I will be voting today but frankly, I am not even sure it matters. I feel awful saying this as someone who works at encouraging members of my low-income housing project to become more civically engaged. But as a young black woman, I really don't think my vote matters to politicians and despite the fact that I come from one of the largest visible minority communities in Ottawa, I also come from one of the poorest, and throughout this election I have heard politicians talking to those with wealth, those who own houses, those who earn enough disposable income to invest in their campaigns. Not people like me. But one positive aspect of this election has been the number of black candidates who are running.

There are some people who will never vote strategically. I'm not one of them. There may be elections to come in which I might decide to vote for the lesser of the many evils on offer. But let me be clear: Toronto's municipal election this time around is not one of them. I'm voting for Joe Pantalone and not because he's the least of the evils: I'm voting for Joe because his vision of a city that leaves no one behind matches my aspirations for Toronto to be a great city of the 21st century. I know Alice Klein disagrees with me. 

October 22, 2010 For immediate release:

Victims of gun violence and public safety experts expressed their shock at comments by mayoralty candidate Rob Ford on gun control.

Winnipeg mayoral races are typically a cake walk for the incumbent. The only sitting mayor who has been pushed out since Bill Norrie was the deeply and justifiably unpopular Susan Thompson, elected in 1992, who was forced to the side because of overwhelming popular feeling against her.

According to the most recent local poll this election, between incumbent Sam Katz and former NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis, is pretty much a dead heat. If Katz does fail to get re-elected he will have only have his lack of vision to blame.

If you've ever been blindfolded, spun around a few times and told to take a whack at a piñata, you'll understand the slapdash way Toronto's mayoral candidates have attempted to use online tools to engage voters. Social media, having only recently taken the proverbial clothes off the back of politics, calls for elections to happen in real time.