1. In March 2018, Keesmaat became the CEO of the Creative Housing Society, an independent non-profit group dedicated to creation of affordable housing projects.
29 Facts About Jennifer Keesmaat
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Jennifer Keesmaat was named the ninth most influential person in Toronto by Toronto Life in 2014, and the 41st most important person in Canada by Maclean's in 2013.
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On July 27,2018, Jennifer Keesmaat announced her candidacy for mayor of Toronto in the 2018 mayoral election.
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In 2019, The Jennifer Keesmaat Group founded the National Housing Innovation event series in partnership with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and The Globe and Mail, focused on improving access to affordable housing in Canada.
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Jennifer Keesmaat was the third of the four daughters of Irene, an artist, and Leonard, a builder and craftsman.
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Jennifer Keesmaat was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, where she attended Calvin Christian School and then Sir Allan MacNab Secondary School.
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Jennifer Keesmaat graduated from the University of Western Ontario in English and philosophy in 1993.
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Jennifer Keesmaat enrolled in York University in 1997 and then obtained a master's degree in environmental studies by 1999.
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Jennifer Keesmaat writes articles on planning-related topics, including editorials in the Toronto Star on the importance of complete streets and Complete Communities, and in The Globe and Mail on the need to change approaches to land use planning to ensure the liveability and sustainability of Canada's future communities.
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Jennifer Keesmaat has guest lectured at Ryerson University, York University, and the University of Toronto.
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Jennifer Keesmaat has delivered the TEDx talks Own your City and Walk to School.
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Jennifer Keesmaat became the chief planner of Toronto in September 2012.
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Jennifer Keesmaat is an advocate of density and walkability and has described mid-rise development, transportation, and waterfront as areas of focus.
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Jennifer Keesmaat has been a proponent of a national urban agenda by calling for an expanded role of the federal government in supporting Canadian cities.
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In 2012, Jennifer Keesmaat proposed 14 new taxes which might raise revenue to finance new government spending.
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In late August 2017, Jennifer Keesmaat announced that she was leaving her role with the City after public disagreements with Mayor John Tory on several policies, including the debate about tearing down the aging and costly Gardiner Expressway.
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Jennifer Keesmaat pushed us to think at a higher level.
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Jennifer Keesmaat subsequently became the CEO of the Creative Housing Society, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the creation of affordable rental housing in Canada's major cities.
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In 2018, Jennifer Keesmaat founded The Jennifer Keesmaat Group, which works with progressive cities and organizations around the world to advance change.
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The Jennifer Keesmaat Group has provided strategic advice related to various aspects of urban planning and city building to clients in cities around the world, including Melbourne, Sydney, Vancouver, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, and London.
21.
On July 27,2018, Jennifer Keesmaat announced her intention to run for Mayor of Toronto in the 2018 municipal elections, focusing much of her campaign on key priorities including transit, traffic, housing affordability, and road safety.
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In reaction to Premier Doug Ford's plan to cut Toronto City Council by half, Jennifer Keesmaat tweeted that Toronto should secede from Ontario and become Canada's eleventh province.
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On October 22,2018, Jennifer Keesmaat lost the mayoral election to incumbent mayor John Tory.
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Jennifer Keesmaat promised to make the King Street Pilot Project, which she spearheaded as Chief Planner, permanent.
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Jennifer Keesmaat promised to tear down the eastern section of the aging and decaying Gardiner Expressway and replace it with a ground level boulevard, pointing out that cities all over North America are choosing to tear down urban expressways rather than spending hundreds of millions of dollars on maintaining outdated infrastructure.
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Jennifer Keesmaat proposed a property tax increase on the sale of luxury homes to help pay for building 100,000 units of affordable housing.
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Jennifer Keesmaat had pledged funding to double the number of emergency response mental health workers and to enhance community policing efforts by ensuring community police officers are assigned to every one of Toronto's 140 neighbourhoods.
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Jennifer Keesmaat unveiled detailed plans to enhance gender fairness in the Toronto municipal bureaucracy, support and promote the arts, improve transparency at municipal agencies, and build clean, green, and sustainable infrastructure.
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Jennifer Keesmaat is married to Tom Freeman, who runs FH Hospitality, a Toronto-based sales firm that supplies fixtures and furniture to hotels.