Sarah Thomson (Image: Joey Schwartz)
First the Sun did it. Then the Post did it. And last weekend, the Star did it. Over the past month and a half, Toronto media have dutifully repeated the story that mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson, to quote her bio, “came within 200 votes of winning” a seat on Hamilton’s city council in 1997. The only problem? She didn’t. The numbers don’t add up.
A quick e-mail to the Hamilton city clerk’s office reveals the 1997 results for Ward 1:
Mary Kiss: 4,560
Marvin Caplan: 4,123
Cam Nolan: 3,848
Sarah Whatmough [Thomson's maiden name]: 3,059
And the kicker? The two candidates with the most votes got elected, which places her 1,064 votes away from winning, not 200. She came fourth. Out of four. In a race where two people win.
When asked for comment, a spokesperson for Thomson told us that the candidate “obviously didn’t remember [the results] correctly” and thanked us for digging them up.
Thomson likes to portray herself as an outsider uncorrupted by the rot that’s set in at city hall. “I am not a politician,” her Web site proudly declares. Perhaps not, but to us, it sounds like she’s learning quickly.
• Sarah Thomson’s official bio
• Woman enters mayoral race [National Post]
• Sarah Thomson — fringe or force? [Toronto Sun]
• Lone woman runs in race for mayor’s chair [Toronto Star]
*UPDATE: The bio on Sarah Thomson’s Web site has been changed from claiming that she “came within 200 votes of winning” the Hamilton seat to “at the age of 28 she ran for city council in Hamilton had a great experience but lost.” Luckily, we have this original screen grab:
Who cares?
Seriously. Who cares about the past? Give the woman a break, 1997 was 13 years ago! That’s an issue with her team not doing their research if it’s that easy. I can barely remember what happened 4 years ago.
What’s good about Sarah Thomson and no one says anything about this is that the woman not only proposes changes but she makes an effort to provide solutions. If we continue to say, “no this will never happen” how will we progress?
Truth is, the way we’re doing things in City Hall just isn’t working. We can all agree on that. So if our options are a woman who has fought, scraped and negotiated her way into success multiple times over with little more than a vision.
Well that’s a HELL of a lot better of a verbally abusive politician has-been who handle’s money like water through a sieve and who clearly sees the Toronto Mayoral seat as an opportunity to further his scan scandalous political campaign. It’s obviously nothing to do with the people, the man snaps at everyone!
Then our other option? A former fundraising figure head? Who talks a lot and says nothing? No thank you. We need something daring and something concrete. The way I see it, we don’t have any other option then to explore Sarah Thomson as our potential mayor.
Love her or Hate her, this woman has got fight in her. So did I care she ran for politics in Hamilton when I read her bio? No. It’s not what she did. In 13 years this woman has done a lot more impressive things than forget how many votes she lost by.
give me a break.
March 18, 2010 at 9:26 am | by VivianneMethinks Vivianne is from the Thomson campaign. I don’t think any serious voter would recommend that the press, the electorate and the candidate stop caring about the past.
A candidate’s record is key to the legitimacy of her campaign. And in this instance, it’s doing Sarah no favours. Will she just make up successes if she’s elected mayor, too?
Give me a f*cking break.
March 18, 2010 at 9:40 am | by SlapjackVivianne, I suspect, isn’t as flippant with Adam Giambrone’s memory loss and regain. One could say these dispcrepancies of reality are not equal magnitude. In fact, they are both products of the same pandemic disease, zero integrity. Displaying extreme lack of connection to truth and speaking in these beginning young politicians speaks volumes of the legacy of both public and self respect they’ve inherited. Sad. Very sad.
March 18, 2010 at 11:58 am | by EquinoxI almost bought this garbage until I realized that you had her main rival on your last cover and she owns a magazine which could also be considered your competition. How pathetic is that? I have also seen sonme of those so called “unbiased journalists” (their words not mine) who write for this rag trash her elsewhere, because she is seen as industry competition. Do you people really have to sink that low? Do you have nothing else to right about? I guess this cry baby’s (the author of this tabloidesque gossip) career is going nowhere fast! No wonder this rag is almost out of business. I think The National Enquirer is hiring – good luck!
March 18, 2010 at 12:48 pm | by Cry BabyMe thinks Vivianne and Cry Baby are from the Thomson campaign! In fact, might just be the candidate herself, judging by the tone of the comments. And as far as her ‘magazine’ (if you can even call it that) being a rival to Toronto Life… ha! That is just too funny for words.
PS. Cry baby — you could use a lesson in spelling.. its “…write about” NOT “…right about”
March 18, 2010 at 3:19 pm | by Laughing Out LoudThomson is somehow being considered a decent mayoral candidate based on what? She has no experience and has never once made a deputation at city hall.
If she was fibbing about an instance, a story, I could almost live with it. But when she’s outrightly lying about plain true facts that are easily verifiable — something the first commenter wants us to ignore — then this is something to be concerned with.
Kudos to looking this up. Too bad the papers didn’t do any research. Which is a sad commentary on our local media.
March 18, 2010 at 6:44 pm | by LiefThis is shocking news. As a faithful Women’s Post reader and Thomson supporter, I am troubled to hear this news.
Instead of sneaking around and updating her website, I hope Ms. Thomson does the right thing and apologize publicly for this very serious error in judgement.
Should this apology not be forthcoming, she will most assuredly lose my vote.
March 18, 2010 at 7:28 pm | by ElizabethThis is isn’t Sarah’s campaign—it’s run with an iron fist by her campaign manager, Wendy, who is ALWAYS beside Sarah to make sure she doesn’t screw up.
Rossi and Smitherman are NOT the other options. We have about 30 candidates now. It’s your choice!
http://www.facebook.com/MarkCidade
March 18, 2010 at 7:41 pm | by Mark CidadeNo wonder we Torontonians are becoming increasing cynical about our politicians. What with nonsense like this to contend with. And this woman is supposed to be an ambassador for the female gender in our mayoral race?
I sure hope her campaign is working through the night to put together an HONEST statement to explain their way out of this.
March 18, 2010 at 10:03 pm | by ChandraVivian is right. She did more by the time she was 25 years old the most of you and most of the mayor candidates did in their lifes
March 18, 2010 at 11:08 pm | by DarrenThere’s little doubt Thomson made a mistake on this issue, but let’s put things in perspective. Her slight error in judgment pales in comparison to that of Smitherman’s $1 billion mind-boggling mess at eHealth that we taxpayers got stuck with.
Last I heard Smitherman wasn’t apologizing about his “mistake”.
March 19, 2010 at 1:06 am | by JeffreyIf she lied about this (and it’s pretty clear she did), why should anyone believe anything else in her “bio” or in fact anything she says? One more candidate lacking moral fibre and integrity. She should save the money and exit the contest now, so the public can concentrate on viable contenders
March 19, 2010 at 8:36 am | by 905ResidentSorry, I also should mention that her suggestion that there be tolls on the Gardiner and DVP to fund the TTC pretty much sealed her fate anyway, so this discussion seems pretty moot.
March 19, 2010 at 8:37 am | by 905ResidentHey guys, turns out Giambrone makes his own mistakes too;
March 19, 2010 at 11:08 am | by Darrenhttp://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/toronto/archive/2010/03/19/oh-adam-giambrone-taking-cabs-to-dates-and-ignoring-his-beloved-ttc-when-will-he-get-it-right.aspx
Darren no one disputes that Giambrone has made many mistakes. But this thread is about Sarah.
March 19, 2010 at 12:32 pm | by Laughing Out Loud