Former city councillor Norm Kelly is open to returning to city hall to step in for Jim Karygiannis, who was suddenly ejected from office Wednesday over campaign finances â but Kelly isnât counting Karygiannis out.âFor me itâs premature,â to talk about a council appointment or byelection to fill Karygiannisâs seat in Ward 22 Scarborough-Agincourt, Kelly said Thursday in an interview from his home.âJimmy is, among other things, a fighter,â Kelly said of Karygiannis, who beat Kelly in the 2018 election to represent the new expanded ward, and who is not ruling out going to court in a bid to reverse his unprecedented expulsion from council over what he calls a âclerical error.ââNothing has congealed, I think itâs still a fluid situation so weâll just have to see how it plays out,â said Kelly, added that he was receiving calls, emails and texts from former constituents and âpolitical activists from across the city.ââTheyâre saying âYouâd better get back in there,ââ at city hall to represent more than 100,000 Torontonians who suddenly have no city councillor, Kelly said.Asked if he would serve in the role if asked, Kelly â a historian first elected to public office in 1974 who served as a Liberal MP and on Scarborough and Toronto councils before his 2018 election loss â said he is open to the idea.âThis was to have been my last term, a legacy term,â said Kelly, 78, who represented Ward 40 before Premier Doug Ford cut the size of city council in the middle of the 2018 civic election and forced veteran councillors including Karygiannis and Kelly to fight over the new, bigger wards.âAlmost half of the redevelopment in Scarborough is taking place in the communities that I represented so it certainly affords the opportunity, if I return, to fulfill that legacy term that I had in mind in the 2014 election.âKel ...
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