Toronto Mayor John Tory announced his resignation – what happens next? | 24CA News

Voters in Toronto will probably be returning to the polls simply months after the October municipal election to vote in a successor to John Tory.

In a stunning transfer Friday evening, Tory — who has been mayor since 2014 — introduced he would resign after having an affair with a staffer.

Tory mentioned the connection did “not meet the standards to which I hold myself as mayor and as a family man.”

According to Tory, the connection started in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he and his long-time spouse had been spending “lengthy periods apart.”

Tory mentioned he will probably be stepping down as a way to “reflect on my mistakes” and “do the work of rebuilding the trust of my family.”

The revelation will depart Toronto with out the mayor it elected in October and the expense of one other election within the very close to future.

How does the resignation course of work?

While Tory introduced his plans to resign at a rapidly scheduled news convention on Friday night, the official course of is extra difficult. He should ship a letter of resignation to Toronto’s metropolis clerk, which can enable metropolis council to behave on the matter at its subsequent assembly.

A spokesperson confirmed to Global News that Tory had not but submitted a letter of resignation as of 11 a.m. on Saturday and “remains mayor” in the meanwhile.

“Once a resignation notice is received, the city will be able to advise on timelines and next steps,” the spokesperson mentioned.

At the assembly that follows a resignation — the following council assembly is scheduled for Feb. 15 — the mayoral seat should be declared vacant.’”

“There are almost two steps to it,” municipal lawyer John Mascarin defined to Global News. “He resigns and then the city says, ‘We’ve got the resignation, we’re declaring the office vacant.”

Declaring the workplace vacant begins the clock on an election to exchange Tory.

0:45‘Call the mayor’s workplace,’ TTC employee says in ‘unauthorized’ announcement

Why does there need to be an election?

In earlier years, the town was capable of appoint a successor to the mayor’s workplace.

However, the sturdy mayor powers introduced in by the Ford authorities final 12 months require Toronto to carry an election for the place of mayor.

“They’re going to have to run the expense of having a city-wide by-election for the mayor,” Mascarin defined.

The Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act — handed in September — states that when there’s a emptiness in “the office of the head of council,” a by-election should comply with.

Council ought to go a bylaw outlining that by-election inside 60 days of declaring the workplace vacant, Mascarin mentioned. That course of will rework the town clerk into chief elections officer and provides them the ability to set the foundations and course of for the following poll.

In October’s election, 31 candidates ran for mayor, together with Tory.

Who takes over within the interim?

In November, shortly after the municipal election, Jennifer McKelvie, councillor for Scarborough-Rouge Park, was appointed as deputy mayor.

That function, the town defined on the time, was to help the mayor, be the vice chair of assorted committees and act as mayor if Tory was away from the town, absent by way of sickness, or if the mayoral workplace grew to become vacant.

“Jennifer McKelvie is a hardworking, experienced city councillor and I am proud to appoint her as my deputy mayor,” Tory mentioned in a press release on the time.

McKelvie mentioned she was “proud to support” Tory’s agenda as his deputy mayor, including that he has a “strong mandate to get things done for the people of Toronto this term.”

McKelvie will tackle the duties of mayor after the seat is formally declared vacant, maybe as early as the following council assembly.

— with recordsdata from Global News’ Hannah Jackson

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