Gil Penalosa is running for Mayor of Toronto

Gil is the brother of Enrique Penalosa, who was Mayor of Bogota, who initiated the Ciclavia program--open streets--and implemented the TransMilenio high capacity bus rapid transit system.  Under his brother Gil was the city parks commissioner, and later he created the international pro-urbanism group 8-80 Cities.

He has a pro-public space, pro sustainable mobility based campaign.  But there are a couple dozen candidates, along with the incumbent John Tory.  

Gil is not likely to win, but perhaps he can shape the discussion towards public investment ("Gil Penalosa says he wants to be mayor to make ‘Toronto for everybody.’ Is anyone listening?," Toronto Star). From the article:

The thread running through Penalosa’s campaign is that Toronto is a good place to live, but its timid leadership has held it back. To join the ranks of great global cities like Paris, London or New York, he argues, Toronto needs a bold mayor.

Tory has shown a “lack of vision and action” on pressing issues like the housing crisis that is “almost shameful,” Penalosa said in an interview. “He’s been there for eight years, and you cannot even think of one significant project he has done.”

Penalosa’s view of Toronto’s place in the world is informed by his extensive international career. He was born into a prominent middle-class family in Bogota, Colombia, and earned a master of business administration from UCLA in 1984. From 1995 to 1998 he served as parks commissioner of Bogota, where he led the development of more than 200 public parks, and helped expand the city’s Ciclovía car-free streets program into an event that’s since been emulated around the world.

He relocated to Canada about 20 years ago and founded the advocacy group 8 80 Cities, based around the idea that streets and other infrastructure should be designed to accommodate citizens from eight to 80 years old, not just able-bodied adults.

The Toronto Star article campaign, "Can't we do better?," is focused on the years of under- and dis-investment by the government in the city's network of civic assets and infrastructure. 

 John Tory is committed to his low taxes pledge, but it comes at a cost ("Why is the Toronto Public Library facing service cuts? Ask John Tory," "Cities big and small are funding open streets. Doing so in Toronto should be an election issue," Star).