With all the hubbub around Toronto’s municipal election—and it has received attention far beyond our little hamlet—we’d forgotten that other cities hold elections, too. Even places outside of Ontario! Calgary, for example, held its municipal elections yesterday, and the results were pretty stunning: Naheed Nenshi, a Harvard-educated Ismaili Muslim, came from behind to take 40 per cent of the vote, despite polling in the single digits as recently as August. According to the Calgary Herald, it was quite a night:
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Calgary humiliates Toronto with its election results
One week out, Toronto’s election gets crazier by the day
The polls will close in just over a week, but the election race in Toronto keeps getting odder and odder. Here’s a roundup of election errata: some of it is zany fun; other stuff is just weird; and just for good luck, we’ll throw in some useful information.
• A few months back, the city released an ad for a municipal service that was both engaging and funny. That alone was news, but it’s also been parodied and put to use as—what else?—a video against Rob Ford (at left). Hey, they can’t all be Old Spice parodies.
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Toronto’s weekend of entirely unsurprising mayoral endorsements
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While the Globe was getting into some trouble Saturday morning with its Ford-is-fat story, the Toronto Sun and Toronto Star both made their official endorsements for mayor of Toronto. Surprising absolutely nobody, the Star endorsed George Smitherman and the Sun endorsed Rob Ford. We haven’t seen an endorsement this predictable since Jack Layton and Olivia Chow endorsed Joe Pantalone.
The anyone-but-Ford bandwagon gets a bit more cramped: Adam Vaughan endorses Smitherman
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With the election now 10 days away and polls being increasingly unkind to anyone but the front-runners (that’s you, Pants), Toronto is settling somewhat uncomfortably into a predictable two-man race: George Smitherman gaining support as the anyone-but-Rob Ford candidate. The poll earlier this week showed it, Rocco Rossi’s departure showed it, and now the latest news is that the Smitherman camp is getting the endorsement of Adam Vaughan, councillor for Ward 20 and one of Ford’s most prominent opponents on council.
And then there were three: after one last terrible, horrible, no good, very bad poll, Rocco Rossi drops out of the race
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Arriving at the Rocco Rossi campaign headquarters at 9 p.m. last night was pretty surreal for the glut of reporters who responded to his announcement. Up until a few hours before, Rossi was considered one of the serious, if struggling, candidates in the race. That all changed at 4 p.m., when a Newstalk 1010 poll conducted by Ipsos Reid showed Rossi badly trailing at four per cent—and only three per cent among committed voters. (To put this in perspective: the poll’s margin of error is 4.9 per cent.) In just over an hour, the Rossi campaign sent out a press release saying he was still in the race, followed by another release at 7:30 saying Rossi would “make an important announcement” later in the evening. Somewhere between the two press releases—5:30 and 7:30 yesterday evening—Rossi decided to drop out. Perhaps more significantly, he is not endorsing another candidate.
Boardwalk Pub owner pulls the trigger, sues Ford for libel
The battle for the Beach is heating up. It all started back when the city extended Tuggs Inc.’s monopoly on selling food and drinks on the eastern Woodbine Beach, and has since become a symbol (for Rob Ford, among others) of everything that’s wrong at city hall. Ford has used some pretty harsh language regarding the deal, including the words “civic corruption,” which finally got the owner of the pub, George Foulidis, to threaten Ford with a defamation suit if he didn’t retract his allegations and apologize. Shocking everyone nobody, Ford has refused to retract his statement or apologize, and so Foulidis has pulled the trigger and filed a lawsuit against Ford.
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Rob Ford plagued by drive-by smears again
It’s hard out here for a front-runner: Rob Ford, having swatted down anonymous Web ads two weeks ago that referred to him as “arrested and jailed,” now faces another anonymous attack, this time in the form of lawn signs planted on University Avenue a few blocks south of Queen’s Park. The Toronto Sun reports:
Around 10 signs that read, “Wife-beating, racist drunk for mayor!” were planted in the University Ave. flowerbeds near Dundas St. W. at some point overnight….
