Toronto Mayoral Election Shake-Up: Ranked Ballots In 2018?

Maclean's reports on Dave Meslin's impressive efforts to get ranked elections up and running in Toronto by 2018:

In this latest poll’s scenarios, for instance, Chow would beat Ford and a range of competitors. Without her in the race though, Ford would beat a range of three- or four-way splits against him. The poll’s results are exasperating in their attempts to puzzle through all the permutations: Chow, Ford, Vaughan, and Carroll; Chow, Ford, Tory, Vaughan and Carroll; Chow, Chow, Chow, eggs and Chow; Ford, Vaughan, eggs, sausage and Chow, and so on.

These are not the makings of a fruitful conversation. Canadians like to grouse about our first-past-the-post elections, but have been reluctant to abandon their simplicity. Four provincial referenda on full-scale reworkings of provincial governments have failed. In Toronto, though, a more manageable change might be in the works.

In Toronto, Dave Meslin, a kinetic, well-known public advocate, has spent the past year lining up support for ranked ballots, a system that could bring election results more in line with what the majority of voters would prefer. Meslin has assembled a roster of city councillors who’ve endorsed his drive, including some of Rob Ford’s staunch conservative allies, who’ve taken both Meslin and and his proposal to their town halls, where the idea seems to have been warmly received. The logistics of preparing for an election has ruled out 2014, but in order to prod the provincial government into rewriting election laws to open the door for 2018, Meslin and his allies hope to see a council vote that will get the ball rolling this coming spring.
It works like this: Instead of voting for one candidate, voters would instead rank the candidates in order of preference. When the votes are counted, if a single candidate has 50% of the first-choice vote, they win. If nobody reaches 50%, then the last-place finisher is dropped from the ballot, and their supporters’ second-choice votes are distributed. The votes are counted again, and the process repeats itself until someone has secured 50% of the vote.

Toronto's Lower Don: The Challanges of Urban Redevelopment

By Keith Edmund White

Editor-in-Chief

The Lower Don, once a industrial hob of Toronto's industrial era, has fallen on hard times, and has now lived through over 50 years of redevelopment attempts.   The appeal of the Lower Don is obvious:  if prudently developed, the Lower Don offers an ideal urban living space for a growing metropolis.  But after decades of fits and starts, will large-scale residential construction now underway, will large-scale residential development finally kick-start the redevelopment of the Lower Don? 

Images taken from Canadian Geographic, Evergreen City Works, and WATERFRONToronto

Quick Facts About the Lower Don

The Lower Don Lands is a 125-hectare (308-acre) area that runs from East Bayfront (the Parliament Street Slip) east to the Don Roadway and from West Don Lands (the rail corridor) south to the Shipping Channel.  (Source:  WATERFRONToronto)

As of 2000, over the Lower Don—or Ward 25 that covers the  Don Rive—boasted 84,000 inhabits.  (Source:  City of Toronto Website)

Why did the Lower Don fade?  The Lower Don area initially developed as an industrial center.  And with the dawn of the Industrial era, the Lower Don faced a slow death—leaving this unique waterfront area left with environmental scars.  From the Canadian Geographic Magazine’s June 2011 article "Death and Rebirth of the Don River":

At the time of the Funeral for the Don, the river’s 36,000- hectare watershed was easy to divide into three regions. The foulest area was near the river’s southern terminus. Rebuilt in Victorian days as an industrial artery for a restless Dominion, the lower Don was a font of goods, everything from flour, lumber, paper, wool and brick to Coleman lanterns, Sunlight soap, Woods tents and sleeping bags, Gooderham’s Bonded Stock whisky and probably even the metal pails Love used to carry the deceased to the funeral. (The Don’s industrial role was no accident. Upper Canada’s first Lieutenant-Governor, John Graves Simcoe, decided to build the new capital of York — now Toronto — east of the river to take advantage of its timber and the sheltered waterfront created by a large peninsula and marsh. As a result, the Don was close to shipping and eventually became a railway corridor, while the larger Humber River, to the west, was surrounded first by farms and later housing.)

