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:
The first thing everyone has to understand is that we have an election and there will be a winner and no candidate is without warts. I tend to discredit ex employees with grudges simply there are alot of crappy employees who leave or get fired in organizations where they simply do not cut the mustard. There has been quite a bit of positive press suppoting Thompson’s raising of the toll issue as a necessary part of the election discussion though most likely not a winner for her at least it puts it on the table for debate. Plus I think Transit City LRT lines are a third class solution and priority needs to be subways. Alot of people in Toronto would be willing to pay for things as long as we don’t have fiscally irresponsible like the Miller gang throwing money into a pit. For generations Quebec has done the exact same thing as Thompson suggests where a new highwy is built and paid off by tolls until the project is paid for then the toll is removed. She doesn’t have a chance but she’s obviously intelligence and talented. Someone has to win this thing so I will favour Rossi and for those commentators who don’t agree with selling of anything, think again, because it was one of the key proposals of Miller’s Blue Ribbon Panel and the necessary thing for all Government is to rid itself of long term employee legacy costs and stick exclusively to employment in core services only.
March 19, 2010 at 7:31 pm | by Dave McDonaldHere is great commentary from a professor who agrees with her. He then goes on to say that the newer stations in the TTC are poorly designed and it desribes the extension into Vaughan as being; “The $2.6 billion being spent on extending the Spadina subway line could be almost as wasteful, chiefly because there is no plan for high-density redevelopment at its stations to provide ridership sufficient to justify the extension.”
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/781418–reassess-transit-city-it-has-too-many-flaws
March 19, 2010 at 7:32 pm | by DarrenHere is her official response;
March 19, 2010 at 9:08 pm | by This just inhttp://www.sarahthomson.ca/blog/lesson-learned-lapse-memory
@This just in; Thanks for posting the apology.
Thomson deserves some credit for handling this issue quickly. She may lose a little credibility with some over this debacle, but let’s face it, her transgression is not on the scale as Giambrone’s lies and manipulations a short while ago (and which continue to this day).
And for what it’s worth, I still think Smitherman’s slippery baggage with eHealth is far more concerning an issue to the electorate than the baggage being carried around by the other mayoral candidates.
March 19, 2010 at 10:27 pm | by JeffreyI read her apology. She said she forgot. Why does everyone
March 20, 2010 at 8:01 am | by What's the Biggy?jump to the conclusion it’s something more? I mean really? It’s not as if
she said she won! I can’t remeber where I put my wallet mist of the time. How can she be expected to remeber how many votes she LOST by ten and more tears ago!?
It only matters because she’s throwing it around as some kind of accomplishment – as though her close call in the Hamilton race makes her more of a success than she is. It’s part of the way she’s selling herself. She didn’t forget her wallet – to use “What’s the Biggy’s” context, she suggested that because her wallet was in the hall, we should be happy. But her wallet was actually under the couch.
She’s running for mayor, she’s putting herself out there, she’s indicated that she’s up for public scrutiny. She should pay attention to the details because we’d expect our mayor to pay attention to the details.
March 20, 2010 at 1:50 pm | by Voterthe pro-thomson commenters on here are remarkably unified and on-message. why, it’s almost like they know one another! what a strange coincidence!
March 20, 2010 at 1:54 pm | by MastercraftMastercraft, a unified voice is a sign of a common ground and logic, and nothing more. You’re reading into the conspiracy theory too much
March 21, 2010 at 5:23 pm | by Darren$100,000,000 dollars found, 1,500 votes lost… Details, details… these politicians obviously have crazy memories… cut them some slack!! What’s the big deal?
March 21, 2010 at 7:43 pm | by Wendy SI doubt Sarah has ever taken the TTC! She has a nanny, an SUV, an island….
March 22, 2010 at 1:11 pm | by not the person she wants you to think she isSarah who?
March 25, 2010 at 11:04 pm | by Pedro…not to mention a rich husband with a trust fund and a maid and a silver spoon. This is just a diversion so she doesn’t have to spend any time with her children. So messy….
April 29, 2010 at 8:04 pm | by Wish It Into The CornfieldI was the one who found her blog and made her answer to why she was being such an opportinist and a phony siding up with Smitherman that criminal.
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/sueann_levy/2010/10/04/15579976.html
Remember me Sarah just give up already your going no where.
December 17, 2010 at 1:41 am | by Joseph Bucca