Toronto’s newest advocacy group already has one win under its belt — and its well-connected founder says it’s just getting started.
You may have seen the online ads from A Better City - Toronto, or ABC Toronto, that feature a stock image of a traffic jam and implore internet users to “Sign the petition to get rid of bike lanes on Yonge, University and Bloor West.”
“Bike lanes should be safe and sensible. They should exist where they make sense, but not where they don't,” ABC Toronto’s barebones website reads, echoing the Ford government’s arguments about bike lanes being inappropriate on main routes.
The group appears to have gotten its wish. Queen’s Park passed Bill 212, the Reducing Gridlock, Saving You Time Act on Monday, clearing the way for the provincial government to remove some or all of the three bike lanes.
ABC Toronto’s site was registered on Oct. 29, six days after Premier Doug Ford announced that he planned to remove the three Toronto bike lanes.
But public documents show ABC Toronto was incorporated on July 17 — two months before news leaked about Ford’s plan to get involved in bike lanes.
Jeffrey Kroeker, who incorporated the not-for-profit, said the group had discussed other ideas for how to make the city better, but pounced when the bike lane issue became timely.
“Part of what you want to do is, frankly, piggyback upon big ideas and big debates and discussions in order to ascertain and engage voters and engage citizens. And this was obviously a significant flashpoint,” he told TorontoToday by phone.
ABC Toronto will exist to push Toronto politicians and civic leaders on affordability, liveability, critical infrastructure, and bringing jobs and business back to the downtown core, he said.
“It's a group of folks who have been actively involved in municipal politics or provincial politics for quite some time, spanning the entire political spectrum,” he said, adding that the group has about 30 to 40 members who all agree that “Toronto is broken.”
Members have “travelled the world extensively” and have experience with other governance models, Kroeker said.
“It really is formed as sort of a grassroots community group that's going to support — our hope anyway — big, bold ideas,” he said.
Kroeker, a lawyer with Massey LLP in Toronto, was the chief financial officer for two high-profile conservative leadership contestants: Christine Elliott’s unsuccessful bid for Ontario PC Party leader in 2018 and Erin O’Toole’s winning 2020 Conservative Party of Canada leadership campaign.
He was also an adviser to then-PC leaders Tim Hudak and John Tory, and worked as a former director to the secretary of state for foreign affairs during the Stephen Harper government.
Kroeker has donated $28,514 to the Ontario PC Party since 2014.
Another ABC Toronto director, Kelly Aizicowitz, was an adviser to Liberal then-premier Dalton McGuinty. She spent a few years as a senior consultant role at government relations firm StrategyCorp in the early 2010s, and now works at an American health-care company.
Unlike Balance on Bloor, another anti-bike lane group, Kroeker said he hasn't had discussions with Premier Ford or anyone in the provincial government about the bike lanes.
However, he has seen criticism of ABC Toronto’s ads.
“I've seen this stuff on the Reddit, et cetera,” he said, referring to a post in the “r/torontobiking” community that called the ad “disgusting.”
“Everyone loves to think that the opposition to the bike lanes is somehow just a manifestation of the province,” he said. “I can tell you, I live at Dundas and University. I live on those bike lanes. I've lived through the reconstruction. I've lived through the disaster that they have created for the hospitals here. And I have very fixed views on those on those bike lanes, and think that they have been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster.”
Kroeker said he wasn’t sure how much the ads cost. A group of volunteers within ABC Toronto handled the buy, he said.
Recently, Toronto politicos, including recently defeated council candidate Anthony Furey, have whispered about building a conservative organization to push back against Progress Toronto — a well-connected left-leaning group that took partial credit for Furey’s byelection loss.
Asked if that could be ABC Toronto, Kroeker said his group was founded by “Torontonians with diverse backgrounds and perspectives” and has no connection with Furey.
As for what’s next, Kroeker wouldn’t say. The group is still in a data-collecting phase — but he said they’re getting organized for a more formal introduction to the city.
“Listen, it will not be the last time you hear from us,” he said.
