69���˵���

With half a million of them around the world, a few alumni were bound to lead political change in the heated GTA elections this week – and some claimed the top spots.

John Tory, a graduate of U of T’s Trinity College, and Bonnie Crombie, a graduate of St. Michael’s College, were voted mayors-elect for Toronto and Mississauga respectively, while City of Brampton voters elected University of Toronto Mississauga alumna Linda Jeffrey.

“Tonight you made a choice to vote for a future and a bold new vision for our city,” said Crombie, in her victory speech. “You voted to move Mississauga forward.”

At the same time in Toronto, Tory also shared his vision for an evolving city.

“The people have spoken, and tonight we begin the work of building one Toronto – a prosperous, fair, respected and caring Toronto,” he said. “Together, like never before, we begin building Toronto the great.”

Wasting no time to start that build, Tory swiftly named a transition team that includes several U of T experts.

Among them, alumni Shirley Hoy (former city manager), Gordon Cressy (namesake of U of T’s ), Michael Nobrega (President and CEO of OMERS), and Eric Miller, one of the city’s leading transit experts and a professor of civil engineering.

Miller was recently interviewed as part of the U of T Cities podcast series, exploring groundbreaking University of Toronto research bringing about the future of transit in Toronto and beyond.

“As anybody living in Toronto knows, we are faced with huge challenges. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that we haven’t built enough transit or taken the problem seriously enough,” Miller recently told  Jamie Hunter of U of T's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “But it also reflects that the city is growing, we’re under huge pressures and the conditions of travel are changing. We have to respond to that.”