Government

How a Political Crisis Fueled an Urban Planner’s Mayoral Campaign

After conservative Doug Ford, the newly elected Premier of Ontario, announced that Toronto will lose 18 city council seats, Jennifer Keesmaat decided to run for office.

Before making a last-minute decision to face incumbent Mayor John Tory in an election, Keesmaat was the City of Toronto's chief planner from 2012 to 2017. She was instrumental in shepherding a number of urban improvements through a skeptical city council.Wikimedia Commons/Taxiarchos228

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By Chris Bateman

August 6, 2018 at 3:28 PM EDT

On the last Friday of July, less than six hours before the registration deadline to run for Mayor of Toronto, the city's former chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat, was at her office and checking Twitter.

The night before, the Toronto Star had broken news that the recently elected Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, planned to dynamite Toronto's upcoming municipal election, slashing the number of available council seats from 47 to 25, effective immediately.

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