Denzil Minnan-Wong

Denzil Minnan-Wong
Minnan-Wong in 2012
12th Deputy Mayor of Toronto
Assumed office
December 1, 2014
Preceded by Norm Kelly
Toronto City Councillor for (Ward 34) Don Valley East
Assumed office
December 1, 2000
Preceded by Ward Created
Toronto City Councillor for (Ward 11) Don Parkway
In office
January 1, 1998 – December 1, 2000
Preceded by Ward Created
Succeeded by Ward Abolished
Chair of the North York Community Council
In office
January 1, 2004 – May 21, 2005
Preceded by Giorgio Mammoliti
Succeeded by Maria Augimeri
Personal details
Born 1963/1964 (age 54–55)
Nationality Canadian
Spouse(s) Colleen
Children 3
Residence Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Occupation Lawyer

Denzil Minnan-Wong ( listen) (born c. 1963)[1] is a Toronto city councillor representing one of the two Don Valley East wards, Toronto City Council Ward 34. As of 2016, he is the Chair of the Striking Committee, the Employee and Labour Relations Committee, and the Civic Appointments Committee. He is also the Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee and sits on the TTC Board, the Debenture Committee, the Committee of Revision, and is part of the Nominating Panel for Facilities and Finance.[2] He was the Progressive Conservative candidate for the riding of Don Valley East in the 2018 provincial election, placing a close second behind re-elected Liberal incumbent Michael Coteau.[3]

Background

Minnan-Wong is the son of Denzil Minnan-Wong, Sr., a Chinese immigrant who became a prominent member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. His father died in 1988 at age 53.

He was educated at Osgoode Hall Law School and became a lawyer specializing in immigration issues. He lives in Toronto with his wife Colleen and their three children.

Municipal politics

In 1994 North York councillor Barry Burton died of cancer and the North York city council appointed Minnan-Wong as interim councillor. Later that year he was elected to the position in the municipal election. In 1997 he was elected to the city council of the new amalgamated city of Toronto.[4]

In 2011, he led an initiative to contract out garbage collection in Toronto west of Yonge Street in 2011 which projected savings of $12 million a year.[5] Minnan-Wong was accused of "poisoning" the relations between Toronto Civic Employees Union and the Toronto government after supporting Tory's position to privatize the city's garbage collection.[6]

Although Minnan-Wong didn't learn to ride a bicycle until the age of 46, he supported the development of the first on street separated bike lane network in Toronto resulting in the creation of the Sherbourne, Wellesley, Hoskin,[7] Richmond and Adelaide protected cycle tracks while voting for the removal of 3 painted bike lanes on Jarvis Street, Pharmacy Avenue and Birchmount Road.[1][8][9] In 2013 he facilitated the move of the Bixi public bike share system to the operation of the Toronto Parking Authority.[10][11] Toronto was awarded Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) gold status from the Share the Road Cycling Coalition in April 2015, an award criticized by local cycling advocates.[note 1][12][13][14]

He was appointed to the TTC by City Council under the Mayor Rob Ford administration in December 2010.[15] He was one of 5 councillors on the TTC board who voted in 2012 to terminate the services of the TTC General Manager Gary Webster.

Andy Byford was hired as Webster's replacement.[16]. As a result of the decision to terminate Webster, the five Councillors who supported Webster's termination and his replacement by Byford, including Minnan-Wong, were removed from the TTC board by council on March 5, 2012 before the end of their appointed term as a result of a motion by Councillor Karen Stintz, who was Chair of the TTC board.[17][18] On December 2, 2014 he was appointed again to the TTC board by City Council after the election of Mayor John Tory.[19] Under Byford's leadership the TTC subsequently won the 2017 American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) award for Transit System of the Year [20]

Minnan-Wong was named Deputy Mayor of Toronto by John Tory on December 1, 2014.[21]

Provincial politics

On January 20th 2018 he was acclaimed as the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party's candidate for the Ontario Legislature in the riding of Don Valley East for the 2018 provincial election.[22] He placed a close second to the Liberal incumbent, former cabinet minister Michael Coteau.[3]

During his run for the Don Valley East seat Minnan-Wong stated that he would take an "unpaid" leave from Toronto City Council, remitting the salary he would have collected from the 30 day provincial campaign period to either the city or a charity. However, as of July 11, he did not remit any of his collected salary from the campaign period.[23]

"Stick to knitting" controversy

In an interview published on August 30, 2017 in the Toronto Sun,[24] Minnan-Wong said in reference to outgoing chief planner of Toronto Jennifer Keesmaat that he wanted the planner to "stick to knitting". Although Minnan Wong had previously also used the term to describe men he was accused of making a sexist comment by Keesmaat.[25] Minnan-Wong apologized for his words and said that they were taken out of context [26]

