SJD_Toronto
Active Member
Rob Ford ran on stopping the gravy train, John Tory pushed SmartTrack. Olivia Chow hasn’t presented anything of real substance or catchy. If she wins, she is winning based on name recognition in a by-election where most people don’t want to pay attention to. “I’m Olivia Chow and I love Toronto” is all I have really heard from her. Name recognition is very important in an election like this but it’s not everything. If name recognition was everything, Olivia Chow should have been elected in 2014. That said, with what looks to be a very low turnout for the election and without another contender to capture the attention away from Chow, it seems Chow will walk into this vital role because she is Olivia Chow, not because she presented something that rang true with voters.These two quotes are contradictory. Name recognition is everything in city elections, absent something really outrageous, which, I don't see happening to Chow, or someone with even better name recognition running. This is not an election for one term for mayor. This is an election for a one decade mayor. While I'm OK with Chow, I would much prefer Matlow, since he does seem to be somewhat interested in the minutiae of running the city.
Given Chow’s political leaning, if she gets a lot of left leaning politics passed through council, I firmly believe there will be negative results down the road. I think people will grow tired of it all. I do think she could win another term in 2026 with the power of the incumbency, however, unless she proves to be a truly effective leader that produces results that will please Toronto residents across the board, I seriously doubt she would still be the mayor past 2030. By then, I think the city will be asking for change, much like how we went from David Miller to Rob Ford and then found the safe, middle road with John Tory. Maybe I will be wrong, and maybe Chow will prove to be the best mayor the city ever had. I will eat crow if that happens... but I don't see things working out wonderfully if she is mayor for a long time. Like I said, I see a mayoral career with Olivia Chow going from high popularity to problematic to disastrous.
As for Josh Matlow, I personally think he would be a disaster for the city and given his reputation as being stuck up and difficult to work with, I don’t see a majority of city council members working well with him at all. I want to believe in a mayor who will try to work with everyone, not a small few group. Sometimes you can be a great political leader in a single ward you represent but that doesn’t mean you would be a great leader for an entire city. That’s how I felt about Rob Ford (who I think was not overly effective as mayor) and that’s how I feel about Olivia Chow, Josh Matlow and Brad Bradford now. The only two serious contenders I see representing the city as a whole are Ana Bailao and Mitzie Hunter.
Last edited: