Toronto municipal election City Coucil

In Toronto's Ward 2, which candidate(s) are among the best to beat Michael Ford?

http://app.toronto.ca/vote/candidatesByWard.do?officeType=2&ward=2

Some local candidate websites are listed.

Cressy to announce his candidacy for Ward 20 councillor tomorrow.

https://twitter.com/goldsbie/status/494173065031323648/photo/1

More that they haven't figured out the way to put their foot in the door, while Ford (opportunistically, predatorially) has.

From a recent NOW piece...

Such low expectations of public service make Ford a hero for offering his black supporters a hamburger and a little attention. A woman who gave her name as Flavour told me passionately, “I’ve been living in Scarborough for many years, and this is the only mayor I’ve ever gotten to shake hands with.”

This sort of desperation and insecurity would be comic if it weren’t so consistent among the blacks I interviewed. 

Ford may not be perfect (I heard this at least a dozen times), he may even be racist sometimes, but he performs token positive gestures toward blacks that others won’t, and that’s good enough for many. 

Again, assuming this analysis is correct, Rob Ford outshines the left in connecting with the very communities that the left claims to be the biggest supporters of. Even after Ford has left the scene in two months(as I'm sure he will), I think progressives(and not just in Toronto) need to do some pretty serious soul-searching about this.

http://tinyurl.com/mt44qz3

voice of the damned wrote:

To go back to to your analogy, the left are ethical lenders, offering loans at 1% interest to people in poor neighbourhoods. Ford is the loan shark offering loans at 40% interest, with default punishable by knee-breaking. And yet Ford still manages to do better business than the left-wingers. Something just doesn't add up there.

Well, sadly, it's just like the sharks being more conspicuous visual presences in said poor neighbourhoods--to the point where they're "normalized".  The foot-in-the-door factor. 

Whereas the "ethical lenders" have to really struggle to be noticed--especially when existing loan shark patrons are too fatally beholden or in denial.

It's like "comfort food" that's bad for you.

We are in the September phase of the Toronto municipal election: Whom do you recommend for wards 1 to 44? Note: feel free to mention one or more wards.  Key wards: 2 (someone who can defeat Michael "Ford"), 7 (someone who can defeat Giorgio Mammoliti), 20 (lots of possibilities), and others.

Ward 2: all the attention seems to be focused upon Andray Domise.

Sandra Bussin just filled out her nomination forms and will try and win back her former east-end seat from Mary Margaret McMahon.

It's interesting that MMM's win was seen as a victory for the right against Miller ally Bussin, especially since John Tory and the Toronto Sun endorsed her. However MMM's voting record on council is firmly in the centre-left region. 

It would be a real shame if Perks lost, he might be the left's most effective councillor in the chamber. I don't know who his ward opponents are but he was re-elected handedly back in in 2010.

Skinny Dipper wrote:

We are in the September phase of the Toronto municipal election: Whom do you recommend for wards 1 to 44? Note: feel free to mention one or more wards.  Key wards: 2 (someone who can defeat Michael "Ford"), 7 (someone who can defeat Giorgio Mammoliti), 20 (lots of possibilities), and others.

(1) Well, for starters consider [url=http://www.labourcouncil.ca/uploads/8/8/6/1/8861416/endorsements_as_of_s... list[/url]. I personally would choose some names other than those chosen by Labour Council, but I happen to support their choices in the three wards you ask about.  (I also am happy [url=http://www.russford.ca/]they endorsed Ford for Ward 6[/url]...)

(2) NOW Magazine usually has a list of candidates for Council positions (ignoring or barely mentioning trustee positions) in the issue immediately prior to election day that is also worth considering. An advantage of considering the NOW list of endorsements is that each has [url=http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=177429]a brief explanation (this link for the 2010 election)[/url], from some NOW writer's perspective, of why that candidate is clearly the best / better than another kind of good candidate / better to support than the idiot likely to be elected. Their endorsements are not masters theses written with extensive footnotes on the relative merits of each candidate on every issue imaginable -- but, based on past years' editions, it gives one some good rationale to ponder as a starting point when one makes one's own choice.

According to some ward polls by Forum Research (I know i know)...Paula Fletcher is wayyyyy ahead in Ward 30 with 57% of the vote compared to 18% for Ford supporter and blue Liberal Liz White and a humiliating 13% for Jane Farrow who was supposed to be Adam Vaughan's Liberal plant...people thought she would be such a strong candidate because she leads walking tours...but apparently she is going NO WHERE.

