Stintz endorses Carmichael Greb as successor
Outgoing Ward 16 councillor Karen Stintz has endorsed candidate Christin Carmichael Greb as her successor.
Stintz made the announcement Thursday morning outside of City Hall, saying she thinks Carmichael Greb has a good understanding of the ward’s issues and would make a good councillor.
“I’m here today to stand beside Christin and offer her my full support,” she said. “I put her sign on my lawn, and I’m encouraging my neighbours to support Christin.”
Carmichael Greb is a project manager for Bombardier Aerospace and the daughter of Don Valley West MP John Carmichael. She was recently endorsed by mayoral frontrunner John Tory, and had already been endorsed by several of her father’s colleagues. She is one of 16 candidates looking to succeed Stintz.
Carmichael Greb said Stintz’s support is “an important endorsement and it helps” in her bid to become the next councillor for the area.
The move comes after months of speculation about who she would endorse, and rumours that she was not supporting her former advisor Jean-Pierre Boutros, who has distanced himself from her over the Scarborough subway decision.
Boutros, who held his own media scrum shortly after Stintz’s announcement, said he didn’t feel slighted and never sought the endorsement.
“This isn’t about Karen, this is about Christin Carmichael Greb and what she represents,” he said, suggesting she could be a “conduit” for special interest groups at City Hall if she is elected. “What I represent is pro-ward — ensuring that we don’t spend money unwisely, that we don’t have developers running City Hall.”
In the past week Stintz has made it clear via Twitter she would not be supporting Boutros, saying on Oct. 16 there were lots of good candidates in the race and naming Carmichael Greb, Elana Metter and Sean Conacher in the process.
On Oct. 22, Stintz tweeted to Carmichael Greb that her Ward 16 residents were lucky to have her in the race.
The Ward 16 race is expected to go down to the wire, with several people in contention, including Terry Mills, an urban planner who was runner up to Stintz in 2010, and Michael Coll, who was third in the same race, as well as Adam Tanel, Dyanoosh Youssefi and Steven Levitan, who have all run strong campaigns without prior name recognition.
