Toronto Mayor Resigns After Relationship With Staffer

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(Bloomberg) — Toronto Mayor John Tory abruptly resigned on Friday after saying he had a relationship with a staffer, only months after cruising to reelection on a pledge to fix a housing crisis in North America’s fourth-largest city.

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“During the pandemic, I developed a relationship with an employee in my office in a way that did not meet the standards to which I hold myself as mayor and as a family man,” Tory said at a press conference. “I’ve decided that I would step down as mayor so that I could take the time to reflect on my mistakes and to do the work of rebuilding the trust of my family.”

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Canada’s financial capital is facing a number of challenges, including the lingering financial effects of Covid-19 lockdowns, a potential recession and a housing affordability crisis. Tory’s promise to fix the latter was one of his main campaign pledges when he won an unprecedented third consecutive term in October. 

Canada saw some of the fastest house price inflation in the world, while Toronto was named the world’s biggest housing bubble last year by Swiss bank UBS Group AG. The city has not been building homes fast enough to keep up with immigration-led population growth and a lack of supply is seen as the main cause of soaring prices that, while off their peak, remain lofty.

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Tory had proposed a major policy shift that would open residential land reserved for single-family homes for the development of multiplexes and small apartment buildings, with mid-rises on commercial streets. The plan was to make housing less expensive by adding density where people already live.

“I think it is important, as I always have, for the office of the mayor not to be in any way tarnished and not to see the city government itself put through a period of prolonged controversy, arising out of this error in judgment on my part, especially in light of some of the challenges that we face as a city,” said Tory, who was elected to the office in 2014.

Even-featured and gray-haired, Tory, 68, has long been a public figure in Toronto — a former mayoral candidate, leader of a provincial political party, business executive and talk radio host. He hails from an established Toronto business family, whose name adorns a storied law firm, Torys LLP, founded by his grandfather. 

Tory said he will work with the City Manager, City Clerk and Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie to ensure an orderly transition. An environmental geoscientist, McKelvie was first elected to City Hall as a city councilor in 2018.

Read more: Low-Key Mayor Floats Fix for World’s Biggest Housing Bubble

(Updates throughout with quotes and background)