2010 in Pictures: Let's Get Municipal

Ontario Votes Live Blog

11:15 pm: Sorry for the delay in status updates. Us elitists can get sidetracked from important tasks like blogging, when filled with rage (and fine wine).

As for the results...well, Ford ran a good campaign. I'll have more on that tomorrow. For now, I think it's important for progressive Torontonians to keep things in perspective. There's only so much the mayor can do - he won't be ripping up the streetcar tracks any time soon, or cancelling the Toronto marathon.

Plus, this is good news for McGuinty - it gets the "angry protest vote" out of everyone's system and gives McGuinty a possible stalking horse to run against in a year's time. This wasn't a conservative wave sweeping across Ontario - many progressive candidates, including Maurizio Bevilacqua and Jim Watson, won tonight.

While the results aren't shocking - I'd predicted a Ford win - it does leave me a big bafflegabed. I mean, I leave Calgary and now they've got Naheed Nenshi and I'm stuck with Rob Ford. I feel a bit like Eeyore with the conservative rain cloud following me around.


8:10 pm: Ford wins. Well, that was anticlimatic.


8:06 pm: The downside of the scan-trons is that you get results right away. With a third of the polls in, Ford has built up a massive 51% to 31% lead.


7:30 pm: My fellow Toronto elitists have begun arriving...we've already had to open up a second bike rack for overflow parking. The wine is chilling, the hors d'oeuvres are cooking, and the recycling boxes have been placed out for everyone. The fun is about to begin!


7:08 pm: Fun drinking game for tonight. Drink a shot of gravy every time someone talks about "the gravy train". See if you can avoid passing out before they declare a winner.


6:35 pm: My prediction for tonight - Ford 45%, Smitherman 41%, Pantalone 12%. But I'm hoping to be proven wrong.


6:25 pm: Just got back from voting for George Smitherman.

The exciting revelation of the day is that Toronto will be using scan-trons for this election - which means Canadian democracy has finally caught up technologically with most 1994 Grade 6 classrooms. Presumably, this should make for a quick reading of the ballots tonight.

Given how close the polls are, this election is going to be all about turnout. So your litmus test tonight is really this - are the lines longer in Etobicoke or in downtown Toronto? The answer to that question will decide the election. For what it's worth, the lineup at my polling station (downtown) seemed about as long as for the federal election.

I'll be hosting a "Toronto elitists" election night party tonight and will be live blogging all the festivities and snark, so be sure to tune back in here later.

Sarah Thomson's Martha Moment

In 2006, Martha Hall Findlay was the only woman in an 8 candidate field. She was a political outsider who earned high praise from the media for her performance during the campaign, despite lackluster levels of support. And when she threw her support behind Stephane Dion in Montreal, it gave Dion the momentum he would eventually need to come out of top.

Now, leadership conventions are very different beasts from municipal elections. But Thomson's endorsement of George Smitherman today, coupled with an encouraging poll, and a fiscally conservative message, may be just what the Smitherman campaign needs to turn the tide against the Rob Ford phenomenon.

Let's Get Municipal

Calgary: Calgary is still buzzing over Barb Higgins' entry into the Mayoral race, and there are reports she has hired Liberal strategist Don Lovett as her campaign manager.

On the policy side, frontrunner Ric McIver has released his vision for Calgary, and Higgins has responded with her "policy framework". Both are bland, unoriginal, and short on specifics (the platforms, not the candidates, both of whom I find intriguing). Fellow candidate Naheed Nenshi offers a strong critique of these policy "announcements" on his site.

The airport tunnel is emerging as a big issue. True to the bizarre nature of Calgary politics, the right wing candidate wants to spend and the NDP proxy in this race thinks it's a waste of money. Go figure.


Toronto: With John Tory out of the race, it's now very much a Smitherman versus Ford affair.

And the Smitherman campaign is starting to turn up the heat, launching an attack "FordonFord" website.


Edmonton: Edmonton Politics is the must see source for this one. Also, Alex Abboud runs down the hotly contested ward races.


Montreal: Speculation is now rampant about the next mayoral election...in 2013. Good grief, we'll probably have 2 or 3 federal elections before then.

Regardless, the latest rumour has Denis Coderre making the jump to municipal politics. My anonymous Liberal sources have also confided to me that Martin Cauchon is now considering a run for Montreal mayor in 2013.


Dauphin: Tory MLA Inky Marr is running for mayor. Which means, in Inky's opinion, being a backbencher in Stephen Harper's caucus is a less glamourous position than being mayor of a town of 8,000 people.

Toronto Votes 2010: Adam Giambrone's Star Wars Kid Candidacy

We're still a long way away from e-day, but Toronto's mayoral race is starting to take shape. According to the city's website, there are 24 declared candidates - alas, Ange Maniccia has withdrawn, failling to generate a significant amount of Maniccia-Mania in the first day of his/her candidacy. Relax Ange, we all have moments like that.

From among that list of 24, there are a handful of legitimate candidates - one of Giorgio Mammoliti, Joe Pantalone, or the yet-to-declare Denzil Minnan-Wong could break through as a contender.

But early on, the media focus has been on George Smitherman, Adam Giambrone, and Rocco Rossi. For those unfamiliar with Toronto-politics, here's where you've probably heard of these men before:

-Giambrone's name gets mentioned on Facebook whenever someone is bitching about the TTC
-Smitherman is part of the "Former McGuinty Cabinet Ministers" Facebook group (closing in on the anti-prorogation one as the largest FB group in Canada)
-Rocco Rossi has most likely wished you happy birthday on Facebook.