In ward 20, Cressy leads everyone else by a 5 to 1 margin - he is at 47% and his next biggest competitor Sarah Thomson is wayyy back at 9%. Looks like the Keystone Cops local liberals failed to dig up anyone sympathetic to Vaughan to keep the council seat in liberal hands and so it will be a Cressy coronation. 

Skinny Dipper wrote:

 Key wards: 2 (someone who can defeat Michael "Ford")

Not anymore

Stockholm wrote:

According to some ward polls by Forum Research (I know i know)...Paula Fletcher is wayyyyy ahead in Ward 30 with 57% of the vote compared to 18% for Ford supporter and blue Liberal Liz White and a humiliating 13% for Jane Farrow who was supposed to be Adam Vaughan's Liberal plant...people thought she would be such a strong candidate because she leads walking tours...but apparently she is going NO WHERE.

In ward 20, Cressy leads everyone else by a 5 to 1 margin - he is at 47% and his next biggest competitor Sarah Thomson is wayyy back at 9%. Looks like the Keystone Cops local liberals failed to dig up anyone sympathetic to Vaughan to keep the council seat in liberal hands and so it will be a Cressy coronation. 

Stockholm, the seat was never in 'liberal hands'.  Vaughan was not a Liberal when he was on council.  He was an independent progressive that appealed to both NDPers and Liberals, thus his 75% margin of victory in 2010.  It was never a 'liberal seat'.

As for Joe Cressy, he is lucky that he is able to keep running on Olivia Chow's name, because he doesn't seem to have much of an identity of his own.  It's fortunate for him that he is running in Olivia's old seat and won't have much competition.

Another thing about Cressy to remember is that even if he may superficially seem "backroom hack", parentally speaking, he has strong municipal heritage.

And as far as Vaughan goes: maybe he inadvertently shot himself in the municipal foot by being "all but NDP" in Council.  So, given all of that, he can *probably* settle with Cressy as his municipal replacement, much as Olivia Chow could settle with Adam Vaughan as *her* municipal (never mind federal) replacement...

Debater wrote:

His 'strong municipal heritage' mainly consists of him getting where he is because of his father's legacy and his connections to Jack & Olivia.  Otherwise he would never have been chosen to contend for a high-profile seat in Parliament at the age of 29.

He is wayyy more qualified than a certain Justin trudeau who only got handed a seat in parliament because he is the son of Pierre trudeau and whose resume consisted of being a snowboard instructor and apart-time drama teacher. in contrast Cressy has done AIDS prevention work in Africa and run literacy programs  in First nations reserves in northern Ontario. Seriously, you are trying to foist an utterly unqualified trust fund play boy on the Canadian people as a candidate for Prime Minister and then you have the nerve to cast aspersions on the qualifiactions of someone running for a city council seat in Toronto???

BTW: There are lots of examples of New Democrats returning the favour and backing people with Liberal ties at the municipal level. Alex Mazer was an assistant to Dwight Duncan and is a Liberal and is running against Ana Bailao and many NDPers are backing him including Brian Topp.

Nice to know "Debater"  that you think that working as an AIDS activist in Africa and doing literacy work in aboriginal reserves in Northern Ontario are WORTHLESS.I guess that's the typical Liberal attitude that spending your life as an activist working on social justice and environmental issues = having no accomplishments. To Liberals it seems the only thing that counts as an "accomplishment" is being a corporate lawyer or a general in the army (not sure where Trudeau the snowboard instructor fits in).

Here is a bit more about Cressy - compare that to Justin Trudeau's incredibly thin resume - and I repeat Cressy is running to be a city councillor which is a traditional entry level job in politics - Trudeau wants to be PM even though he has accomplished ZILCH in his life - before running for parliament in his late 30s Justin Trudeau had not been involved in any public policy or social justice related cause at all - he was a play boy teaching people to snowboard - most trust fund kids do far more with their bounty than Trudeau was willing to do.

"The environment. Joe is an environmental activist. In his role as Campaigns Coordinator at the Polaris Institute he successfully pushed Toronto City Council and 75 municipalities across Canada to ban bottled water in city buildings and to invest in and promote safe public water.

- Income fairness and food security. Joe is deeply concerned about the increasing income gap in our City. As a former Board Director of The Stop Community Food Centre, he sought to raise the issues of income inequality and food security by providing direct services such as local bake ovens, community gardens and markets, and food banks, and also by sponsoring sustainable-food-systems education and promoting community advocacy.

- Transit. Transit is a defining issue for our City. Joe worked with Olivia Chow to create and launch ‘I Heart Public Transit,’ a local campaign for a national transit strategy that would allow for sustainable, and predictable long-term funding for transit in Toronto.

