Mobilizing Support for Joe Pantalone Part 2

Best line of the election I think belongs to Case Ootes

He said last night at his retirement party  " There are five candidates in this election and unfortunately one of them will win"

Ah but he might not be correct-but someone will win.

Give it a rest it was joke he made.    He may be a fossil but was there anybody taking any but the top five seriously and even then it should have been the top three.  .

You joking

There is only one "progressive" among the four major candidates - Joe Pantalone.  Smitherman may be "anti-Ford" but he isn't progressive.

I do however agree  that we need electoral reform for the mayoral contests in Toronto.

Parties at city hall would cut the opportunities for corruption.

Instant runoff would help.  In cases where there is more than one desirable candidate (not the current mayoralty race) the crossovers between them would combine to defeat an undesirable candidate.

The thing is that to actually have a municipal party system, you would need changes in provincial legislation. Right now municipal parties cannot officially exist, cannot raise or spend money, cannot appear on ballots etc...If we had an amendment to the municipal act to allow for parties it might change things. The fact that Ford is supporting "like-minded people" is nothing new - candidates for mayor have always done that in some informal way.

Stockholm wrote:

The thing is that to actually have a municipal party system, you would need changes in provincial legislation. Right now municipal parties cannot officially exist, cannot raise or spend money, cannot appear on ballots etc...If we had an amendment to the municipal act to allow for parties it might change things. The fact that Ford is supporting "like-minded people" is nothing new - candidates for mayor have always done that in some informal way.

One thing to keep in mind: if there were a municipal party system that went by federal-provincial labels, David Miller might *not* have become mayor--the explicit "NDP" brand being a potential killer, you know...

Jaymz Bee for Joe!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooDKnxRL8Vo

Thats the problem...Joe is too nice debating the other candidates....Joe is standing by his record......Joe has been there forever.

And the biggest problem is that either one of the front runners are the same cut and slash kill the union types. Smitherman has experience with killing union jobs......Ford will try but I dont think he will get enough votes on the city council.

Indeed, Joe's perceived weakness is his greatest strength. He is not a loud mouth or a con artist. It's great having all these "progressives" running around shooting him in the back for not being a dickhead like the others. He is reasonable, intelligent and thoughtful; it is these characteristics that make him a progressive candidate.

Indeed these are the values we are trying to promote, are we not?

These values appeal to people. People with any serious political sense who are actually interested in getting the ONLY progressive candidate elected would better serve their cause by asserting the value of his level headed approach, which can win people over especially in the context of the outraged panic mongering of the Ford camp and the Smitherman camp.

This characteristic is one thing that makes him stick out in comparison to the others. It is one of his key assets.

Please Stockybaba. The reason that there is little to no news coverage is that the star seems to have a big iron in this fire for some reason. I am sure in other circumstances the Star would be talking about how "gentile", "modest" and "personable" he is. All of those things are true. Think about the way they pitch egg heads like Ignatief.  Any of the other possible candidates you mentioned, such as Shelly Carroll would be having the same problem.

Look how effectively they took out Giambrone.

This is why we are relying on you to stop griping and work on getting out the vote. Stop allowing yourself to be a victim of the media. Here you have your own media, and you couldn't be doing better service to the Royson James line by repeating it over and over again, even here.

Right wing bloggers are quoting you as supporting Smitherman, because they say you think Pantalone can not win.

clandestiny wrote:

If Pantalone wants to win, he should PROPOSE to hold a pot referendum, just like California, within a year of election. The result would be subject to national laws, but....after all, Ford got busted for pot, and most neocons oppose pot laws (though they know that affects nothing) ...

A vote on marijuana would give the mayor's race cachet the pigmedia cannot ignore. AM640's oakley was doing a '911-was it real or not'? piece last monday and he semi- interviewed eric Margolis (who the foxnews Tor sun recently let go!) ...sort of...actually, oakley just heaped the regular abuse on 'truthers' and raged about Iran's president saying the US gov only one able to get away with such complex scheme as 911 etc....The reason i mention this is that the reactionaries control the news, and a pot referendum would blow them away...

