platform I would expect her to be representing it would all be irrelevant against a Tory or Ford platform. Although is she came in with a centrist platform, uniting the divisions it could be game on.
 
I think it's safe to assume that Rick Leary (the deputy CEO) will take over the position. He was the COO of the MBTA, and then the CEO of York Region Transit. Lots of work with BRT projects, which could be an interesting turn for the TTC.
 

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