crazed monkey

Over a month ago I mentioned that Barbara Hall was still a contender for mayor, as far as I was concerned. Well, not anymore.

Barbara Hall has been in danger of dropping from my list of eligible candidates for quite some time now. Frankly, she’s not a leader. Yes, she may be conciliatory and an effective manager, but I feel that Toronto needs someone who can really push the city forward. Hall has experience on her side, but that was as mayor of Toronto before amalgamation. A larger city needs stronger leadership who will take a stand, not backroom negotiation with peoples unseen.

Secondly, Barbara Hall continues to waffle on the future of the island airport and still looks to be leaning in favour of expansion. I dislike the idea of expanding the island airport, but I also dislike how Hall has not been clear on the issue.

David Miller will most certainly get my vote, and for reasons opposite to why I will not vote for Barbara Hall. Miller is a leader who has stood up for what he believes in. He fought for the MFP leasing inquiry, despite opposition from other councillors and from Mayor Mel Lastman. Miller comes across as ethical, which is exactly what Toronto needs after years of corruption. A mega-city leaves ample room for sleaze to go unnoticed, but I get the feeling, based on his past record, that Miller will keep watch.

John Tory also comes across as a strong leader, and I’m sure that Toronto would fare well with him as mayor. However, I do not agree with him on several key issues, namely his promise to ban panhandling, his proposal to introduce garbage incinerators, and his negative ad campaign against David Miller.

On a related note, my weblog is getting lots of hits from people searching for information on John Tory and John Nunziata. (Search on Google for both these mayoral candidates to see why.) The accesses continue to mount and threaten to replace “monkey” with “john” (203 vs. 196 at current count) as the highest ranking search keyword for my weblog. There’s a joke in there somewhere, I’m sure.

Posted on October 27th, 2003 in ontario, politics - No Comments »

The Toronto mayoral election is generating quite a buzz this year, and thank goodness for that! However, selecting a mayor is but one choice to consider come November 10th. The other equally important decision involves selecting your city councillor.

Your city councillor is to your municipal government as your MPP and MP are to your provincial and federal governments. That is, they represent the interests of the area in which you live while they are at council. As the province and country are divided into ridings, Toronto is divided into 44 wards for the 2003 municipal election. To find out which ward you live in, consult the City of Toronto Election 2003 website.

Ontario cities and municipalities have what is called a “weak mayor” system, in that the mayor’s vote in council is equal to that of a councillor’s. The mayor cannot rule by decree, but instead has to galvanise support from the councillors. A mayor with a strong vision and the ability to successfully communicate that vision can persuade councillors to vote for his ideas. By contrast, a mayor who cannot defend his vision for the city, or one who has no definite plans, cannot hope to draw support from council.

In selecting your councillor and your mayor, there are a number of strategies you could possibly employ. If you feel strongly about a mayoral candidate’s platform, it would be wise to select a councillor in your ward who shares the same ideas and who would consistently vote with your mayor. Similarly, if you feel strongly about most of a mayoral candidate’s ideas but oppose others, you might want to vote for a councillor who shares your views and who would vote with your mayor most of, but not all of, the time.

Unfortunately, many wards offer few choices as to candidates for city councillor. It is also not as easy to determine what your candidates stand for. Once you know who is running for councillor in your ward, try a search on Google. If environmental issues are your concern, the North Toronto Green Community has compiled some statements from candidates for city council from selected wards. For existing councillors, you might want to browse through the council and committee minutes to get a feel for how good a job your councillor is doing. The city of Toronto has been rife with scandals these past few years, so it would be wise to avoid re-electing a tainted councillor.

If selecting a mayor and a city councillor wasn’t enough, there’s also the question of choosing a school board trustee, but I’ll leave that one for someone else to tackle.

Update: Andrew Spicer has posted a review of Toronto Star columnist Royson James’ column in which Royson rates city councillors running for re-election. Andrew helpfully extracted Royson’s rating for Michael Walker, my city councillor, saving me valuable minutes.

On a related note, Erika Marquardt, the only person running against Michael Walker for city councillor in Ward 22, seems to be something of a political unknown. As such, I feel compelled to vote for Walker. Honestly, if you are running for public office and cannot be bothered to set up even a small web presence for your campaign, I cannot be bothered to vote for you. Marquardt didn’t even supply Toronto Elections with contact information, as evidenced by the candidates list for Ward 22, although I’m sure there’s a good reason.

Posted on October 24th, 2003 in ontario, politics - No Comments »

Preliminary voter turnout numbers for last Thursday’s election are at a disappointing 57 per cent. By contrast, the recent election in PEI drew 83 per cent of eligible voters despite taking place in the aftermath of a hurricane in which half the province lost power.

Words fail me, fellow Ontarians, they really do.

Posted on October 5th, 2003 in ontario, politics - No Comments »

The results are in for the 2003 Ontario election:

1. Liberal: 72 seats
2. PC: 24 seats
3. NDP: 7 seats

This is quite close to James Bow’s guesstimate of 70 seats, 24 seats and 9 seats for the Liberals, PCs and NDP, respectively. James’ guess was on par with the more scientific, albeit slightly more accurate, predictions which were touted in the news a few days ago. Good guess-work, James.

It’s no surprise that Michael Bryant won in my riding of St. Paul’s. Similarly, I am not really surprised that Liz Sandals of the Liberals won in Vic’s riding of Guelph-Wellington. I am somewhat surprised by the Liberal win in my parent’s riding of Pickering-Ajax-Uxbridge, where Janet Ecker lost in a close race with Liberal candidate and ex-Pickering mayor Wayne Arthurs.

Naturally, my hopes for a Liberal minority have been quashed. It was a pipe dream anyway. What is going to happen to the NDP, however? They increased their popular support but decreased their numbers in the Legislature. This is Howard Hampton’s third go at the office of the Premier. Despite his excellent leadership qualities (personally, I thought he shone through the campaign while the Liberals and PCs took shots at each other), he has failed to garner more seats for his party. He hasn’t show any signs of stepping down tonight, but we’ll see what happens during the coming term.

It will also be interesting to see how the Liberals make out in the next four years. If the province has a large deficit as they claimed during the campaign, how will they balance the books? They promised not to increase taxes on individuals, but have left the door open for increased corporate taxes. Should the economy take a downturn, as it did during the years of Bob Rae and the NDP, the PCs will instantly lay the blame on the Liberals. Nothing less than stellar economic growth will appease the PCs, even though there are already signs the economy is slipping somewhat. Again, we’ll see.

I am of two minds tonight. On the one hand, I am glad the PC government is on the out, but on the other I am not exactly thrilled of the Liberal landslide. Nevertheless, it was an exciting campaign.

Posted on October 2nd, 2003 in ontario, politics - No Comments »

I just came back from casting my ballot. In the true fashion of representative democracy, I voted for the candidate who I feel will best represent my riding. Provincially, I am hoping for a Liberal minority.

My weblog has been getting a lot of hits from people searching for predictions for today’s election. I am not sure whether they simply cannot wait until tonight to get a good idea of the outcome or whether they wish to know which strategic voting method to employ when casting their ballots.

It is on that note that I now present a provincial election haiku:

Cold day in the fall
Ballots are cast in boxes —
Warm winds tomorrow

Posted on October 2nd, 2003 in ontario, politics - No Comments »