During Rob Ford’s inauguration at city hall four years ago, guest speaker Don Cherry angered members of the public and city council by blasting cyclists, the media, and people he referred to as “left-wing kooks.”
Although Mayor-elect John Tory would not say who his guest speaker will be when he is sworn in next month, he said he expects it will be someone “more fitting” to his personality.
“I think this is a serious affair, the inauguration of the whole city council, not just the mayor, and I think that I am trying hard to find someone who I think will send the right message in terms of the kind of change that I would like to bring about at city hall,” Tory told CP24 on Monday afternoon.
‘So all will be revealed on Dec. 2.”
Tory does not officially take the mayor’s chair until that date but over the past few weeks, he has been in talks with a several of the city’s public servants.
He has also scheduled three meetings with his transition team to discuss transit, affordable housing and SmartTrack.
Tory did not say whether he intends to introduce a ‘first 100 days’ type of benchmark as other mayors have done in the past, but instead assured Torontonians that they will see “four years of action.”
“The stuff we are going to act on is no surprise. I talked about, on the campaign, SmartTrack, other transit, getting the traffic moving, keeping the taxes low and providing people with good services,” he said.
“I talked about getting along with other the governments and maximizing the degree to which they can invest in Toronto.”
Tory said that once he takes office, he will set up a meeting with Premier Kathleen Wynne to get started on talks about transit funding.
“We have talked about it in a very informal sort of way but … the opportunity to have a proper discussion about transit and about what she might do and about SmartTrack hasn’t presented itself yet but we will do that when we meet,” he said.
