[URBAN NOTE] "As Mayor Tory hits midterm, no challengers in sight"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's David Rider suggests that John Tory, arguably a latter-day Red Tory, is Toronto's inescapable future.

“I will work with the council that the people of Toronto elected tonight in moving Toronto not left, not right, but forward,” John Tory declared Oct. 27, 2014.

Two years later, halfway through what he hopes will be his first of two terms, it’s easy to find critics of the tax-averse mayor who launches pricey mega-projects unlikely to come to fruition before the next campaign in 2018.

It is difficult, though, to name anyone likely to beat him.

“I don’t see anyone at the moment who could challenge Tory — he has found a way to chart the middle ground,” says Adam Vaughan, the Liberal MP and former city councillor whose name arises when politicos talk about potential future mayoral candidates. “In Toronto, to win, to become the mayor, you need to be a centrist.”

Vaughan is focused, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s parliamentary secretary, on helping deliver a national housing strategy for cities. Attempting a return to Toronto city hall, he says, is “not on my horizon.”

Tory’s team, which celebrated his midterm mark at a private party Monday, has already started 2018 election planning.