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Long-time city councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker has announced that he will not be running for re-election, citing the difficulties of running a campaign amid a drastic eleventh hour boundary change by the province.
In a news release Monday, the Ward 38 councillor said that the provincially imposed plan to shrink council in half means that winning in a ward that will be double the size and that will include other incumbents is “a long shot.”
“I think I might have been able to pull it off, but at what cost to family, friends and supporters,” De Baeremaeker said in the news release. “A campaign is a grueling, seven-day-a-week proposition. It’s a lot to ask of people when winning is a long shot.
“Rather than fighting against former colleagues, I decided it would be more positive to invest my energy in branching off in a new direction.”
First elected in 2003, De Baeremaeker’s time on council spanned the terms of three different mayors, from David Miller to Rob Ford to current mayor John Tory.
In a statement, Tory thanked De Baeremaeker for his service on council and called him “a tireless defender of Scarborough.”
“Councillor De Baeremaeker has worked with me to ensure we are finally getting on with extending the Bloor-Danforth line to the Scarborough Town Centre as part of the City’s overall transit network plan,” Tory wrote. “The people of Ward 38 have been well-served by Glenn for the last 15 years and I have always appreciated his work as Deputy Mayor for Scarborough. I wish Glenn all the best in his future endeavours.”