…

What the mourners couldn’t have known is that the industrial Don was on the verge of a dramatic transformation (see timeline above). When James Onyschuk worked at a riverside warehouse in the 1960s, he’d occasionally check to see what colour the river was: pink, maybe, or bright blue, courtesy of the dyes from an upstream paper mill. Today, former factories have become trendy lofts and upscale car dealerships. North of the funeral site, the plant that provided the material for much of Toronto’s stolid Victorian architecture has been rebranded as the Evergreen Brick Works. It’s an environmental community centre and tourist draw, complete with a farmers’ market and workshops on water conservation, bicycle repairs and home canning.

…

“In the Don, there’s 150 years of history to reverse,” says Ontario Ministry of the Environment research scientist Paul Helm. Change on that scale “doesn’t happen on a dime.”

Enough dimes, however, will soften history’s more egregious insults, and a series of successful regreening efforts offer hope for a broader transformation of the river. When Nancy Penny moved to her Scarborough neighbourhood in the 1970s, the local section of Taylor Massey Creek was confined to what she calls a “concrete ditch” running through parkland that was “basically a dog toilet: a grass field with a few trees.”

New Spur of Residential Development Triggers New Greenway Project to Consolidate the Lower Don's Recent Gains

The Globe and Mail reported Friday on the commercial kick-start that may trigger a lasting, and full-scale redevelopment on The Lower Don:

Evergreen has just launched the Lower Don Greenway Project, a collaboration with the city and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) to pick up where the now-disbanded Task Force to Bring Back the Don left off.

The aim of Evergreen’s project – and a city-sponsored planning study that will be announced this week – is to make the valley accessible green space for the 80,000 people expected to move into nearby infill housing.

The lower valley has come a long way since 1989 when it was a no-go area and the task force was launched. As the staff co-ordinator for eight years Mr. Stonehouse saw fences come down and bridges go up, wetlands and trails created.
But the valley is in danger of falling off the radar, according to Mr. Stonehouse. “We need public engagement to create a bandwagon effect,” he says, adding, “There needs to be a wish list.”

Who’s building the new residences that would be the beneficiary of building such “accessible green space”? WATERFRONToronto, whose 2012/2013 Corporate Plan (pages 2-3) includes plans to renovate East Bayfront, West Don Lands, Central Waterlands, and other Toronto areas. And guess what? WATERFRONToronto itself a public development corporation created by the Canada national government, the province of Ontario, and the city of Toronto. But, critically, this group has leveraged private funds to fuel the Lower Don’s redevelopment, with investments from organizations including Urban Capital.

Challenges Facing Lower Don's Redevelopment

What seems to be the problem with re-starting the Lower Don? This SpacingToronto 'reality check' helps answer that vexing question:

-disagreements on how to develop the space—e.g super-mall anchored development vs. urban feel),
-the costs of greening the Lower Don (not to mention addressing the ravine’s inherent flooding risk),
-and disagreements over whether the cost of full-scale redevelopment would be paid back—in less than 10 years—by tax revenue.

The apparent result: a stop-and-start, staggered approach to the Lower Don's redevelopment, which often seemed a breathe away from flat-lining.  

But with the launch of a new 80,000 residential construction project, it now seems the Lower Don redevelopment effort now has the commercial muscle needed to kick-start and, hopefully, complete the revitalization of an waterfront area once considered a casualty of Toronto's industrial past.

Harnessing Canadian Innovation: Looking at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto

By Keith Edmund White, Editor-in-Chief

We all know the obvious:  the world, along with the technologies that make it run, is moving at a faster and faster clip.  As such, the governments of advanced economies are facing a common challenge:  how can they not only maintain the important mainstays of their economies, but also harness future technologies?  Today's press release from the government on Ontario shows one such model:  a government-funded nonprofit, MaRS DD, that provides funding and other business services to potential-filled early-stage start-ups.  CUSLI-Nexus explores how MaRS DD fosters innovative businesses in Canada, and if these innovation incubator/accelerator organizations can solve Canada's innovation challenge.

