thestar.com

Local lawyer Paul Lewin launched his mayoralty campaign last Tuesday with nothing less than a call for Toronto to separate from Ontario. Instead of the City of Toronto, we would become the Province of Toronto.

As Alan Broadbent pointed out in an essay in Toronto Considering Self-Government, published in 2000, "The provinces have the ability to dissolve municipalities and dismiss their governing councils. The provinces have the ability to dictate the size and structure of city government, to set the conditions of their ability to raise capital, and to apply duties and obligations to them. The cities have no independent constitutional ability to resist whatever conditions the provinces opt to create for them."

As Lewin also points out, "Legally, the provinces and the federal government would have to negotiate with Toronto if a clear expression of Toronto's desire to become a province were expressed."