Election results

Provincial

Ontario general election, 2018: Don Valley East
** Preliminary results — Not yet official **
Party Candidate Votes%±%
LiberalMichael Coteau13,01235.93%-19.78
Progressive ConservativeDenzil Minnan-Wong11,98433.09%+6.30
New DemocraticKhalid Ahmed9,93727.44%+14.41
GreenMark Wong9172.53%-1.11
LibertarianJustin Robinson2360.65%–
FreedomWayne Simmons1310.36%-0.48
Total valid votes 100.0  
Liberal hold Swing -13.04
Source: Elections Ontario[27]

Municipal

2014 Toronto election, Ward 34[28]
Candidate Votes %
Denzil Minnan-Wong9,76153.46%
Mary Hynes5,95332.13%
Douglas Owen1,1716.32%
Faisal Boodhwani7053.80%
Amer Karaman4862.62%
Alan Selby4532.44%
Total18,529100%
2010 Toronto election, Ward 34[29]
Candidate Votes %
Denzil Minnan-Wong8,74353.42%
Peter Youngren6,48439.63%
Stephan Stewart1,1406.96%
Total16,367100%

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Gold is third of five awards possible, those being Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze.

Citations

  1. 1 2 Lu, Vanessa (June 15, 2009). "City hall's car guy learns to ride". Toronto Star.
  2. ↑ "Councillor Denzil Minnan Wong". City of Toronto.
  3. 1 2 D'Andrea, Aaron (June 7, 2018). "Liberals' veteran Michael Coteau defeats city councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong in Don Valley East". Toronto Star. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  4. ↑ "1997 Toronto general election results". City of Toronto. 1997. Archived from the original on 21 October 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2013.
  5. ↑ "Toronto has saved $11.9M through private garbage December 16, 2013". CBC News.
  6. ↑ "Will John Tory follow Rob Ford's lead in upcoming labour talks?". Retrieved July 20, 2015.
  7. ↑ "CITY WAY BEHIND ON BIKE LANE TARGET" by Ben Spurr, Now Magazine, DECEMBER 29, 2013https://nowtoronto.com/news/transportation/city-way-behind-on-bike-lane-target/
  8. ↑ "New bike lanes on Richmond Adelaide". Toronto Sun. July 30, 2014.
  9. ↑ "Bikeway Network - 2011 Update". City of Toronto. July 12, 2011.
  10. ↑ Doolittle, Robyn (December 4, 2013). "Bixi bike-share program to pedal forward under a new name". Toronto Star.
  11. ↑ "Toronto unveils new separated bike lane on Sherbourne Street". Globe and Mail.
  12. ↑ "Share the Road Announces Bicycle Friendly Community Awards April 2015" (PDF). Share the Road Cycling Coalition. April 1, 2015.
  13. ↑ Simcoe, Luke (April 5, 2015). "Bicycle award divides Toronto's cycling community". Metro Toronto. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
  14. ↑ Kolb, Jared (April 4, 2015). "People who ride bicycles in Toronto have hearts of gold". Cycle Toronto. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
  15. ↑ "Fords picks named to police board". Toronto Star. December 8, 2010.
  16. ↑ O'Toole, Megan (February 21, 2012). "'Toadyism wins:' Councillors rage after TTC board sacks Toronto transit chief Gary Webster". National Post.
  17. ↑ "Mayor loses as TTC board restructured". Globe and Mail.
  18. ↑ "Eglinton LRT first up at new TTC board". Toronto Star. March 7, 2012.
  19. ↑ "Old guard of council's left". NOW Magazine.
  20. ↑ http://ttc.ca/About_the_TTC/Awards/index.jsp
  21. ↑ "John Tory picks next Toronto deputy mayor, executive committee". Retrieved July 20, 2015.
  22. ↑ Fox, Chris (2018-01-20). "Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong acclaimed as PC candidate for Don Valley East". CP24. Retrieved 2018-01-20.
  23. ↑ Levy, Sue-Ann (July 11, 2018). "Show me the money, Denzil". Toronto Sun. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  24. ↑ "Councillors have goals for new planner". Toronto Sun. August 30, 2017.
  25. ↑ https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2017/09/09/minnan-wong-discovers-the-perils-of-getting-stuck-in-the-knitting-keenan.html
  26. ↑ "Minnan-Wong apologizes for saying Keesmaat 'should stick to the knitting'". Globe and Mail. September 8, 2017.
  27. ↑ "Don Valley East". Election Night Results. Elections Ontario. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  28. ↑ "City of Toronto Election Results, Councillor: Ward 34". CBC News. October 27, 2014.
  29. ↑ "City of Toronto Election Results, Councillor: Ward 34". City of Toronto. October 26, 2010.
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