So what should we make of our three challengers thus far?

Well, with John Tory gone, Smitherman is clearly the front runner. He's branding himself as the pit bull of the race (Q: What's the difference between George Smitherman and a pit bull? A: McGuinty has yet to ban George Smitherman):

In an exclusive interview with The Globe and Mail, Mr. Smitherman opened the door to road tolls, rejected banishing bike lanes from arterial roads and promised to apply bulldog toughness to the city’s finances – unlike the current administration, he said, which is struggling to impose a 5-per-cent budget cut on recalcitrant departments and agencies.

“If my bureaucracy basically shot me the finger,” Mr. Smitherman said, “well, I’ll let my reputation speak for itself … a shrug of the shoulders and the middle finger salute isn’t going to cut it.”

Former LPC National Director Rocco Rossi (who, in passing, deserves a round of applause for the increased Liberal fundraising numbers in 2009), is positioning himself on Smitherman's right flank. It's not too surprising, really. Rossi was John Tory's campaign manager in 2003, so he stands to inherit much of the Tory organization...it only makes sense to try and inherit as much of Tory's vote as possible.

Which brings us to young Adam Giambrone, chair of the TTC. Giambrone should be taken seriously in this race - John Laschinger is his campaign manager, and Giambrone will appeal to many of the same people who elected David Miller. Now, when I say that Giambrone should be taken seriously, that's intended more as advice to his own campaign, than as a warning to the opposition. Case in point:




I'm as big a fan of self-deprecating humour as anyone out there, but there comes a point when you cringe. After watching this video, I just can't imagine this guy running the City of Toronto. Don't get me wrong, I love that he has a sense of humour, and he seems like an OK guy - the video would make me consider voting for him as SU President. Well, maybe not, but definitely as VP Events for the chess club.

But Mayor of Toronto? That's a fairly serious job, and nothing Giambrone has done thus far, during this campaign or during his political career, gives me any sort of sense that he's ready for that.

This Week in Toronto

Everyone ready for a game of Liberal musical chairs?

As you've probably heard, George Smitherman has left the provincial government to make a run for Mayor of Toronto. The general consensus has that race as a clash between Smitherman and John Tory - I expect my vote will go to Smitherman, but Leaf fans love a perennial loser, so maybe Tory will be able to pull it off.

Regardless, Smitherman's departure opens up Toronto Centre and, no mater how bad things may be going for Dalton McGuinty, that's about as safe as seats come. One of the candidates for the prize Liberal nomination will be former Winnipeg Mayor Glen Murray, who would add some star power to a Liberal caucus which has lost some big names over the past year. I was at a well-attended Murray campaign event last night - also there was Smitherman who is endorsing Murray.

It appears Sachin Aggarwal won'tbe going for the Toronto Centre nom, but the federal Liberals will be losing some talent, in the form of Rocco Rossi, who has helped dramatically boost party fundraising numbers this year. Yesterday, Rocco announced he would be tossing his hat into the Toronto mayoralty race. The interesting twist here is that Rossi was Tory's campaign manager when Tory came close to defeating David Miller back in 2003. It's hard to say how Rossi will fare - at the very least he should out-tweet the other candidates in the race.

Smitherman Jumps

Ontario's Deputy Premier will be making a run for the Toronto mayoralty:

After months of speculation, George Smitherman is making the move to municipal politics.

Ontario's deputy premier and energy minister confirmed in an interview Sunday that he is leaving Dalton McGuinty's cabinet to run for Toronto's mayoralty in November 2010.

So far, it sounds like John Tory and Glen Murray will be his biggest competition.

The Answer is Blowing in the Wind

This is something I'm very pleased to see:

TORONTO — Ontario's Liberal government hopes its Green Energy Act to be introduced Monday will create 50,000 new jobs and transform the province's struggling economy, but environmentalists warn the plan relies too heavily on nuclear power.

The bill will make it easier to bring renewable energy projects to life and create a culture of conservation, said Energy Minister George Smitherman.

“These two thrusts combined will support a new green economy for this province and will create sustainable green employment for Ontarians,” said Mr. Smitherman.

“The (bill) will turbo-charge the creation of renewable energy in this province and set the standard for green energy policy across this continent.”

The knock on Dalton has always been that he's been a cautious and risk-averse Premier. Yes, he's given Ontarians five years of good government, but banning light bulbs isn't exactly a legacy project.

So it's encouraging to see his government putting something in the window which, at first glance, appears bold. Doing it at a time when the environment is no longer the trendy issue du jour also takes a bit of guts - especially after watching Gordon Campbell and Stephane Dion go down in flames over the environment.

However, McGuinty and Smitherman do seem to have learned their lesson here - the emphasis looks to be squarely on job creation and the economy, as it should be. And if you're going to spend money on infrastructure to stimulate the economy, a push on green energy isn't a bad way to go, since it's something we'll benefit from in the long run.

With the exception of a few NIMBY groups, it's hard to be against green energy...so I suspect NDP and Tory criticism of this will be minor and largely on the process.

So this one could be a winner. And with the days of winning by default winding down, and the economy in taters, McGuinty is going to have to work to earn his re-election. This should help.