Where is the coverage of the Toronto Mayoral race?

Please post any links that you find on this sad spectacle that makes me cry if I think about it too much.

Moving to central canada, where all the Toronto municipal election threads are and will be.

It should be noted that those Ford supporters carrying signs behind him could be breaking the sign bylaw. As I was informed in no uncertain terms by the city, there should be no signs on public highways within 1.5m of the road, or within 15m of intersections. As the city acts reactively, call 311 when you see possible infractions. Just because it's being carried by a person doesn't make any less legal.

My understanding (gleaned at an information session on Thursday night at Metro Hall) is that signs advocating a specific candidate who has filed papers at City Hall, e.g. "Vote [Whoever]" cannot be displayed within 1.5m of the road, or within 15m of an intersection, and moreover, cannot be displayed anywhere outside of a candidate's campaign office until October 4. T-shirts, badges and stickers are fine, however.

If my understanding of the relevant bylaw is faulty, then I apologize.

I shouldn't have used the Ford campaign as my example. I don't have much time for his ideas, but *any* campaign who does it shouldn't, and if they do, should be reported. What the City chooses to do then is up to them. They should actively go after *every* campaign that does it (and even the ones that I agree with have their halos pretty tarnished) just so one side's supporters can't cry foul. Or, rather, cry foul for a reason.

It may be an unintended consequence of the bylaw, but it is nevertheless a consequence.

And the signs I've seen supporters carry so far look exactly like campaign signs, to be put on lawns or fences or whatever. While there is a fuzzy area, I'd argue that any sign that could be placed in a window, hammered into a lawn, or stapled to a fence and used as a campaign sign is a campaign sign.

To take your example, I would never argue that. Bumper stickers are perfectly fine, according to the city.

Oh, it's getting serious now - the Globe and Mail has submitted the candidates' signatures to a graphologist.

We know she's incredibly accurate because she says Rob Ford likes culture.

This campaign continues to get stranger by the day. At first I thought this was a joke. 

Smitherman’s brother runs for council, backs Ford

To be fair - it would be more comparable if Jack layton's father was a current Tory cabinet minister under Harper and Jack was leading the NDP attacking his own father during question period.

It's pretty common knowledge that Smitherman has a toxic personality and seems to have the book "how to lose friends and alienate people" as his inspiration. I don't know the man personally, but every single person I've met who has had any personal interaction with him - either when he was Hall's Chief of Staff in the 90s to during his time in provincial politics - has told me the same thing - that he is personally abusive, nasty and vindictive. He is apparently another one of those people (like Helena Guergis) who has a revolving door in his office of people who work him for two days and then quit because they can't take the abuse.

So, it should come as no surprise that his poor interpersonal skills extend to his family.

People should stop talking about Ford's popularity. He isn't popular. His opposition is devided that is all. Rossi has no ideas, he is a good speaker but no platform to speak of. He is running on personality alone. He seems to have one. Thompson's claim to fame is bringing potato chips to gas stations in Toronto -- perhaps she would like it if the folks who staff the Toronto Film Permit office, had a kiosk where they could sell pop, chips and juice to location scouts while they are doing their paper work? Smitherman is running on a campaign of decreased costs and increased services -- how he is going to turn this trick has not been explained, except that he intends to spend the first year as the city budget chief, and bring the city to a halt while he does a line by line budget review and terrorizes the staff at City Hall.

Pantalone is the only one who has a platform who isn't lying to the public and telling them they can get more services and better service for less money. Panatlone should speak louder or closer to the microphone, that is about the only criticism I have of him.

In fact, the whole campaign is basically being leveraged through the negative campaigning of Ford, on the false premise that the city is broken, and this has catalyzed the vote of a comprised of whiners who can't stand the idea of things like that they might be delayed for 2 minutes behind a streetcar once a week.

Ford's posse, looks like an unpleasant group of inner city gangbangers dressed in suits.

He is polling in the mid 30's. That isn't "popular". Popular is a vote share in the 40's at least. All that say is that he has managed to catalyze one particular voter group, not plurality of support.

I wish Joe Mihevc or Shelley Carroll would have run.

There are right now FORTY people running for Mayor.

I am hoping to gather links infos and photos of them all here:

http://davenportdemocracy.blogspot.com/2010/09/pick-mayor.html

The media pummels us with coverage of the 'front-runner' five, but there are others.

No. Indeed, it was very interesting being at the all candidates debate this tuesday, since the line up basically meant that the right wing agenda got 4 times the overall speaking time than the "left" view represented by Joe Pantalone -- not the Joe is any kind of radical, or anything. Thus we see how the media and its friends at the Board of Trade effectively set the agenda by default.