- Building Social Infrastructure. Joe understands that strong social infrastructure and social services are vital to the quality of life in a big city. He was a Board Director at Social Planning Toronto, an organization that is committed to research and advocacy to ensure a strong quality of life for all Torontonians and participation by local people in decisions that affect their lives.

As the former Director of Campaigns and Outreach at the Stephen Lewis Foundation, he worked to support community-based HIV/AIDS organizations in sub-Saharan Africa. He has also led literacy programs in fly-in Aboriginal reserves in Northern Ontario, worked with anti-poverty and human rights groups in South Africa, volunteered on HIV and AIDS projects with the LGBT community in Ghana, and was an active youth leader in the peace movement in the lead-up to the war in Iraq.

If this tumor is actually malignant ford will die pretty soon

I wouldn't wish cancer on anyone - but there is a loit about this story that is very suspicious:

1. When people check into rehab they are invariable given and very thorough and complete physical. Is it possible that a "very large" tumour could have been completely missed in June and then suddenly pops up in early September??? Especially when the rehab clinic Ford went into also promotes itself as also specializing in "early cancer detection"

2. Why isn't anyone pointing out the oddness of having to wait a whole week for the results of biopsy (conveniently taking it to after the drop in or drop out date)? I know lots of people in the medical field and they all say that in cases like Ford's where you have a large tumour that is suspected of being cancer - the standard practice is an immediate biopsy with a pathologist standing by to analyse it right away and the results are usually available within hours not days.

Something is rotten in Denmark

Stockholm wrote:

Nice to know "Debater"  that you think that working as an AIDS activist in Africa and doing literacy work in aboriginal reserves in Northern Ontario are WORTHLESS.I guess that's the typical Liberal attitude that spending your life as an activist working on social justice and environmental issues = having no accomplishments. To Liberals it seems the only thing that counts as an "accomplishment" is being a corporate lawyer or a general in the army (not sure where Trudeau the snowboard instructor fits in).

Here is a bit more about Cressy - compare that to Justin Trudeau's incredibly thin resume - and I repeat Cressy is running to be a city councillor which is a traditional entry level job in politics - Trudeau wants to be PM even though he has accomplished ZILCH in his life - before running for parliament in his late 30s Justin Trudeau had not been involved in any public policy or social justice related cause at all - he was a play boy teaching people to snowboard - most trust fund kids do far more with their bounty than Trudeau was willing to do.

"The environment. Joe is an environmental activist. In his role as Campaigns Coordinator at the Polaris Institute he successfully pushed Toronto City Council and 75 municipalities across Canada to ban bottled water in city buildings and to invest in and promote safe public water.

- Income fairness and food security. Joe is deeply concerned about the increasing income gap in our City. As a former Board Director of The Stop Community Food Centre, he sought to raise the issues of income inequality and food security by providing direct services such as local bake ovens, community gardens and markets, and food banks, and also by sponsoring sustainable-food-systems education and promoting community advocacy.

- Transit. Transit is a defining issue for our City. Joe worked with Olivia Chow to create and launch ‘I Heart Public Transit,’ a local campaign for a national transit strategy that would allow for sustainable, and predictable long-term funding for transit in Toronto.

- Building Social Infrastructure. Joe understands that strong social infrastructure and social services are vital to the quality of life in a big city. He was a Board Director at Social Planning Toronto, an organization that is committed to research and advocacy to ensure a strong quality of life for all Torontonians and participation by local people in decisions that affect their lives.

As the former Director of Campaigns and Outreach at the Stephen Lewis Foundation, he worked to support community-based HIV/AIDS organizations in sub-Saharan Africa. He has also led literacy programs in fly-in Aboriginal reserves in Northern Ontario, worked with anti-poverty and human rights groups in South Africa, volunteered on HIV and AIDS projects with the LGBT community in Ghana, and was an active youth leader in the peace movement in the lead-up to the war in Iraq.

Where did I say doing those things were worthless?  Don't put words in my mouth.

The point is that Cressy has done a few things to look good on his resume, but everything he has done has been given to him by his NDP connections.  Even some NDPers admitted this on the by-election thread by pointing out that it's easy for well-connected NDPers to get jobs with the Stephen Lewis Foundation and the Broadbent Institute.

Stop repeating the CPC nonsense about the snowboarding instructor.  That was something Justin did in his youth, like lots of other people at that age.  That was not the job he had when he was an adult.  I'm sure Mulcair had summer jobs while he was at university, too.  Waiting on tables, fast food, etc.

Trudeau did 2 university degrees and was a teacher.  He ran Katimavik.  He went into politics in his mid-30's (not late 30's) and has been elected twice in competitive elections, not safe seats.  He runs a major political party and is fluent in both languages.  Does Cressy speak a language other than English?

