Josh Matlow

Josh Matlow (Listen) (born November 27, 1975) is a community advocate and Toronto City Councillor for Toronto-St. Paul's. He served as a school trustee representing the midtown Toronto riding of St. Paul's between 2003 and 2010 at the Toronto District School Board. On October 25, 2010, Matlow was elected to Toronto City Hall. He was re-elected in 2014 with the largest number of votes and highest plurality (86.2 percent) of any candidate running for Toronto City Council across the city.

Josh Matlow
Toronto City Councillor for
Ward 12 (Toronto—St. Paul's)
Ward 22 (2010-2018)
Assumed office
December 1, 2010
Preceded byMichael Walker
Toronto Public School Trustee
In office
December 1, 2003 – November 30, 2010
Preceded byShelley Laskin
Succeeded byShelley Laskin
ConstituencyWard 11, St. Paul's
Personal details
Born (1975-11-27) November 27, 1975
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
NationalityCanadian
Spouse(s)Melissa Christine Matlow
ProfessionToronto Councillor, journalist and broadcaster, environmental advocate

Background

Matlow was a co-director of Earthroots, an Ontario environmental non-governmental organization. He also worked for the Canadian Peace Alliance, organizing against the war in Iraq.[1] He lives in Toronto with his wife, Melissa and daughter, Molly. His father, Ted Matlow, was a federally appointed judge and his mother, Elaine Mitchell, was a retired high school teacher.[2]

Matlow has written articles for several local newspapers as well as the Toronto Sun and Toronto Star. He hosted a call-in radio show on University of Toronto station CIUT, was a weekly contributor and co-host on Toronto talk-radio station AM 640 and CFRB. He hosted a talk radio show called The City with Josh Matlow on Toronto radio station Newstalk 1010 and was a weekly columnist for the Toronto Star.[3]

Politics

In 2002 and at the age of 26, Matlow was asked by the Ontario Liberal Party to run as their candidate in Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey in a by-election against Progressive Conservative Premier Ernie Eves. He lost by 3,560 votes.

In 2003, Matlow was elected to the Toronto District School Board trustee and re-elected to the same position in 2006. He worked on a number of initiatives including installation of solar panels on school rooftops,[4] keeping Toronto's school pools open,[5] and helping students to achieve 'economic literacy'.[6] He spoke against a proposal to create an Africentric school in Toronto.[7]

In 2010, Matlow was elected to Toronto City Council where he has become known as a political centrist [8] and has been working on issues such as creating a Toronto Seniors Strategy,[9] a Youth Equity Strategy,[10] a regional transit plan,[11] removing the Ontario Municipal Board's (OMB) purview over Toronto planning decisions,[12] Toronto's arts & culture sector [13] and combating gridlock.[14]

In 2014, he was re-elected to Toronto City Council with the highest vote count (24,347) and highest winning percentage (86.2%) of any councillor candidate across the city.[15]

In 2020, Matlow put forward a motion in Toronto City Council to defund the Toronto Police Service by $122 million. "It's time to defund the police budget and re-balance our use of public funds".[16] The motion was defeated.[17]

TTC subway extension into Scarborough

Matlow supports the seven-stop Scarborough LRT over the three-stop subway. He refers to the LRT as the "evidence-based" transit option, as it serves more people within walking distance and won't require an additional $1 billion in debt and taxes from the City of Toronto.[18][19]

In February 2015, Matlow submitted five administrative inquiries asking city staff to address unanswered questions.[20][21][22][23][24] The Toronto Star wrote an editorial stating that "City Councillor Josh Matlow is right to press for answers on the ill-judged Scarborough subway extension with even basic numbers still unknown."[25] The city manager's response confirmed that city staff still do not know how many people will ride the Scarborough subway, where it will go, or how much it will cost.[26]

Coronavirus/COVID-19

On March 9th, 2020, Josh Matlow became the first known Canadian politician [27] to go into quarantine after coming into close contact with a person who had tested positive for COVID-19. During his time in self-isolation, Matlow would share his experience, observations and words of encouragement to the public via social media, a series of articles in the Toronto Star and daily updates on the CP24 News Channel.