Women don't matter.

Frontrunning Toronto mayoral candidate Rob Ford has suddenly dropped out of a "Women Matter" candidates' debate Friday night, an organizer says.

Ford's campaign had previously confirmed that he would attend the debate on "issues of gender representation and diversity in city politics", hosted by Equal Voice Toronto, the Toronto Women's City Alliance and the YWCA, said debate spokesperson Gabby Richichi-Fried.

Somebody from the Ford camp called one of the organizers at 2 a.m. Friday to say he can't attend because "he has to go to a barbecue," Richichi-Fried said.

Thanks for that. Anyone know what that scurilous bunch of "arts" developers the active18 are on about?

I was fully convinced Rob Ford would come up with the dumbest ideas of the campaign until that happened.

Someone asked him how much of Toronto he wanted to "sell to business" or something like that. I couldn't quite hear the question.

Cueball asked "Anyone know what that scurilous bunch of "arts" developers the active 18 are on about?"

Rather wish I knew.  They held what they advertised as an "all candidates debate" with only 9 of the 12 people running. Ken Wood, also a candidate,  was there but told he was welcome to 'ask questions at the end of the debate'. He left. They initially tried to get only certain councillors there, but added a limited few after complaints were made.  There were about 50 or so people attending.

Didn't stay as it looked like platforms being given to candidates to spout predetermined lines.

Actibve18 website is: http://active18.org/about

Question for me is who is Active 18 - really? And "what are they on about?"

Ahh, I thought it was something other than it is.

[url=http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/torontomayoralrace/article/861910--torie... back Smitherman[/url]

Quote:

Former provincial Liberal cabinet minister George Smitherman, trying to stop the Rob Ford mayoral juggernaut, has attracted endorsements from high-profile Tories, including Mike Harris-era cabinet ministers.

“We’re conservatives. He’s a Liberal,” begins an open letter titled “Why We Support George” that includes the names of almost 40 provincial and federal Conservatives, including former citizenship, culture and recreation minister Isabel Basset.

She circulated the email at the request of his campaign, said Stefan Baranski, a spokesman for the candidate and former Conservative communications aide who is himself a signatory. Others include Jamie Watt, a strategist and senior Smitherman campaign adviser.

“He’s tough. But he’s fair,” says the letter also signed by former ministers Charles Harnick (attorney-general) and Dan Newman (environment). He “is the only candidate who has said it’s the mayor’s job to create the climate where businesses will thrive and jobs will be created right here,” the signatories say.

Smitherman, an early frontrunner who is now trailing the penny-pinching Ford, recently promised conservative measures including a “war on waste” and a temporary freeze on property taxes.

You get millions thrown out the window because some suburban drivers can't figure out that the streetcars that are blocking their way are stuck behind cars driven by suburbanites.

And you will still be taking the bus.

 Robby left a robo call to me way back in May, i did feel somewhat special.

I am actually educated and i am not stupid enough to think any of these fools will make my life any better. I will get one extra large cup of single single tim horton coffee and make a toss when PM Harpo is gone though.

I did talk to Joe Pentalone actually, he came to campaign at scarborough civic centre for some asian chinese event, he seemed to also think that the most important issues like job losses and provety are the responsibilities of the federal and provinical government, so who cares about the city hall? at least i can vote for robby and piss everyone off to get some psychological release.

 edited* do not undermine the self destructive nature of those who feel hopeless and cynical.

How about making it worse?

This is ridiculous really. We can't keep making plans, digging holes, and filling them in every time some new idealogue comes along with his brand of populism. Rob Ford's transit plan services half the area of Scarborough that Transit city does, throws millions down the toilet in already started construction, and more millions down the tube when he scraps streetcars that we are already on the hook for purchasing. 

Sometimes "vision" means finishing the job already started.

Edited to add. Of course job losses, and most social safety system are primarily the responsibility of the Federal and Provincial government. There is nothing that the city can do about that other than complain about it because the City is not allowed to tax anything other than property. Otherwise, they have to beg the province and the feds. End of story.

On this point, Joe Panatlone clearly said he would freeze property taxed on pensioners, so that the city tax bills don't end up forcing them to vacate their homes. And this tid-bit tells you everything you need to know about Joe Pantalone. As opposed to sky high crazy promises, obviously he has thought seriously about some issues, and about ways to solve them, as opposed to blowing smoke up everyones ass.

I'd go and help Joe, but I'm otherwise engaged.