HOLYDAY CONSIDERING RUN FOR MAYOR

City councillor Stephen Holyday, who has fiercely opposed new bike lanes and allowing multi-unit housing in single-familyhome neighbourhoods, is joining the crowded field eyeing a run at the Toronto mayor's chair.

The Ward 2 Etobicoke Centre representative issued a statement earlier this month saying the byelection race to replace John Tory — who resigned last month — needs a fiscal conservative who will focus on basics.

"I am worried that there are no candidates that offer the kind of leadership and resolve we need to improve our City's deteriorating conditions, who are prepared to make the tough and common sense decisions to make it happen, and who will be outspoken when special interest groups work against achieving it," he said.

"I am considering a run for mayor because everyone notices the problems worsening throughout our city and I want to do something about it."

If he runs, Holyday said his platform would include: prioritizing repair and maintenance of roads, parks and facilities "before we move on to building new things"; holding accountable companies contracted to provide city services such as snow clearing; ending the "squandering of scare resources and public confidence on frills" such as the planned renaming of Dundas Street; and "law and order in our city (that) starts by funding the police, bylaw and transit enforcement."

The son of former city councillor and Etobicoke mayor Doug Holyday, he was a manager in Ontario's energy ministry when first elected to council in 2014.

He was re-elected in 2018 and, last October, coasted to victory again with more than 70 per cent of the vote.

Holyday was, in his first term, a council ally of Tory, who made him a ceremonial deputy mayor. That ended during the pandemic as Tory worked with council progressives to accelerate bike lane construction, turn road lanes over to patios in CaféTO, and build modular housing for people escaping homelessness.

By July 2021, Holyday was voting against Tory more than any other councillor, according to Star columnist and city hall watcher Matt Elliott.

With the retirement from council last fall of fellow fiscal conservative Denzil Minnan-Wong from North York, Holyday — no longer a deputy mayor — became the frequent lone "no" cast in motions that passed council by a 25-1 vote.

He opposed expanding sidewalk snow clearing service from the suburbs to other parts of the city, legalizing rooming houses citywide, new bike lanes on streets including Danforth Avenue, Bloor Street and Yonge Street, and putting portable toilets in parks that had homeless encampments.

"What I don't want downtown to become is a curiosity — or a visiting place — for people in the suburbs, because it's so hard to get to," Holyday told council colleagues last month while trying and failing to end the CaféTO program that lets restaurants and bars apply to put summertime patios in curb lanes.

In recent months, Holyday was a vocal opponent of

Tory's push to try to alleviate the housing crisis by changing zoning rules to allow more multiple-unit housing in neighbourhoods dominated by singlefamily homes.

"Not everybody wants to see the increased density — many people like the city the way that it is," Holyday said during a city hall meeting last November. Council passed Tory's housing reforms the following month.

In an interview, Holyday said he doesn't have a time frame to decide if he

will throw his hat in the ring for the June 26 byelection. Candidates can register between April 3 and May 12.

"I look forward to more conversations and see the extent to which my message resonates and see if people are interested in joining me — all of that goes into gauging how successful a campaign would be," Holyday said.

If he runs, Holyday will be on the political right in a field that, at the moment, appears as if it will be dominated by centrists.