LILLEY: Chow's hard-left politics could cost city thousands of jobs

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Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow’s call for residents of Toronto to stop shopping at Home Depot could cost the city thousands of jobs. The company is currently looking to move its Canadian headquarters from an industrial park off of the Don Valley Pkwy. and Chow’s comments could see it leave the city altogether.

At a Pride flag-raising ceremony on Monday, Chow called out Home Depot for deciding not to sponsor the Toronto Pride Festival this year by encouraging people to shop elsewhere.

“Don’t shop at Home Depot,” Chow said.

“Anyway, shop Canadian, shop Rona, yeah, yes, yes. We are not the 51st state. Are you kidding? We are proud Torontonians, right?”

Of course, if Chow had paid attention over the last decade, which she clearly hasn’t, then she would have known that Rona was purchased by the American company Lowe’s in 2016 and then sold to American private-equity firm Sycamore Partners in 2022. She’s telling people to stop shopping at one store and telling them to shop at another American-owned store for the purpose of national pride.

Of course, she is also acting as a bully against companies who decide to not sponsor an increasingly political and controversial pride festival.

Chow said corporate sponsors who decided to put their money elsewhere clearly didn’t know who they were. Then she said the city would not only cover the $300,000 that won’t be coming in from Home Depot and Google, which also dropped out as a Toronto Pride sponsor, but she would also extend city funding to an additional $350,000 per year.

Apparently at Toronto City Hall, you can make these types of funding commitments without taking it to a vote at council. I don’t know about you, but that is a problem.

But back to Home Depot. The company has its Canadian head office just off the DVP in Toronto. For various reasons, the company is looking to move its Canadian head office.

One proposal, which Home Depot hopes will get approved, has the company building a new corporate headquarters in the Port Lands area and that a retail store be included as well. The people around Chow are generally opposed to this idea because they don’t want a retail store in the area.

This should be a no-brainer; a retail hardware store in an area where thousands of homeowners will gather to find the latest gadget they need and adjacent to the film industry and its need to build sets using products like lumber should be approved.

Despite the fact the main head office for Home Depot is in Georgia, its Canadian operations remain one of the biggest, if not the biggest, purchaser of Canadian lumber and hardware. Still, Chow and her team are hostile at best, which brings up to the possibility that we could see Home Depot’s Canadian HQ move to Calgary.

It’s completely possible given the lower tax rate in Alberta and a better business climate.

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So, based on her comments, is Chow willing to have fewer jobs in Toronto? The answer from the mayor’s office was no and her office claimed her comments about not buying from Home Depot were a joke. But it didn’t sound like a joke.

I doubt that is how the company takes those comments; it is likely looking West and wondering.

Toronto has for years, especially under Chow, made it increasingly difficult for companies to invest in this city.

If the mayor and her allies at council scare away a major company like Home Depot, they will be sending a message. That message will be that strong companies aren’t welcome in this city and should go elsewhere. It’s not a message that Toronto should be sending and hopefully Chow will reconsider in the future.

It would be beyond regrettable if the mayor’s hard-left politics cost the hard-working people of Toronto their jobs. Let’s hope she puts jobs above her political ambition.