Long-time Toronto Councillor John Filion says he won’t be seeking re-election in October and has endorsed a pair of candidates as his ward is split up as part of a city-wide redistribution process.
Filion was first elected as a councillor in North York in 1991 after serving nine years as a school board trustee. After North York was amalgamated into the City of Toronto in 1997, he served as the councillor for Ward 23 Willowdale. The ward is roughly bounded by Bathurst Street and the Don River, Steeles Avenue, Yonge Street, Finch Avenue East, Bayview Avenue and Highway 401.
In an interview with Global News, Filion said the time has come to focus on other projects. In an announcement on Wednesday, he endorsed Markus O’Brien Fehr, his executive assistant, in his campaign to run in the newly-created Ward 28 and Lily Cheng, a community volunteer and co-founder of the recent We Love Willowdale campaign, in her campaign to run in the newly-created Ward 29. Filion said he made the endorsements amid concerns about “pro-development” candidates.
While reflecting on his tenure in office, Filion talked about how the van attack on Yonge Street that left 10 people dead and 16 people injured in April deeply affected his community.
“I think the neighbourhood is still somewhat traumatized by the tragedy, especially the very large number of people who were direct witnesses.
“There were people who were on their condo balconies who came down and tried to save people’s lives. There were people who held people’s hands while they died so they had some company. There was kind of this incredible outpouring of humanity.”
He said the response in the Willowdale community made him proud to represent the area.
“Every good quality you could ask for — they were kind, and generous, and compassionate, and hopeful. It was just really remarkable how people dealt with it and how they did it without anger or talking about blame. People would come up and hug me,” Filion said.
In terms of his local accomplishments, he said his work on assisting with the creation of “interesting” community facilities stands out.
“For example, the Parkview neighbourhood garden. It’s run totally by a group of volunteers who grow vegetables there. They sell it to people who walk up the street and buy it — it’s kind of the one-kilometre diet,” Filion said.
Filion also discussed city-wide initiatives he was involved with. He pointed to an overhaul of smoking bylaws while he was chair of the board of health.
“It’s hard to believe it now, but at the time it was pretty controversial. That was a pretty major change for the health of the people of the city,” he said, while touting his involvement with the creation of the current public health restaurant rating system.
READ MORE: Councillor shares account of Rob Ford saga
In 2013, during Rob Ford’s time as mayor of Toronto, Filion led the effort to strip Ford of many of his powers after Ford admitted to smoking crack. Filion eventually went on to write a book about the scandal entitled, The Only Average Guy: Inside the Uncommon World of Rob Ford.
Meanwhile, voters are scheduled to vote in the Toronto election on Oct. 22.
Also running in Ward 28 is Danny De Santis, Chung Jin Park and Winston Park.
In Ward 29, Sonny Cho, Marisol D’Andrea and Sam Moini have filed their nomination papers to run.
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