Big news! After thousands of people took action over the last few weeks, a majority of Toronto City Council has formally voted to oppose Bill 39 and committed to upholding the fundamental principle of democracy - that decisions are made by a majority of councillors and not the minority rule proposed by Mayor Tory.

In fact, when many city councillors spoke at council today they referenced your emails and calls to them opposing Bill 39. Councillors across the political spectrum spoke about them. For many, their decision was made because they heard from so many of you.

In only weeks we went from six councillors on the record opposed to Bill 39 to ultimately 20 voting to uphold majority rule at council. This was after 9,000 people signed our petition online and in person. Thanks to volunteers, we knocked on over 2,000 doors in key wards in only a week, talking to residents across the city about their voice and local democracy.

And that is why upholding democracy matters. Your voice and democratic power matters.

When councillors ignore the needs of people in our city, we work hard in elections to get progressive candidates elected instead, like the five new progressive city councillors elected just this October.

Councillor Amber Morley moved the motion to call on the Province to repeal Bill 39 and Councillor Alejandra Bravo moved the motion to uphold city council’s commitment to the principle of democracy that the majority have the right to decide and the minority have the right to be heard.

December 8, the Province passed Bill 39 and the mayor has to indicate in advance before he is going to put forward a by-law and use the minority vote powers. That means it will be the mayor’s choice to use this power and now, thanks to everyone who took action it is very unlikely that the mayor will try to use these powers.

We will keep the pressure on to prevent the use of minority rule and ultimately repeal this bill.

We need our elected officials to fix Toronto and build a city for all. To do that, we need to include the voices of people and make sure your voice counts. With the city budget around the corner we will continue to fight for a more democratic and just city.