It isn’t clear who is responsible for the signs. Erika Mozes, George Smitherman’s campaign spokesman, was adamant that Ford’s main rival had nothing to do with them.
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George Smitherman proposes expert council to reform city; existing city council apparently unqualified
Yesterday, while racking up the endorsement of former mayor John Sewell, George Smitherman unveiled his latest idea for reforming city hall: a group of seven experts that could iron out all the kinks in the whole amalgamation thing, 13 years after the fact. The panel will include a number of local notables, including former chief city planner Paul Bedford and developer Stephen Diamond.
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Mayor shocks no one by endorsing his deputy mayor, Joe Pantalone
David Miller towers over Joe Pantalone while endorsing him for mayor (Image: John Michael McGrath)
Rumours circled yesterday evening, and this morning at 11 they were all confirmed. Mayor David Miller has endorsed his long-serving deputy mayor, Joe Pantalone. In the cramped hallways of an ESL school, the mayor loomed over Pantalone as he sang his praises. Pantalone, said the mayor, “is the only candidate who’s not tearing this city down” as he runs. Just in case the reporters present were missing a core issue for the pair, a large Transit City banner was being held up behind them by Pantalone volunteers.
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Anyone-but-Ford movement gathers steam: Joe Mihevc jumps off Pantalone’s ship and onto the deck of the S.S. Smitherman
Joe Mihevc gives the thumbs-up to Smitherman
As the early polls opened today, Sarah Thomson made good on her endorsement of George Smitherman and cast her early ballot for the candidate she hopes can beat Rob Ford in the mayoral election. But that’s not the only news in the anyone-but-Ford movement. Team Smitherman got an extra boost this afternoon when TTC vice-chair Joe Mihevc announced that he is endorsing Smitherman. And, as it was with Thomson’s endorsement, the shadow of Ford looms large over this one.
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Rossi unveils finance plan that doesn’t involve magic
Rocco Rossi talks lucre (Image: Rocco Rossi)
In his race for the mayor’s office, Rocco Rossi has made some pretty big promises: privatizing Toronto Hydro, building subways and digging a tunnel through downtown. So when the Toronto Sun started reporting on his financial plan this morning, we were sort of expecting more big and crazy things, like promising to find a winning lotto ticket every day, or mining for gold under Fort York. Those hopes were dashed when Rossi unveiled a plan that is actually modest and sane (well, relative to his previous announcements).
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Plague of election signs takes over Toronto
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As of 12:01 this morning, candidates for municipal office can officially put their signs up all over Toronto (and keep them there until October 28, when they have to be removed). Like locusts, this plague will pass quickly through the city, and by the end, all we’ll be left with is the lamentations of the victims: the losing campaigns, and anyone who has to figure out how to fit the sign into a recycling bin.
Top Rossi aide preparing to jump ship, order doughnuts
The most delicious story this Monday morning has to be the Globe’s report on a top Rocco Rossi aide who is contemplating jumping to the Rob Ford campaign (and bringing a bunch of staffers with him) should Rossi drop out of the race. Like all great Canadian conspiracies, the sensitive negotiations took place at Tim Hortons:
John Capobianco offered his support and that of a handful of Rossi staffers during a Sept. 29 meeting at an Etobicoke Tim Hortons with Nick Kouvalis, Mr. Ford’s deputy campaign manager, sources tell The Globe and Mail.
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Comparing the Ford and Smitherman financial plans: different ideas, same big question marks
Ford, lucre, Smitherman (Images: Shaun Merritt)
Coincidences are rare in politics, so it makes perfect sense that the two leading contenders to be mayor of Toronto released their financial plans on the same day. What an excellent opportunity to place them side-by-side, compare their numbers and ask, What do the plans of George Smitherman and Rob Ford have to say about the kind of Toronto we’re about to get?
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