OMG this is the funniest thing I have read thus far this week.  I just wish it was satire.

How deep he is or how inspiring he is - is a matter of opinion - but I think he would have been higher profile.

I think Giambrone might have been able to mobilize young voters more...but personally, I prefer Joe.  Giambrone strikes me as a crass opportunist of the worst sort. 

But Cueball is right...we should really get out of this "how will the MSM frame this" and "we need more charisma" type thinking and moibilize behind Joe Pantalone because he has the best policies.

Its all very well to be a winner in "one-on-one' situations - but there are about 1 million eligible voters in Toronto and even if the election was 10 years down the road - no candidate is going to personally meet more than about 1 percent of the voters.

Quote:

A column in the Toronto Star on Wednesday heralded Pantalone as a kingmaker with Smitherman as the prospective king now that Thomson has dropped out of the race — leaving four main contenders to replace Mayor David Miller.

Pantalone campaign chairman John Laschinger told the Sun on Wednesday that “Joe’s in this to the end.”

“He’s doing five debates (Wednesday), hardly the sign of anyone considering doing anything else,” Laschinger said. “I am just appalled at the anti-democratic campaign being conducted by the Star over the past 10 days.”

The veteran campaign organizer said he’s never seen anything like it in his life.

“They are suggesting who should get in and out based on polls, one of which they manipulated the timing of, they’re shilling for Smitherman,” he said. “(Smitherman) still hasn’t told anybody why he wants to be mayor.

“He’s gone from 49% to 23% and I didn’t hear the Star saying he should get out of the race while that was going on.”

Laschinger vowed Pantalone’s campaign will be fighting to the end and has the cash to do it.

“I have enough money to finish the campaign and enough money to run a media campaign,” Laschinger said. “Stay tuned.”

Mike Smith, Pantalone’s spokesman, told the Sun his guy is the only “progressive candidate” on the mayoral ballot on Oct. 25.

“George Smitherman’s view of the city is diametrically opposed to Joe Pantalone’s vision of the city for the same reason that Rob Ford’s vision of the city is diametrically opposed to Joe’s vision,” Smith said. “(Ford and Smitherman) are different in surface only, not in content.”

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/09/29/15520411.html

Thanks for the Sun link! I made sure it was passed around at the campaign office.

Joe doesn't grandstand. He listens to all sides, develops a plan, then make sure it gets done, all the while holding true to his progressive roots. Some seem to find this to be a problem. Go figure.

I'm eager to work with those who see it as a strength. Not much time left to join the effort in making this a city for all.

I don't recall the Star calling Barbara Hall to get out of the race in 2003 and make room for Miller.

The fact is, on the ISSUES, Smitherman is much, much, much closer to Ford than he is to Pantalone.  If Pantalone came out in second place, my guess is that the defection from Smitherman's camp would be much greater, with pretty much every progressive-minded voter going to Pantalone.  Smitherman's support would be limited to some hyper-partisan big-"L" Liberals and some rightwingers who think Ford is too much of a buffoon.  The only reason some progressive people are supporting Smitherman is because he can "beat Ford", there's nothing progressive about his policies and his becoming mayor will be a major step backward for Toronto.

Joe can advocate a progressivve city hall for sex workers !

There is nothing "grudging" about the Star's support for Smitherman. They practically act as his press bureau. The Toronto Star has gone to such extraordinary lengths to make Smitherman mayor that you could rename the paper the Smitherman Star. He sends the hearts of the corporatists who own the Star aflutter.

On another note, i find it interesting that in the past I've been accused of being too much of an apologist for the NDP - but now the moment that I post that I think that Joe Pantalone is maybe not the most dynamic NDP candidate for mayor of Toronto - i get accused of disloyalty. You can't have it both ways!

Get your fresh copy here:

[url=http://www.mayorjoe.ca/2010/09/29/small-wonder-joe-looks-up-to-the-city-... new posters for the campaign[/url]

RETURN OF THE TINY PERFECT MAYOR!

No one accussed him of being disloyal to the NDP. I said some NDPr's were being disloyal to a candidate that has put in thirty odd years of loyal service to his party, of which I am not a member.