Bringing back "Toronto the Good"

Brian Shifman is running for Toronto Council because he sees a world class city that is currently a world class underachiever. For him, Toronto is a vibrant metropolis that has the potential to be an international leader when it comes to transportation but is instead mired in unsustainable debt, distrust of municipal politics and a lack of balance between social spending and economic growth. As he sees it, “Toronto the Good” has become “Toronto that Should”.

“I think people want to know where their money is going and they want to see accountability and transparency,” said Shifman, who is runing for Toronto Council in Ward 10, York Centre. “We are all affected by poor infrastructure. We are all frustrated by the way the city’s managed financially. We are all concerned about local development. If you want dynamic leadership, representative of the Ward, a consensus builder, then I think that’s me.”

As the Executive Director of Smart Commute – North Toronto, Vaughan, an NGO that provides sustainable transportation programs to businesses and individuals, Shifman is well aware of the hit the city is taking from traffic congestion – he noted that a recent study of 19 major cities placed Toronto dead last in terms of commute times.

If elected, he plans to tackle an issue that is on all Torontonians’ minds these days: gridlock. According to Shifman, we need to shift the way people think about their commute to work in order to create a more environmentally sustainable city for the 21^st Century.

“If we can get two people into a vehicle carpooling, it’s more efficient and for people who need to drive in the course for their job, there’s less traffic,” he told Shalom Life.

The candidate, who has 10 years of senior management experience in NGOs and in the public and private sectors, helmed Smart Commute from a small non-profit into an award-winning transit network that is partnered with over 100 major GTA employers and over 90,000 employees and students to combat gridlock and climate change. Last year, the organization connected over 15,000 drivers, leading to 300,000 less single occupancy vehicle round trips. This reduced 3,600 tones of greenhouse gas emissions – the equivalent of filling up the Rogers Centre with car and truck fumes.

While one of his campaign’s major planks is to maximize the limited capacity available on city roads, he doesn’t want to be pigeonholed as just a “green” candidate.

“It’s not necessarily a green policy, I think it’s a smart policy,” he said.

The 33-year old wants to bring his band of smart, progressive politics to York Centre, where he is running due to his strong connection and warm feelings for the community.

Shifman explained that his family history in the Ward’s Bathurst Manour neighbourhood stretches back to 1960 when his parents met at the local high school, William Lyon MackenzieCollegiate Institute. He grew up in Armour Heights and Bathurst Manor and holds fond memories of his childhood there. His roots are indeed deep. His maternal grandfather was a popular band leader who played at many of the local Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs of the era.

“I love the community feel. It’s a very vibrant community with a whole mix of different types of synagogues,” said Shifman who has gone to Beth Emeth since he was a child. “We have a lot of cultural groups, we have a lot of great kosher restaurants, kosher style restaurants. I think the best bagels possibly in Canada, certainly in Ontario. It’s all in Ward 10.”

Local issues his campaign is focusing on include accessibility (he will hold quarterly town hall meetings if elected), tree canopy encroachment on certain areas, traffic, safety and garbage collection. Furthermore, local residents no longer feel like they have a say in major changes to their community, including transportation and new developments. “I think I can speak to the local issues of the ward. They have lots of traffic concerns and lots of development concerns.”

Shifman is concerned that Bathurst Manor Plaza has been effectively stagnant for the past five years. Talk of redevelopment has centred around 350 “pretty big condo units” that would be of an unusually high density for the area.

“My biggest concern is in the meantime there’s nothing there,” he said. “Right now all that’s left is a bank and one other commercial unit filled. As soon as they’re gone that community has nowhere they can walk to for groceries or a bank. What you’re doing is you’re transforming a community, forcing them to depend on cars.”

Over the past 15 years, Shifman has been very active in community organizations, volunteering with the Vaughan Chamber of Commerce, the Association for Commuter Transportation Working Group, the Spadina-York Subway Extension Committee, and Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care.

The next step, said the candidate, is to try his hand at municipal politics.

“I think people are looking for change. I have the energy that you really need to put your heart and soul into this job. I have the best transportation understanding which is the number one issue that comes up. I think people want someone who’s able to represent the Ward’s interest to the city from a holistic view.”