Jane Pitfield

Jane Pitfield (born ca. 1954 in Peterborough, Ontario) was a Toronto city councillor, representing one of the two Don Valley West wards. She ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Toronto in 2006.

Personal life

A graduate of Queen's University, she worked for several years with Procter & Gamble. She first rose to prominence in 1989 when she founded Concerned Citizens of Leaside to oppose a large development project. She is also the author of " Leaside", a history of the neighbourhood.

She is married to Robert Pitfield and is the mother of 3 daughters and 1 son. Robert Pitfield runs the Bank of Nova Scotia's international operations. Her uncle-in-law is Ward Pitfield, who was chairman of brokerage firm Dominion Securities. Another uncle-in-law, Senator Michael Pitfield, was clerk of the Privy Council under former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

Politics

In 1994, she leveraged her community involvement to get elected as a school board trustee. With the creation of the megacity in 1997, she ran to be elected to city council, but lost by a small margin. It was later decided, however, that the East York ward was too large for only two councillors. A by-election was held to elect a third councillor and she won this race with ease. On council she is considered one of the moderate right wingers. In the 2003 elections she did not endorse any candidate for mayor. During the 2003 term of office she served as chair of the Works Committee.

Pitfield proposed a 9% water rate increase in early 2004, a higher figure than city staff had recommended. Following intervention from the office of mayor David Miller, the increase was reduced to 6%. Pitfield justified the proposed increase by saying, "This is not to be thought of as taxation. It's a user fee. If you want to pay less, you can use less." [Vanessa Lu, "Price of water to rise but by how much?", "Toronto Star", 4 February 2004, B3; Vanessa Lu, "Decision on water rate reversed", "Toronto Star", 5 February 2004, B4.]

A "Globe and Mail" report from March 2005 indicated that Pitfield canvassed for Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario leader John Tory during his provincial by-election campaign in Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey. ["City councillors past, present turn out to help Tory get elected", "Globe and Mail", 18 March 2005, A11.]

After the 2003 election, Miller called in councillors to pick committee chair heads. Pitfield says she did not get a call. "So I called him", she said. She asked to be chair of the powerful works committee, and was appointed. In the mid-term committee chair shuffle, Pitfield left the works and budget committees (of her own accord, she claims); she is now on the audit committee and co-chairs the aboriginal affairs committee.

2006 mayoral candidacy

On November 29, 2005 Pitfield announced that she would run against mayor David Miller in the 2006 municipal election.

She is a fiscal conservative and defender of aboriginal causes. Among her initiatives, Pitfield would turn Ontario Place into a hotbed of aboriginal culture, as a tourist draw for the city. She has also stated that she wants to rid the streets of aggressive panhandlers and she has also supported the Guardian Angels who would like to patrol Toronto streets.

In addition, Pitfield would look at contracting out municipal services to save money, along with incineration. She would insist the province take back the cost of funding social services, $250 million of which is right now on the municipal property tax bill. She would ban homeless from sleeping in the street. She would cut the number of city staff, which she estimates at "over 62,000 people."

"The most fundamental problem is the budget", she said. "Since amalgamation, no one has questioned the base budget."

Pitfield promised to hold off on future tax increases and adopted the slogan, "Always think like a taxpayer". ["Jane Pitfield to take on Miller", CTV Toronto, 29 November 2005, 19:52 report. [http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20051129/jane_pitfield_051129/20051129/?hub=TorontoHome] ] Pitfield also stated that the Mayor should be known as the "Billion Dollar Man" for increasing the city's spending by $1.3 billion since he became mayor in 2003. [Royson James, "Fed up with Dave? Meet Jane", "Toronto Star", 6 May 2006, B01.] Miller responded by observing that Toronto's share of the new spending was only $275 million, with the remainder coming from the provincial and federal governments. [Jeff Gray, "Pitfield vows to fight tax hike", Globe and Mail, 29 March 2006, A13. Pitfield was unable to provide the specific increase in municipal spending when questioned by reporters. ] He later added that most of the spending "is new investment we've secured from provincial and federal government to meet the needs of our city in public transit, in housing, or the 58 new child care centres that we've opened in Toronto this month alone, in Toronto's poorest neighbourhoods". [John Spears and Paul Moloney, "Candidates battle over tax cuts", "Toronto Star", 2 October 2006, E9.]

Pitfield's campaign team included Michael Marzolini, pollster and strategist for former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien and John Foden, Public Affairs consultant. Ontario PC Party treasurer Vic Gupta, who was deputy campaign manager for John Tory's 2003 run for mayor was on Pitfield's campaign team but bowed out in June 2006, and is now a lobbyist for the Toronto Port Authority ("National Post" August 31 2006).

In September 2006, Pitfield voted in favour of a bid by Toronto City Council to purchase a landfill site that she had previously spoken against. She claimed that she voted yes in error and admitted to being embarrassed by her mistake. She indicated that she would try to have her vote changed in the official records but wasn't able to reopen the debate to change her vote. ("Toronto Sun", "Toronto Star" September 21, 2006))

On September 29, the "National Post" released a survey conducted by Ipsos-Reid that suggested Pitfield was a stronger challenger to Miller than many people believed. The poll showed that of decided voters, 55% would support Miller, while 40% would support Pitfield. In the "absolutely certain" voter category, 51% would support Miller while 46% would support Pitfield. [James Cowan, "Poll reveals 'horse race'", "National Post", 29 September 2006, A01.] On the same day, former Liberal Party of Canada President Stephen LeDrew also entered the contest.

Her platform to be mayor included a public housing program focused on home ownership for low-income families. She accused Miller of being soft on crime and called for a police helicopter, a weapons court and restrictions on bail for individuals with outstanding violent crime charges. She was in favour of incinerating Toronto's garbage and set a 60% diversion rate for recycling. She supported building two kilometres of subway per year.

Pitfield's campaign team included co-chairs Jerry Grafstein and Hal Jackman; Judy Paradi, a Toronto business woman; Brian L. French her Policy Director; Michael Marzolini, pollster and strategist for former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien; Gabor Apor; Costas Manios, Operations Director; and Robert Stephens, Media Secretary.

Miller won the contest by a significant margin.

Life after politics

In 2008, Pitfield was elected president of the Caledon Heritage Foundation. She and her family own a 19th century house in Caledon which they are in the process of restoring. [Former Toronto councillor elected president of Caledon Heritage Foundation. "Caledon Citizen". May 15 2008. [http://www.caledoncitizen.com/news/2008/0515/news/018.html] ]

Mayoral race

External links

* [http://www.toronto.ca/toronto_history/councillors/2004-2006/pitfield1.htm City biography]

Footnotes