Toronto’s voters have made it clear they aren’t anxious to make big changes in the way their city is governed. By re-electing John Tory as mayor with a resounding majority of 63 per cent, and choosing a council fairly evenly balanced between right and left, they’ve decided to pretty much stick with the way things are going.

But make no mistake: this is a huge personal victory for Tory. He has been seeking this kind of political vindication all his adult life, and now he has it — a strong mandate for a second term to push forward the work he started in 2014.

Tory made a good start on Monday night, saying he intends to close the widening gap between those who are enjoying Toronto’s growing prosperity and those who are being left behind, to make sure this is “a place where no neighbourhood is left out.”

He promised to tackle the growing plague of gun violence, not just with more policing but by investing in the worst-hit communities. He pledged to do more on services for mental health and addiction and, importantly, vowed that “racists and peddlers of hate have no place in the city.”

This is a positive, hopeful and progressive message, and if ever there was a time for Tory to do more than pay lip service to it, this is it. He has said he won’t run for a third term (though he started to hedge on that Monday night), so the next four years will define how he is remembered. He has nothing to lose and everything to gain by demonstrating that he isn’t the overly cautious temporizer that his critics claim, but someone willing to take risks in the name of a good cause.

In this Tory must do two things: work effectively with the new council and find a way to get along with Doug Ford’s Conservative government without being run over in the process.

Read more:

Opinion | Edward Keenan: Toronto voters give John Tory second chance to build a legacy

Opinion | Martin Regg Cohn: John Tory’s real opponent was never Jennifer Keesmaat, it was and always will be Doug Ford

John Tory wins second term as Toronto mayor

Ford may have been hoping that his move to cut the number of seats on council almost in half would produce a markedly more right-leaning, more compliant group. But the new 25-member group is a decidedly mixed bag.

At first glance, the next council will lean slightly to the right, but there will be enough centrists and progressive councillors so that votes won’t be entirely predictable. Many familiar faces will be gone, due largely to reducing the number of wards. Joe Mihevc, for example, lost to Josh Matlow in Ward 12, Toronto St. Paul’s; on the whole we favoured Matlow, but Mihevc is a loss for council.

In other cases, the change is all for the good. Gone from council, finally, is Giorgio Mammoliti, in Ward 7, Humber River-Black Creek; Anthony Perruzza will be a big improvement. Overall, though, there are only four new people on council; as feared, reducing the number of wards made it even harder to get renewal.

The other big task facing Tory and the new council will be facing up to the challenge posed by the Ford government. As voters went to the polls on Monday, the fact they were electing barely half the representatives they did four years ago was a stark reminder that we are all now playing by someone else’s rules — and the rules could be changed again at any time without notice or consultation.

This is the brutal reality for this mayor and council. They can debate and decide whatever they like, but they will have to keep looking over their shoulders all the time. They must be prepared for the Ford government to step in whenever it choses, as it did so brutally on the size of council. That hammer will hang over every important decision the new councillors make.

Tory sold himself as the candidate best placed to work with Ford and other senior politicians to get the most for Toronto. We’ll be looking for him to deliver on that promise, but not at the cost of bending to Queen’s Park when Ford inevitably tries to meddle in local affairs.

The new council will have to stand strongly with the mayor when — almost certainly not if —the Ford Conservatives try to re-write the rules once again and impose their will on the city.

In this, the more conservative-leaning councillors can play a special role if they chose to do so. They can help drive home the message at Queen’s Park that it would be a fool’s game for Queen’s Park to penalize Toronto needlessly. The elementary truth is that for Ontario to prosper, Toronto must also flourish.

The danger of more destructive meddling from Queen’s Park is very real. Ford, for example, has already mused publicly about uploading Toronto’s subway system to the province, effectively taking over funding and planning from local authorities.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

If he does bull ahead with such a plan, he might well stress pushing the subway further into the suburbs rather than focusing on what should be the top priority — building the much-needed downtown relief line. That could set proper transit planning back by many years, and must be strongly resisted by the mayor and council.

Tory has a strong mandate now to carry out the vision he articulated on Monday night. But if he isn’t careful, he could be quickly frustrated — undermined by a government at Queen’s Park that has shown it has little respect for local authorities, regardless of how much support they have.

Read more: For up-to-the-minute results, visit the Star’s municipal election page.

Read more about: