Barrie's mayor is earning praise for supporting the Jewish community

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It's a tale of two cities and two mayors.

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There is an ongoing petition in Toronto to remove Mayor Olivia Chow for failing to attend the first anniversary of the massacre in Israel by Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip. Barrie is paying tribute to Mayor Alex Nuttall, who not only attended the ceremony in Barrie, but made sure it happened.

More than 8,200 people and counting in Toronto – as of Thursday at 7 p.m. – want Chow to abandon his goal of 10,000 signatures. There would certainly have to be a lot more than 8,200 people signing a petition demanding her resignation for “neglect of the Jewish community” before that would ever happen.

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But Chow, who couldn't miss B'nai Brith's “shame on you” tweet, simply doesn't seem to understand how much harm has been done. And she seems to be doubling down on it like an amateur.

“At the end of the day, it doesn't matter,” she told CP24 on Thursday. “On Monday, I wore black all day, even most of the weekend, because the most important thing was to mourn the loss… I'm counting on my staff to tell me where I'm going… I apologize to the Jewish community and I will try to do better. “

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Chow couldn't do any worse. The whole affair left a black mark on the city and its mayor.

The fact that so many people signed the Change.org petition will be noticed in the mayor's office and noticed even more if it exceeds its goal. Perhaps not because the mayor will feel the pressure of potentially losing his job for not attending the October 7 meeting candlelight vigil at the Sherman United Jewish Appeal Federation campus in Bathurst. And maybe not even because of fear, which may result in 10,000 votes against her in 2026.

No, this petition is causing a stir among those who may want to run against her and those who may want to help fund a quality candidate who may want to run against her. There is no shortage of names that could try to challenge her – many of them were at the event.

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Councilor Brad Bradford is certainly one of them. Former Mayor John Tory could decide to return and he would be powerful. Anthony Furey last ran in fourth place, and although he is not yet on the council, he is expected to win the byelection to replace deceased councilor Jaye Robinson, and many are keen to become mayor. Another potential candidate is Liberal MP Marco Mendicino, as well as Independent MP Kevin Vuong.

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The only way to achieve this is to replace her at the ballot box. However, this petition does not wait for that.

“Mayor Olivia Chow has been consistently absent at key moments when we needed her to stand with the Jewish community,” it said. “It is disturbing that our mayor is not showing up to support the citizens of her city in such difficult times.

“Mayor Chow has failed to take sufficient action to quell hate protests against Toronto's Jewish community. This ambivalence sends a disheartening message to Toronto's Jewish citizens, leaving us feeling isolated and overlooked in our own city.”

Add to that a 9.5% property tax increase, bike lanes everywhere, and the renaming of Yonge-Dundas Square to Sankofa Square and there's a lot of work to be done. But it wasn't just about missing the October 7 meeting vigil on UJA's Sherman campus, which irritated many, but the thought that she somehow didn't receive an invitation.

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Jewish groups have seen her media mess grow, but say they have yet to hear directly from her. However, there are rumors that Chow's chief of staff made a call to UJA management to begin the process of setting up a meeting. Too late? Beginning?

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Chow, who is known for not only attending events but also dressing up in the cultural costumes of the group or community organizing the event to show her support for them, stated that she “regretted” not being there and ” “should” be there – although citing communication problems as the reason. It seems like she doesn't want to take any blame, which means she doesn't fix what she broke.

Meanwhile, there was one place where there was no problem with inviting the mayor to October 7 the vigil was in Barrie. Nuttall not only accepted his invitation, but went a step further and made sure the town hall was available for this special ceremony.

“We asked him for help and he was extremely helpful,” said Steve Sperling, a Barrie businessman who is attending the conference Am Shalom Synagogue and wanted to do something to remember all those killed at the hands of Hamas, while praying for peace and the release of the remaining hostages. Sperling said the mayor “opened up the City Hall rotunda” and there were no games, objections or concerns about votes.

Saying that “it was a great, well-attended and safe event,” Nuttall was present in front of his Jewish community.

“He sat in the front row and gave a beautiful speech,” Sperling said. “This – as well as the contributions of the amazing City of Barrie staff – are certainly appreciated.”

Sperling said he expected about two dozen people to attend, but it was larger.

“There were 300 of us there,” Sperling said. “We feel really good about it and want to thank the mayor for being there for us.”

One mayor showed up, the other didn't.

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