Yesterday the government of Ontario heralded its support of 12 innovative businesses, giving particular focus to a social responsibility start-up Better the World.  What’s most interesting about this news-release is how Ontario's provincial government went about supporting these tech ventures.  The government established a $7 million fund Investment Accelerator Fund (IAF), and then had MaRS (short for “medical and related sciences”) Discovery District (MaRS DD) administer this fund to worthy Canadian start-ups.  The non-profit organization, which was founded in 2005 and provides business services to science, technology, and social entrepreneurs, doles out grants up to $1 million to get early-stage start-ups up and running.  And the IAF also takes in funds from private sources.  As such, MaRS DD is an example of a public-private partnership geared to spurring tomorrow’s in-demand industries and technologies in Canada.  How’s MaRS DD doing?  Well in 2010 alone, MaRS DD has pumped over $108 million in capital for Canadian start-ups.

To get a sense of what MaRS provides to Canadian tech entrepreneurs, check out this article by MaRS CEO Ilse Treurnicht:

Every day, more than 2,500 people from the worlds of science and technology, entrepreneurship and business, as well as investors and the innovation community come to work at the 750,000-square-foot complex. And we’re still growing. By the fall of 2013, MaRS will more than double in size to become one of the world’s largest urban innovation hubs, commercializing research and accelerating the growth of startups in life sciences, ICT, cleantech and social enterprise. MaRS is also an active member of the Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE), a regional platform that supports the fast growth of technology ventures in over a dozen communities across the province.

So why is this particularly important to Canada, and what has MaRS DD accomplished?

First, MaRS DD is a important piece of protecting Canadian prosperity in the 21^st century.  As I discussed last month, today’s relatively rosy Canadian economic performance faces a long-term innovation challenge.  Now, that August post focused on the structural problems getting in the way of current Canadian businesses innovating their business practices (think making a widget 5 seconds faster), and not the ‘MaRS DD’ angle on innovation.  MaRS DD is doing the start-up slice of innovation:  funding new businesses that—if they succeed—will provide new products or ways to deliver in-demand services.  The end-result:  a start-up working at MaRS DD becomes the next big bio-tech or tech company, or simply gets bought-out from an established company, which—in turn—generates increased corporate profits.  

As such, business incubators like MaRS DD—based in a city with $1 billion in annual science and technology research spending are a small, but critical piece of building the Canadian economy of the future.  And, most interesting to me, it shows an attempt to combine the long-term funding capability of government with academic and real-world business expertise to create successful Canadian start-ups.

As to how MaRS DD is doing, it’s clear that MaRS DD is doing good work. MaRS DD has provided 900 research requests for companies and entrepreneurs, 13 market intelligent reports, and has created 600 jobs in 2010 alone.  A $7 million government expenditure to create 600 jobs isn’t bad (~$11,667.00/per job), especially if some of these then lead to either big start-up buy outs or permanent businesses.  So, it’s clear MaRS DD hasn’t been a waste of tax-payer money.  

But, the most interesting—and vexing question—is how one can analyze how a start-up incubator can measure its effectiveness.  Most start-ups fail; at least with government funding, we’re not forcing would-be entrepreneurs to be stuck paying back debts—and not trying to succeed again.  But judging a start-up incubator by the number of jobs created, while a key political indicator of success, has little—if anything—to do with whether MaRS DD is fulfilling a need the private sector can’t provide.  This is not to throw cold water on the project, as MaRS DD’s expansion and track-record of success shows that MaRS BB is a model for successfully spurring tech start-ups.   

But, to get a sense of start-up incubator/accelerator skepticism, check out Lyn Blandchard's article at Your Capital Edge:

This research led to a few broad conclusions: while there are plenty of startup success stories to provide anecdotal evidence of incubators and accelerators having success on a regional basis, there is no broad consensus on just how effective these programs are.

So, will MaRS DD—and similar organizations—solve Canada’s innovation challenge?  Ultimately, only time will tell.  But MaRS DD sure looks like a part of the solution.

Monday Morning News Round-Up: The Housing Bubble, What's On Parliament's Agenda, Fossil Fun, B.C. Mayor Summit, and the U.K.-Canada Embassy BFF Agreemnt

Some attention-grabbing Canadian headlines.