Btw, Justin has led a far more stable family life than his father - he hasn't really been a 'playboy' like his Dad.  Justin Trudeau got married in his early 30's and has already had 3 kids.  His father didn't get married or have kids until he was about 50!  Justin has been far more mature in many respects than his Dad was.

Vaughan putting his support behind a third place candidate Jane Farrow was a headscratcher from the beginning but now it makes sense. Farrow's partner and campaign manager is Adam's sister Anabelle.

Stockholm wrote:

ctrl190 wrote:

Vaughan putting his support behind a third place candidate Jane Farrow was a headscratcher from the beginning but now it makes sense. Farrow's partner and campaign manager is Adam's sister Anabelle.

Its not such a head scratcher - Vaughan is now a Liberal MP and is doing doing what hyper-partisan Liberals do - help other Liberals get elected. Jane Farrow is clearly the "Liberal in all but name" in that ward and she part of a larger Liberal strategy to defeat progressive city councillors with NDP sympathies with low-profile, polite city councillors with Liberal ties who will cooperate with the provincial government and provide support to John Tory if he becomes mayor.

I just think it's odd because West seems the most logical candidate to try and topple Fletcher. Other local Grits like Grant Gordon and Dennis Mills are putting their support behind West. Of course, a Liberal riding association with their resources split in half will probably just help Fletcher.

adma wrote:

Ward 2: all the attention seems to be focused upon Andray Domise.

Check out his AMA on reddit. Below is part of his response to a particularly noxious troll on /r/Toronto:

http://rabble.ca/comment/reply/109480/1455711?quote=1#comment-form

Quote:

On the topic of our culture, which I will not use scare quotes on, because your questions cannot take my heritage away from me any more than Rob Ford can, I could argue with you that it was not only done in private. But instead, I’ll provide an anecdote. I had a journalist accompany me on a trip through Etobicoke, to see the neighbourhoods, and we were chatting. I mentioned in passing that Rob Ford is a racist and he challenged me on that point. He asked, “You don’t really think Rob Ford is a racist, do you?” It was then pointed out to me how comfortable he is being around and being seen with black people and black culture, as if this was some proof that the man couldn’t possibly hate black people. I sat there in my car and listened to someone explain to me - a black Canadian of Jamaican descent who lived in the US South for a time - what racism is and is not.

I am going to address this here, as directly as I can.

Rob Ford has two messages when it comes to black people. To us, he says “You’re nothing without me.” To the rest of the city, he says “Look how well I keep these animals in line”. He has taken every effort to keep us dependent on him to his own benefit, and when he’s criticized for it, he wraps himself in our culture and tries to claim solidarity in victimhood. It is the political equivalent of black face. Whenever he has the opportunity to help marginalized communities in Toronto, he steps on us to give himself a platform by voting against any measures that would allow us to help ourselves enough to break the cycle of dependency.

Politically and rhetorically, he has failed the black communities on all accounts. And with all that, he refers to us as niggers, in private, and refers to himself as the “most racist guy around”. Short of working that quote into his campaign speeches, what more does he need to do to shock this city into understanding that racism is real?

On Friday, he announced he was stepping out of the mayoral race to run for his former seat in Ward 2. Not a single newspaper took the time to mention that this will be Rob Ford’s first time facing the electorate as an avowed racist, and he is doing so against a black candidate.

It staggers me that this man is going to lose to RoFo.

Is this supposed to be some big news story here? If it is, it escapes me.

http://www.ourwindsor.ca/opinion-story/4926484-toronto-school-board-race...

Robo wrote:

Skinny Dipper wrote:

We are in the September phase of the Toronto municipal election: Whom do you recommend for wards 1 to 44? Note: feel free to mention one or more wards.  Key wards: 2 (someone who can defeat Michael "Ford"), 7 (someone who can defeat Giorgio Mammoliti), 20 (lots of possibilities), and others.

(1) Well, for starters consider [url=http://www.labourcouncil.ca/uploads/8/8/6/1/8861416/endorsements_as_of_s... list[/url]. ...

(2) NOW Magazine usually has a list of candidates for Council positions (ignoring or barely mentioning trustee positions) in the issue immediately prior to election day that is also worth considering. ...

So, here is the [url=http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=200181]summary NOW endorsement list[/url] for the consideration of all Torontonians, with [url=http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=200180]more detailed explanations[/url] on linked pages, with different columnists giving different explanations. Interestingly, this is the first time that I can recall NOW writing anything more than a simple list regarding TDSB [url=http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=200068]school board candidates[/url]