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| John Parker |
There are tweets Tuesday (October 28, 2014) thanking John Parker for his eight years of service as the Councillor for Ward 26. There are also tweets expressing surprise the quiet-spoken lawyer and resident of central Leaside was the only incumbent to be defeated last night. What was it that caused voters to turn against Mr. Parker? It may have begun during his first term, 2006 to 2010. In the 2010 election Parker was challenged by two strong opponents, Mohamed Dhanani and Jon Burnside. Mr. Dhanani came a close third. His accomplished business career and attractive family seemed to commend him to his dream — being the first Muslim Councillor on City Council. As it turned out, he split the opposition vote with second place Jon Burnside, the man who went on to defeat Mr. Parker in 2014. Together, Dhanani and Burnside polled a large majority of the ballots. Mr. Parker’s plurality saw him to victory. So the people were restless in 2010. It seems that for all his quiet and carefully spoken ways, Parker could be quite direct. Members of the Thorncliffe Park Tenants Association said this about him. According to their published criticism, Parker as much as told them to clean up untidy public spaces themselves. It may or may not seem fair but it was a source of irritation to the tenants. In Leaside itself, the festering issue of the industrial park was not one where the Councillor made much ground. Many say the expectations of residents about this early-20th century factory farm are unreasonable. The only redevelopment possible on lands polluted with chemicals and industrial waste is commercial. But that means big developers and big box stores. And traffic. The Leaside Property Owners Association certainly had no interest in that. Parker was condemned for not being tough enough with Smart Centres and other developers. It was bruited about that he had missed out on getting a large settlement available from the developer for some political peace. We do not know if this is true. But it became part of the lore of Leaside. At a personal level, Parker could be charming. If however one was a supplicant the answer often seemed to be polite indifference. The outrageous left-over bylaws from East York deserved to be thoroughly ignored — if not publicly attacked — when it came to granting small businesses a license to operate. Quite often the bylaws seemed to triumph, or at least delay, the opening of a business. It was a natural opportunity for Jon Burnside to say that he would be “on your side” in such matters.