Canada’s Housing Bubble Is Bursting—and This Time We Mean It!  Canadian Business on why, this time, Canadians really should worry about the housing bubble:

People have been predicting a crash in Vancouver for years, of course. What’s different now is the growing number of trends suggesting its imminence. The poor global economy is souring foreign investors’ appetite for expensive property overseas. The federal government, meanwhile, is trying to tame the market by tightening mortgage lending standards and warning the public at every opportunity that Vancouver is a risky city for buying real estate. Interest rates are still low, but the Bank of Canada keeps promising to raise them, which would quickly lower affordability. All of which leads David Madani, an economist with Capital Economics, to conclude: “The Vancouver market has cracked.”

Vancouver won’t be the only one. The next market to crack will be Toronto, starting with the city’s overheated condo segment. Overall sales of existing homes were down by 12.4% this August over last, and condo sales have fallen by double digits for three months in a row. The pre-construction condo sector is also weakening, with sales down 21% in the second quarter. Overbuilding is a major concern: a record 52,695 units are currently under construction, with another 35,000 in the pipeline, a rate that economists say is well ahead of demographic trends in the region. Investors also play a big role in the Toronto condo market, raising concerns that waves of them will try to cash out at the same time.

The Talk of Ottawa this Week (and Beyond).  The Hill Times lays out the Parliamentary schedule in brief here.  Items on notice:  house committees will meet to elect their chairs, some criminal law debates, and the Senate talks conflict of interest and Canadian language rights in the Facebook-era.   To get the low-down on this parliamentary session’s ‘hot topics,’ read the Library of Parliament’s 41^st Parliament Current and Emerging Issues.

Fossil Fun.  A group of scientists exploring the world-renown, fossil-filled Burgess Shale preserves in Canada's Rookies has found a new bevy of fossils! For fossil lovers, this is big news:  the newly discovered site might be the most important ‘fossil find’ in the last three decades, reports the Calgary Herald.

BC Mayors Talk ‘Tax Fatigue’ (and Marijuana Decriminalization) at Victoria Meet-Up.  Mayors from British Columbia (B.C.), drained for cash but swamped with federal demands to provide public services, are gathering today at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention, reports the Vancouver Sun.  This isn’t just a group therapy session:  the mayors will be sharing ideas on how to prioritize public services, and get more bang for their buck (along with some less heady topics--scroll down for more.  From the Vancouver Sun's report:

“Spending has gone up for local governments over the past 10 years but predominantly because the province and federal governments are asking more of local governments through policies or regulations,” Moore said. “It affects everything from core utilities to police services.”

The convention comes on the heels of a business taxation report that suggests provincial and federal government decisions have had negative financial implications for local government.

The report by an expert panel also suggests the province doesn’t have any more money to dole out, Moore said. But he takes heart in a recommendation that the province work with municipalities to find alternate forms of funding to provide services.

“We really feel there hasn’t been a lot of cooperation,” he said.

Learn more about the Convention—whose annual theme is In Conversation—at the Convention’s website.  Right now, the Convention is likely wrapping up its Marijuana Decriminalization debate (assuming a bit of real-time lag-time from the published schedule available here). 

Canada and the United Kingdom Become Embassy BBFs.  In a cost-cutting and diplomacy-maximizing move, Yahoo! News Canada reports that the U.K. and Canada will agree today to sharing one another’s embassies in nations where one nation has an embassy and the other does not.  But not everyone is thrilled with the move.  From yesterday’s Globe and Mail:

Paul Heinbecker, the former Canadian ambassador to Germany and permanent representative of Canada to the United Nations in New York, warned that the relationship with a former colonial power in many parts of Asia and Africa could be a net negative.

“We have an incompatible brand with the U.K.,” said Mr. Heinbecker, citing past disagreements, including Canada’s support for sanctions to fight apartheid in South Africa, and Britain’s reluctance to get involved in Bosnia militarily.

The agreement, according to sources, will include not just sharing real estate, but working together in other areas – representing civilians abroad, providing passports and visas, and dealing with emergencies such as revolutions, disasters and evacuations. The two countries will not share diplomatic representation, sources said – so British diplomats would not present Canadian views to foreign governments, or vice versa.