City council veteran Denzil Minnan-Wong is stepping into the second-most-powerful position at Toronto City Hall, as Mayor John Tory’s Deputy Mayor.
As to exactly what role he’ll play in the government of the city? Will he be more of a sidekick like Mayor David Miller’s deputy Joe Pantalone? A level-headed senior advisor like Doug Holyday, or – for the first part of his tenure with Mayor Rob Ford – Norm Kelly?
The Ward 34 (Don Valley East) Councillor – and fan of the television series Star Trek – isn’t sure yet.
"Every captain is different: Pike… Kirk… Every mayor is different too," said Minnan-Wong in his office Dec. 1.
"The role I play will evolve over time. The mayor got endorsed with SmartTrack, (plans to fight) congestion and gridlock, the Gardiner Expressway, keeping taxes down. I see my role as assisting council and the mayor in trying to move the agenda forward."
Minnan-Wong is the first of four deputy mayors – and the only one with statutory powers.
He assumes Mayor Tory’s duties in his absence, and also chairs the Striking Committee, which controls which councillors are able to sit on powerful, and sometimes not-so-powerful committees, and the Employee and Labour Relations Committee, which makes Minnan-Wong the point-person on labour negotiations.
In addition, Tory is recommending that Minnan-Wong sit on the board of Waterfront Toronto, BILD Toronto and Invest Toronto.
That has some of Minnan-Wong’s colleagues on council worried. Minnan-Wong has developed a reputation among his colleagues as a political pugilist.
"Councillor Minnan-Wong has been one of the most divisive political actors at city hall," said Ward 27 (Toronto Centre-Rosedale) Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam.
"You would probably have people from the right, left and centre all concurring that he has not necessarily been a team builder. I know that Mayor Tory was advised on those things: there were numerous conversations cautioning him not to give so much power to Councillor Minnan-Wong."
Minnan-Wong maintains that his record is one of accomplishment rather than division. During the Ford administration, Minnan-Wong served as chair of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee.
"My record is one of accomplishments, taking different files and finding a resolution to them," he said. "I am able to work with councillors in bringing forward consensus on those particular files. On the cycling infrastructure file, I was able to get Mayor Ford onside with that. Getting a collective agreement: we were able to get consensus with that. In all those files there were members of council who weren’t happy with the outcome."
Minnan-Wong also dismissed criticisms that the Tory Executive Committee slate was especially conservative, pointing to several Liberals on the committee and the absence of hard-right councillors like Ward 2’s Rob Ford.
Wong-Tam, who identifies as a progressive on council, characterized the Executive Committee differently.
"To me it looks like a merger of the far right and centre right," said Wong-Tam. "Most people were hoping, considering the platitudes that John Tory made, that he was going to bring Toronto together. What he’s done is bring the suburbs together and not necessarily the downtown together, which is the economic heart of the city."
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