Outgoing Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith is considering running for Toronto city council, and has discussed the possibility with Mayor Olivia Chow.
Erskine-Smith has represented the federal riding of Beaches-East York since 2015, but is stepping down when Parliament rises this week. He announced his resignation in May after narrowly losing the nomination for the Ontario Liberals in an upcoming byelection in Scarborough Southwest, a result that dealt a blow to his plans to run for leader of the provincial party.
With his political future up in the air, two sources told the Star that Erskine-Smith spoke with Chow about seeking the council seat in Beaches-East York when the pair met at a hotel near city hall in early June.
The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive private conversations, said that a council run was one of several options Erskine-Smith was considering, including continuing to pursue the Ontario Liberal leadership or moving to the private sector. But they said his interest in a municipal campaign was heightened after his conversation with Chow.
The meeting was first reported by Policorner, while the contents of their discussion were not reported.
In an interview with the Star, Erskine-Smith acknowledged that he discussed a potential council run with the mayor, but said the topic came up “in passing” and was not the focus of the conversation. Both he and a spokesperson for Chow described the discussion as merely a catch-up between the two politicians.
Erskine-Smith said that some of his supporters have suggested he run for council this fall, and although he agreed that serving at city hall would be “a great way to make a difference,” he was still weighing his next steps.
“No decision’s made, that’s for sure, and (running for council is) not something that I’ve really given very serious thought to just yet,” he said.
Supporters are holding a party at an East York beer hall on June 25 to mark his departure from federal politics, and he said he expected to have a better sense of his plans by then.
The municipal election is scheduled Oct. 26. Beaches-East York will be an open race after incumbent Brad Bradford registered to run for mayor. As of Monday, nine candidates had signed up to try to replace him, including former city employee James Dann, school trustee Kevin Morrison, and CTV reporter Natalie Johnson.
Erskine-Smith would likely make a formidable candidate if he entered the race. He won nearly 40,000 votes, or about 68 per cent, in the federal contest in Beaches-East York last spring.
Some city hall watchers have speculated he could take a prominent role in a second Chow administration if the mayor wins re-election. Her current chair of the planning and housing committee, Parkdale-High Park councillor Gord Perks, isn’t running again, and Erskine-Smith worked with Chow on federal financing agreements for affordable homes in Toronto during his brief stint as federal minister of housing.
Asked whether Chow would support Erskine-Smith’s potential candidacy or pick him as housing chair, a spokesperson for the mayor said she “has not yet turned her attention to the fall election,” and any future appointments next term would have to go through the regular process.
Erskine-Smith was housing minister for about five months, under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and at the start of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s term. He said it was “impossible not to feel disrespected” after being dropped in an early shuffle of Carney’s cabinet last year.
He turned his attention to provincial politics but, on May 9, lost the Scarborough Southwest nomination race to businessman Ahsanul Hafiz by 19 votes. Two weeks later, an arbitration board rejected his allegations of “serious irregularities” in the contest.
Erskine-Smith made building affordable housing and championing multiplexes a focus of his 2023 Liberal leadership campaign, which he lost to Bonnie Crombie.
