Mayor Rob Ford has replaced his departing chief of staff, a polarizing partisan campaigner new to City Hall, with a veteran of municipal politics known for his ability to bridge delicate divides in government relations.
Amir Remtulla will take on the chief of staff role on Feb. 22, a month after the departure of Nick Kouvalis, the strategist who led Mr. Ford's successful campaign to a landslide victory in the Oct. 25.
It's a dramatic change for the mayor's office: Mr. Remtulla, a 41-year-old father of two, is a veteran of City Hall politics thanks to years served as an executive assistant to retired councillor Case Ootes, who was then Mel Lastman's deputy mayor. He's now an executive with Molson Coors Canada, where he has worked in both public affairs and government relations.
Mr. Remtulla will be tasked with pushing Mr. Ford's top four priorities - a list he emphasized on his first day in office but which he's now branded the Ford Four: improving customer service; making government smaller and making it more transparent; and completing "Transportation City," the transit network so far only defined by what it isn't - the light-rail "Transit City" network championed by former mayor David Miller.
It's no easy task trying to move that kind of agenda in the often-splintered realm of city politics, said Case Ootes. But the veteran conservative councillor said his political protégé should be up to the challenge.
"He's going to play a major role in helping the mayor try to get his agenda complete, and that means getting the making sure that the votes are there," Mr. Ootes said. "I think he'll do quite well."
Even Adam Vaughan, one of Mr. Ford's most strident critics, said Mr. Remtulla is someone councillors can work with.
"He gets the complexity of the place. … Amir's not one of those people to be a bull in a china shop. He understands it's about making the city work."