Tory quitting was a shock. What came next is astonishing

What a difference 12 months makes. It was one year ago - Feb.10, 2023- that John Tory shocked the city by announcing his sudden resignation in the minutes after the Star revealed he'd had an inappropriate relationship with a member of his staff.

- EDWARD KEENAN

Before John Tory resigned as mayor, the city seemed incapable of doing even simple things like fixing potholes. With Olivia Chow at the helm, that no longer appears to be the case, Edward Keenan writes.

The details of that episode itself, and the decision to resign, have been well covered enough for my liking, both in the Star and in an Integrity Commissioner's report. No need to revisit all that.

But since history, even recent history as it unfolds, has a way of seeming inevitable in retrospect, it's worth taking a moment to note how that event altered the city's trajectory.

Looking back to the days before Tory resigned, the city appeared to have settled into a rut in which it seemed doing simple things like repairing potholes was beyond its capacity, the financial situation was paralyzed by unco-operative provincial and federal partners and a steadfast local resistance to raising revenue, and Tory's stranglehold on power with new dictatorial "strong mayor" powers and a fresh landslide mandate seemed itself to be a dominant issue.

Olivia Chow? She was apparently in retirement, not even a voice much heard in Toronto politics at the time, never mind thought of as a candidate for a comeback.

And now? Well, you know, Chow is the mayor, and it seems a popular one. There's a new deal for Toronto with the provincial government, providing billions in funding, there are refugee shelter and affordable housing dollars secured from the federal government, and there's a record-high 9.5-per-cent property tax increase on the immediate agenda that will help bring Toronto's rates closer to those of its peer cities in the region and across the continent. The budget even has a small fund for all those potholes.