Declaring the rivalry between Canada’s two biggest cities dead — except in hockey — Toronto Mayor John Tory (open John Tory's policard) and Montreal’s Denis Coderre plan to sign an agreement to formalize closer ties.

“The ‘two solitudes’ are over,” Coderre told reporters at Toronto city hall after an early Wednesday meeting in Tory’s office. “What people are expecting is to work together.”

Tory will visit Montreal in coming months to sign a joint agreement that will enhance economic development and shared approaches to social issues including poverty eradication, they said.

They trumpeted the new-found allegiance of mayors of Canadian cities to work together to forge true partnerships with senior governments.

Cities are the new power, the Montreal mayor said, and the federal parties must take heed as they prepare platforms for the coming federal election, he said. “They will listen to us.”

Asked if the big city mayors’ caucus of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which met in Toronto last month, will endorse a particular party, Coderre said cities will look at the policies and say “That’s good, that’s bad and people will judge but for the sake of our mutual metropolises, this is what will be good for Toronto and Montreal.”

Coderre also said he hopes Tory will be among 30 or more international mayors visiting Montreal in June for a summit that will include strategies on combating anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

Amid all the serious talk was easy banter in both official languages suggesting a warm relationship between Tory, a longtime Conservative, and Coderre, a former federal Liberal cabinet minister.

Tory, a staunch Toronto Maple Leafs fan, joked at the outset of the news conference that the two cities are launching a joint bid for the Stanley Cup. He then ruefully admitted that was not true.

And they laughed about a photo in Tory’s office of Canadiens legend Maurice “Rocket” Richard. Tory’s office later said: “The Mayor put it up in his office for fun this morning. It was special for the meeting.”

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