John Tory says his office at City Hall has the best view in town.

His second-storey window overlooking Nathan Phillips Square is not a high rise soaring above Lake Ontario, he admits, but sitting down for a year-end interview with NOW on Saturday, December 20, the new mayor sees reason for optimism everywhere he looks.

Almost one month into his administration, his approval rating is sky-high. The calamitous reign of his predecessor, Rob Ford, is quickly fading in the rear-view. On the city’s major challenges, Tory sees a chance to finally make progress.

Famously verbose – and serious almost to the point of tedium – Tory responds to questions at length, and an interview scheduled to last 20 minutes ends up running almost twice as long.

Above all, he comes across as a politician with tremendous confidence in himself, a man who believes that his own steady reasonableness will in time unlock solutions to Toronto’s most daunting problems.

Time will tell if that belief is misplaced. These are early days, and Tory has yet to be forced into the divisive choices that will come as he tries to address problems like economic inequality and dysfunctional relationships within police leadership. His view could be very different a year from now.

What kind of year do you think 2014 was for Toronto?

I think it was kind of an uncertain year. People knew they were at a crossroads in terms of the political leadership, and that the political leadership in turn would dictate the overall environment of [the city].

Toronto’s been an economic oasis in the rest of Canada in that things have remained fairly strong here, but there are still disparities inside the city. A lot of people in areas where they’re less fortunate and less connected to opportunity are feeling uncertain about things.

A recent poll puts your approval rating at 74 per cent. Are people just happy that you’re causing less controversy than your predecessor?

I pay little attention to [polls]. I’m trying to focus on doing the things I said I would do and providing that kind of professional, sensible, stable leadership for the city. And that’s what’s been most welcome by the people, more so than any particular initiative we’ve undertaken.

They’re seeing on television a mayor who tries to answer questions, who is not running away from anybody, who is not engulfed in chaos – at least not yet. And I don’t expect to be. It’s not in my nature to either create controversy or to attract it. I’d rather just steadily keep moving ahead on the issues, working with the people on council and with other governments to make progress.

In your inaugural speech to council, you made a point of reaching out to Rob Ford. Were you not concerned that you’d be seen as excusing some of his behaviour while he was mayor, which included homophobia and racism?

No. All I was doing was acknowledging that you had a man here who had held public office, he got elected fair and square, and he was ill. And he was re-elected to the council, by the way.

I thanked him for his continued public service and I said I wished him well in terms of getting healthy. I think that would carry with it the sentiments of most Torontonians.

Many people were disappointed that you chose someone as divisive as Denzil Minnan-Wong to be your deputy mayor. In a speech last year, he said many undocumented workers come to Canada and “their first stop is the welfare office.” He also walked out when council honoured Henry Morgentaler. Were you not aware of those incidents?

Actually, I wasn’t. I can just say to you I wouldn’t have walked out when Henry Morgentaler was honoured, and I do not believe people who arrive in the country [Tory trails off]….

But having said that, we all have things we’ve said or done over time that would be the subject of agreement or disagreement between any two people. I believe he will do a competent job [in getting] my agenda through, and that he has the experience to get that done.

Do you feel it was appropriate for Mike McCormack, the head of the police union, to call for the resignation of Police Services Board chair Alok Mukherjee?

The head of the police association should say what he wants with respect to his feelings about these things. If he has something to say about his level of confidence in the head of the Police Services Board, the mayor or the chief of police, he should speak up and say so. We’re in a democracy here.

But I will say that it was that kind of obvious tension that existed on all sides – and I’ve said before it’s utterly without trying to assess blame – that caused me to make some changes on the board.

Why did you decline to sign councillors’ letter asking Premier Kathleen Wynne to test the constitutionality of the new federal anti-prostitution law?

My signature on that letter isn’t going to add much. Where that’s going to go is it’s going to go to the courts. And it should properly go to the courts. The system exists to do that, and I don’t think that necessarily requires the involvement of the mayor of Toronto. I’m going to be selective about the things I get myself involved in.

You’ve recused yourself from the Island airport debate because your son’s job as head of an airline presents a conflict of interest. But what would you say to critics who charge that because you endorsed two successful pro-jet council candidates in the election, and your principal secretary worked as a lobbyist for Porter, you’ve installed people who will try to get the expansion plan through anyway?

I’d say that’s stretching. I literally never had a discussion with either [candidate] about their view on the Island airport, and I’m not even sure I could tell you what it was. There are 44 other people [on council] who will handle that issue. I simply did the right thing, which is follow the rules. Maybe my son will change jobs at some point, in which case I’ll be able to participate.

Toward the end of the election campaign, you took flak for saying you don’t believe white privilege exists. Were you surprised at the negative reaction?

I try to stay away from phrases that can distract from the real issue. Do I believe there are people in our city who have ended up being discriminated against, sometimes based on skin colour, sometimes based on religious faith, sometimes based on where they live? Yes, I do.

Have I actually devoted a good part of my life in being involved, oftentimes in a way that people didn’t see, in trying to address some of those issues? Yes, I have. Am I going to devote myself to making sure that that discrimination is eradicated as much as we possibly can? Yes, I am.

Do you see that discrimination as institutional?

Sometimes it is because nobody really addresses it and it just becomes the way things have been done or the way things are. The key then is, do you actually bring about the reform? And then there’s the added question, which is what is the best way to go about achieving that reform. Is it to get up and start pounding the table and waving your arms? There are people who are very useful and needed who do that, [but] it’s not the way I work. I work on the basis that you have the right people in place, the right kind of environment to make progress, and then you slowly but surely go about achieving the reforms.

I believe on some of these issues to do with policing and indeed on the disparity that exists in the city, that I’ll be able to achieve quite a lot of progress over the next four years. And it will be because of the way I choose to go about trying to bring people together to make decisions.

How did you feel about the Toronto Life piece that revealed your home address as well of some of the other well-known people who live in the same building?

To be honest, I thought it was unfortunate. Look, I live where I live, and I don’t think it’s a big secret. [But] public life is challenging enough. There does have to be some division between people’s private life and their public life. It’s more in the category of gossip, and it also is gossip that can have unfortunate consequences, maybe for me – although I’m not worried much about that – but more for my neighbours who don’t need to have the burdens of my job brought to their doorstep.

This interview has condensed and edited. With files from Jonathan Goldsbie.

bens@nowtoronto.com | @BenSpurr