My @thestar.com column: It looks like darn near every member of Toronto City Council will be running for re-election this year, leaving little opportunity for new voices at city hall. I’ve never been a big fan of term limits, but now I’m starting to reconsider. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Matt Elliott: Gord Perks left Toronto council with a bang. Why won’t his long-serving colleagues ever leave?

With Toronto councillors serving for decades and Doug Ford blocking key reforms, term limits may be the only way to get new voices at city hall.

thestar.com

Check your inbox: it’s City Hall Watcher #395! A recap of the FINAL council meeting of the term, with the most quotable quotes, a chart of how Council killed time, and a look at their decisions on data centres, the island airport and surveillance pricing toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/council-cl...

Council closes term with debates on island airport, surveillance pricing and data centres

City Hall Watcher #395: Your complete recap of the July 2026 meeting of Toronto Council, with notes on housing, fires, a rebrand for the sewage treatment playground (why?), and more

toronto.cityhallwatcher.com

Toronto Council meets today! It's the FINAL meeting of the term. The end is near, but not too near, because there are — oh no — 409 items on this agenda. This could take a while. It's streaming live here. I'll post happenings. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynN8...

City Council - July 29, 2026

YouTube video by Toronto City Council

youtube.com

Cool heatmap of Toronto intersections and red-light camera tickets. Kennedy Road & the 401 tops the list by a country mile. (via secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...)

My @thestar.com column: Waterfront advocates have won. Yet another island airport expansion debate is over. Let’s not do it again. On the need for a real plan for the waterfront’s future, which could cement the status quo of a small island airport — or maybe not. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Matt Elliott: A Billy Bishop expansion has been grounded — yet again. Time to end the dogfight over the island airport once and for all

There’s time now for a real consultation about what the public wants Toronto’s waterfront to be.

thestar.com

“A big part of getting out of this slow tailspin is clarifying & limiting the mandate of the Toronto Port Authority. The federal agency should leave the question of expansion to people who are actually elected and accountable,” writes @graphicmatt.com www.thestar.com/opinion/cont... #onpoli #cdnpoli

Matt Elliott: A Billy Bishop expansion has been grounded — yet again. Time to end the dogfight over the island airport once and for all

There’s time now for a real consultation about what the public wants Toronto’s waterfront to be.

thestar.com

Check your inbox: it’s City Hall Watcher #394! It’s time, at last, for the final Council meeting of the term. And it’s a doozy We’ve got notes on City Hall’s airport win, a move to ban surveillance pricing, a pitch for more pedestrian scrambles, and more toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/council-se...

Council sets sail for final odyssey before election day

City Hall Watcher #394: Your complete preview of the July 2026 meeting of Toronto Council, with notes on an island airport win, an attempt to ban surveillance pricing, pedestrian scrambles, and more.

toronto.cityhallwatcher.com

Waterfront Defenders: 2. Airport Expanders: 0. www.thestar.com/politics/fed...

Federal government grounds Billy Bishop airport expansion

The just-concluded public survey suggested strong public opposition to the project, according to a federal government official.

thestar.com

TTC says RapidTO lanes on Dufferin and Bathurst delivered about ~3 mins average time savings for riders on World Cup match days. They note “Small adjustments to signal timings can yield major improvements” and "Toronto Police and Traffic Agent support was crucial.” www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis...

Cool presentation from the TTC CEO at this morning’s board meeting, with match-by-match recaps of TTC service delivery during each World Cup Game. I really like this level of detail. www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis... (PDF)

Listed as a legacy initiative from the World Cup in Toronto: Ninjas. www.toronto.ca/news/city-of...

My @thestar.com column: Drivers routinely speed past open streetcar doors. Riders have known this is a problem for years. Finally, the TTC has announced plans to do something about it. Eventually. It's good news, but I've got to ask: what took so long? www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Matt Elliott: TTC’s crackdown on drivers blowing past stopped streetcars is long overdue. But we need action, not studies

The TTC’s pilot project will gather data on drivers who drive past stopped streetcars over the next nine months — but no tickets will be issued.

thestar.com

I'm back in City Hall Watcher to express my ongoing frustration with how, even in this moment of increased interest in the streetcars, we can't get passed looking for silver bullets and skin deep assessments of their problems.

Matt Elliott@graphicmatt.com · 2w ago

Check your inbox: it’s City Hall Watcher #393! And it’s FREE! @damienmoule.bsky.social returns with a look at Toronto’s slow streetcar system, and why past quick fixes haven’t worked. Plus: budgets, bike share, basketball and a whole bunch more. toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/torontos-s...

Check your inbox: it’s City Hall Watcher #393! And it’s FREE! @damienmoule.bsky.social returns with a look at Toronto’s slow streetcar system, and why past quick fixes haven’t worked. Plus: budgets, bike share, basketball and a whole bunch more. toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/torontos-s...

Toronto's slow streetcars — and the search for silver bullets

City Hall Watcher #393: Damien Moule returns with a look at Toronto's seriously slow streetcars, plus notes on budgets, Bike Share and basketball

toronto.cityhallwatcher.com

One day, presumably, I’ll get a chance to watch a Toronto Council meeting where someone other than Frances Nunziata is the chair. But I may have to wait a while longer.