Election results

Municipal
2018 Toronto election, Ward 12[28]
Candidate Votes %
Josh Matlow20,37151.60%
Joe Mihevc16,63442.14%
Ian Lipton9302.36%
Elizabeth Cook9082.30%
Bob Murphy3420.87%
Artur Langu2900.73%
Total39,475100%
2014 Toronto election, Ward 22[29]
Candidate Votes %
Josh Matlow24,34786.157%
Bob Murphy1,5865.612%
James O'Shaughnessy1,5265.4%
Sarfraz Khan8002.831%
Total28,259100%
2010 Toronto election, Ward 22 [30]
Candidate Votes %
Josh Matlow11,89252.39%
Chris Sellors8,03735.40%
Elizabeth Cook1,9008.37%
William Molls8693.82%
Total22,698100%

Provincial
2002 by-election for riding of Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive ConservativeErnie Eves15,28846.59-
LiberalJosh Matlow11,72835.74-
New DemocraticDoug Wilcox2,6338.02-
GreenRichard Procter2,0176.15
Family CoalitionDave Davies1,0253.12-
IndependentJohn Turmel1200.37

References
  1. "CBC News - Canada - Anti-war protests held around the globe". CBC News. 2003-01-19. Archived from the original on 2012-08-01. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
  2. Ryan Porter, "Laughing in the face of dark times — lessons for life with COVID-19". Toronto Star, April 2, 2020.
  3. "Toronto City Councillors, Councillor Josh Matlow". City of Toronto.
  4. Porter, Catherine (2007-06-25). "Toronto schools to power up rooftops". thestar.com. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
  5. Brown, Louise (2008-04-10). "Trustee urges more debate on pool closings". Toronto: thestar.com. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
  6. Kate Hammer (2009-03-24). "Dollars 'n' sense courses urged". Toronto: The Globe and Mail. p. A11.
  7. Kate Lunau (2008-01-31). "What's next for Toronto's Africentric school? | Macleans.ca - Canada - Features". Macleans.ca. Archived from the original on 2011-05-18. Retrieved 2010-09-09.
  8. Jackson, Emily (20 February 2012). "With TTC head Gary Webster likely to be sacked, Karen Stintz asks why now?". Toronto Star.
  9. "Seniors & Disabled". 2017-11-15.
  10. "thestar.com | The Star | Canada's largest daily". thestar.com.
  11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-09-11. Retrieved 2012-07-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. "Good for developers Bad for cities". The Star. Toronto.
  13. "Global News | Latest & Current News - Weather, Sports & Health News". Global News.
  14. http://metronews.ca/news/toronto/25833/getting-road-hogs-off-the-curb/
  15. "By the numbers: Toronto's 2014 municipal election - Toronto | Globalnews.ca". 2014-11-02.
  16. "Toronto Councillors Put Forward Motion to Reduce Police Budget by 10%". CBC. June 8, 2020.
  17. "Toronto Just Voted Not To Defund The Police". BlogTO. August 26, 2020.
  18. Matlow, Josh. "Let's Get Scarborough Transit Back on Track".
  19. "City of Toronto Staff Report, Scarborough Rapid Transit Options: Reporting on Council Terms and Conditions" (PDF).
  20. "Agenda Item History". app.toronto.ca.
  21. "Agenda Item History". app.toronto.ca.
  22. "Agenda Item History". app.toronto.ca.
  23. "Agenda Item History". app.toronto.ca.
  24. "Agenda Item History". app.toronto.ca.
  25. "Answers needed on Toronto's ill-judged Scarborough subway plan: Editorial". The Toronto Star. 9 February 2015. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  26. Pennachetti, Joe. "Re: Administrative Inquiries from Councillor Josh Matlow (IA 3.1-IA3.5)" (PDF).
  27. "City councillor on self-isolation: 'I look forward to getting back into the world eventually'". 10 March 2020.
  28. "Declaration of Results, 2018 Municipal General Election" (PDF). p. 4.
  29. "2014 General Election Results for City Ward 22 - St. Paul's".
  30. "St. Paul's, Ward 22, Councillor". City of Toronto. Archived from the original on 2012-03-14. Retrieved 2012-05-10.
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