People in Scarborough-Agincourt want a city councillor capable of “standing up and shouting loud,” says the president of a ratepayer’s group.

Until this week, Jim Karygiannis was that man.

“We need a strong person, because we have strong issues,” says Denis Lanoue, whose group represents homeowners in Scarborough’s northwest corner.

“This guy is not the perfect guy, but he’s been around for a lot of years,” said Lanoue, who remembers meeting Karygiannis 35 years ago, around the time he was first elected as the area’s Liberal MP.

Lanoue found Karygiannis’ ouster Wednesday over an apparent campaign finance violation shocking, remembering that this councillor fought with the community for two sets of speed bumps, now installed, after a local boy, Duncan Xu was run over and killed.

Rhoda Potter, who leads the Agincourt Village Community Association, says since her area was included in Karygiannis’ expanded ward, “our community has felt listened to and has seen positive change happen.”

In a ward experiencing tremendous change, he was willing to fight for improvements, Potter added.

“Who is going to help Scarborough-Agincourt residents to the same degree?”

After a quarter-century as MP, Karygiannis resigned in 2014 in time to run for the local council seat, which he won.

Frustration over the hospital’s determination to reorganize pediatric and obstetric care caused Karygiannis to turn on Progressive Conservative MPs who had been his allies on the issue.

In September, he said he’d “hurt” PC MPP’s chances for re-election if they failed to save the Birchmount wards.

At a meeting in March, Karygiannis announced the Bridletowne Community Hub, a proposed $85-million project on city-owned land to be shared by the hospital, YMCA and United Way agencies was “off the table,” because Toronto Council would no longer cooperate.

On Friday, Scarborough-Agincourt MPP Aris Babikian, one of those MPPs Karygiannis had threatened, wouldn’t comment on Karygiannis’ removal, but said he and other stakeholders were going ahead with the hub plan, optimistic the federal Liberal government would approve a funding application to move the long-stalled proposal forward.

Apart from rumours that it may be so, he hasn’t heard the city is withdrawing its contribution to the hub, Babikian said.

Karygiannis wouldn’t comment for this story, but is expected to challenge his removal in court.

“It ain’t over yet,” said Mike Del Grande, the man Karygiannis replaced as councillor for Ward 39, which is now part of the current Ward 22.

“He’s got resources, lots of resources, so I think he’ll fight this tooth and nail.”

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Del Grande said Karygiannis, unless vindicated in court, must face the music. “You know what the rules are. You have to live by them,” said Del Grande, now a trustee for Toronto’s separate school board.

Del Grande said such high levels of spending during a campaign can put average people who want to run at a disadvantage.

“They don’t have a chance,” he said.

Another former Scarborough councillor, Glenn De Baeremaeker, called removal from office “a bit draconian,” considering “there was a democratic election called and (Karygiannis) won the election.”

Scarborough North councillor Cynthia Lai, allied to Karygiannis in pursuit of a Sheppard extension, said, should he be unsuccessful in his legal challenge, “the residents of Ward 22 should have a say and there should be a byelection.”

As a councillor, Karygiannis moved to ban overnight parking across his expanded ward. He was cited by the city’s integrity commissioner for confronting a family of residents he said were parking on the apron of their house’s driveway, returning to the home to continue the argument and to take pictures.

His priorities going into his new office were blocking construction of a TTC bus garage on McNicoll Ave. and an eastward extension of the Sheppard Ave. subway.

The subway extension, still unplanned and unfunded, remained a touchstone Karygiannis vowed to pursue “to my last breath” on an interview this past June. A wave of condominium developments and announcements by Ontario Premier Doug Ford lately made that dream seem closer to reality.

When the Scarborough Health Network decided in January to close obstetric and pediatric wards at the Birchmount campus, Karygiannis was instrumental in starting a group called Save The Grace, and distributed flyers accusing the hospital of trying to close the Birchmount’s Emergency Department.

Lanoue, whose association backs the group, said opponents of the closures aren’t giving up.

Correction - Nov. 11, 2019: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said the Scarborough Health Network had shut down its Birchmount campus.