While campaigning for the job of running Canada’s largest city, Mayor John Tory promised to restore stability at city hall after the tumultuous term of his predecessor Rob Ford.Even Tory’s detractors agree he’s accomplished that, and as a result has maintained high approval ratings in public opinion polls.But beyond his calming influence, what has John Howard Tory, multimillionaire lawyer, businessman, and former provincial Progressive Conservative leader, accomplished since he became 65th mayor of Toronto.What about the other promises to tackle traffic congestion and expand transit, cornerstones of his 2014 election campaign. Does it take any less time to cross the city? Has traffic gotten better, or has it gotten worse?“I like to think it’s better, I have people tell me anecdotally, that it’s better,” Tory says in an interview to mark the third anniversary of his Oct. 27, 2014 election.Then Tory, as is his custom, qualifies his answer.Measuring progress is difficult, he admits, though it will get easier with recently installed Bluetooth technology that monitors traffic speed on major downtown streets.“I will say with certainty, that if we hadn’t done all the things that we’ve done, and that we’re doing, then it would be much worse, because we have a growing city.”Those things include towing and ticket blitzes for downtown lane blockers, a pilot project using paid duty police officers to direct traffic at major intersections, to be replaced soon with full-time “traffic wardens.” Next month, Tory will meet with representatives of utility companies asking them to confine non-emergency work to off-peak hours.On the transit file, Tory remains committed to creating a transit line called SmartTrack. Although, the current configuration is nothing like the original proposal made during the 2014 election campaign. The original proposal has been reduced to six proposed stations added to t ...
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