Councillor Alejandra Bravo filed for re-election this morning. That brings the total number of incumbents seeking to return to City Hall to lucky 13. Just one confirmed retirement so far (Perks) and one attempt to win a promotion (Bradford). Updates here: toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/2026-candi...

Early signs that the city might be seeing some positive progress re: transit speeds. Streetcar speeds up ~5% year-over-year. LRTs on Finch and Eglinton trending in the right direction. (Eglinton data sure looks noisier than you’d want though.)

TTC ran a “pilot project” to track the number of cars illegally passing streetcars at stops: “Preliminary data indicates that near-miss incidents may be very pervasive and that there is likely merit to developing a technology-based solution to this problem” Shocker. secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...

Notable quote here from former cop Councillor Jon Burnside re: Chow and the police. And it’s true: after that brief budget spat in 2024, she’s given the police everything they’ve asked for in the budget process. www.thestar.com/news/gta/bra...

Check your inbox: it's City Hall Watcher #392! 🔭 PLATFORM VIEW returns for 2026 with a look at three Brad Bradford campaign promises. Could they work? Sorta. Are they funded? Nah Plus: apostrophe arguments, overdose data, trail loops, and developer fees toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/breaking-b...

Breaking Brad: a look at Bradford's first batch of fix-it promises

City Hall Watcher #392: PLATFORM VIEW casts an eye at three Brad Bradford policy proposals, plus a look at committee agendas for teh week

toronto.cityhallwatcher.com

*The Imperial March plays*

Check your inbox: it's City Hall Watcher #391! LOBBYIST WATCH returns with a look at a potential big-deal land deal. Plus coverage of four RIDICULOUSLY long agendas, featuring big development, barbed wire, bad-smelling trees, floating cars, and more. toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/lobbyist-w...

Lobbyist Watch lingers, Community Councils cram

City Hall Watcher #391: LOBBYIST WATCH for June 2026 hints at a major land deal, plus all the hits from the final community council meetings of the term

toronto.cityhallwatcher.com

My @thestar.com column: Toronto's not the only city in the world. It's true. I swear. I looked it up. And a lot of these other cities, it turns out, have car-free streets. With clear examples to follow, we REALLY don't need to make pedestrianization so complicated www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Matt Elliott: Other cities close streets to cars all the time. So why does Toronto get tripped up by the idea of a pedestrian street?

Creating a bit of long-term dedicated space for pedestrians in Toronto is not something that should require years of study.

thestar.com

Some next-level handwaving of the financial question here for Bradford's Sankofa Square proposal. Who will pay for it? A Canadian brand. What brand? Uh, an iconic one! www.thestar.com/news/gta/san...

Check your inbox: it's City Hall Watcher #390! Your complete recap of the June 2026 meeting of Toronto Council, featuring the most QUOTABLE QUOTES and trade analysis of the giant-cheque-for-reduced-Development-Charges swap. toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/council-ac...

Council accepts big money from Queen's Park and Ottawa as part of blockbuster trade

City Hall Watcher #390: Your complete recap of the June 2026 meeting of Toronto Council

toronto.cityhallwatcher.com

Toronto Council meets today! It's the PENULTIMATE regular meeting of the term. To mark the occasion, they'll talk car-free streets. And maybe parking requirements, too. Multitudes. The meeting streams here. I'll post the things that occur, as they occur. www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2X_...

City Council - June 24, 2026

YouTube video by Toronto City Council

youtube.com

Check your inbox: it's City Hall Watcher #389! Council's got their PENULTIMATE meeting this week. I’ve got a preview, with notes on car-free streets, parking policy, and more Plus: the tardy list! Are some councillors late to file for re-election? toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/the-tardy-...

The tardy list: Are some city councillors dawdling on election registration?

City Hall Watcher #389: A look at which councillors are taking a long time to file for re-election, plus a preview of the June meeting of Council, featuring car-free streets, parking policy, and more!

toronto.cityhallwatcher.com

If you missed it in this week's newsletter, this week I launched a new CITY HALL WATCHER LIVE web app that archives 15+ years of my live Council meeting coverage. The main page surfaces a random quote from the past on each refresh. It's addictive as hell. Share your faves. live.cityhallwatcher.com

My @thestar.com column: To call the island airport expansion idea "half-baked" is an insult to baked goods. There are scant details. No credible projections. And few facts. Toronto is in absurd situation — debating a notion instead of a plan. That won't fly. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Matt Elliott: How can Toronto debate the Billy Bishop airport expansion plan? Doug Ford doesn’t have a plan

It’s not some NIMBY impulse to wonder if the central waterfront of Canada’s largest city is really the best place for a much busier airport.

thestar.com

I'm back in City Hall Watcher. Despite my best attempt at posting it to relevance, I think the housing aspects of Bill 98 have gone unnoticed. I think it's the end of the current Official Plan. Toronto will need to write a new OP next term which means the people we elect this fall are crucial.

Matt Elliott@graphicmatt.com · 2mo ago

Check your inbox: it's City Hall Watcher #388! And it's FREE! @damienmoule.bsky.social returns to tell us why Bill 98 is a "big freaking deal" for council candidates. Also: 15 years of Council coverage, archived. And, uh, rain barrels? Rain barrels! toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/are-counci...