adma
Superstar
In ranked-ballot system you should leave Ford's box blank.
And hardcore Ford Nation's the sort that'd leave everyone else's box blank. Just sayin'.
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2014 Municipal Election: Toronto Mayoral Race
- Thread starter SJD_Toronto
- Start date
And hardcore Ford Nation's the sort that'd leave everyone else's box blank. Just sayin'.
NorthYorkEd
Active Member
We're doomed...
One of the morning news shows (doesn't matter which one, they are all equally vapid) asked some people in the street if they knew who was running for mayor. Maybe one or two people was able to name another candidate besides Ford. The rest stumbled to name ONE other freakin' candidate ("Kim?").
If this is in any way representative of the brainpower out there, we are completely, utterly, indubitably DOOMED.
One of the morning news shows (doesn't matter which one, they are all equally vapid) asked some people in the street if they knew who was running for mayor. Maybe one or two people was able to name another candidate besides Ford. The rest stumbled to name ONE other freakin' candidate ("Kim?").
If this is in any way representative of the brainpower out there, we are completely, utterly, indubitably DOOMED.
Silence&Motion
Senior Member
A lot of people (myself included) don't trust unelected, unaccountable businesses driven by profit to provide basic social services. A lot of our public services are run extremely well, such as child care which has much better standards safety records than the private options. But beyond this, the private sector is simply not going to "pay for our initiatives and endeavours" - as Ford has discovered with transit. Finally, a lot of privatization translates to union-busting. At a time when economic inequality is one of the most pressing issues the city faces, do we want to further trade middle-class jobs for low-wage jobs?
Chow is known for deal making. That's why she held committee chairs under the Lastman administration. Both her and Layton were known on council for trading support with other councilors in order to get their own priorities passed. In this sense, she is very different than Miller.
If you can't put your finger on it, maybe you should reflect more on it. In job interviews all over the country, minority females are being passed over for white males because they just don't *seem* like leadership material. That's not a personal attack on you. We have all be socialized in a society where leaders are overwhelmingly white men. Our gut feelings are just expressions of our socialization. As a shadow cabinet minister in the federal opposition, a member of the NDP's leadership during the "orange wave", and a committee chairperson in the City of Toronto, Chow has one of the strongest leadership resumes among the other candidates.
Toronto is legally prohibited from running a deficit, so you don't have to worry about that. And if no one ever enacted socially progressive policies because they were worried about a backlash, our society would never have progressed.
TheTigerMaster
Superstar
^Calm down the race is just starting. The public facing campaigns haven't really started yet. As we get closer to Election Day people will know who the candidates are.
gabe
Senior Member
Actually no, that's not entirely true. Fire trucks have certain lifesaving equipment that ambulances don't. Also most fire personnel have the same training has EMS workers. If they get called to assist someone who is over 400 lbs, you're going to need all the man power there is to lift the person out of the house or down the stairs as there is only two medics to an ambulance.
ShonTron
Moderator
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I agree with merging Toronto Fire and Toronto EMS as they are complementary services, but there are lots of good reasons for sending fire trucks to medical calls. Someone should have a good look at it all to simplify and harmonize dispatching and service delivery, but not for the sole sake of cutting costs.
DanTheMan
New Member
Gabe, as a Paramedic, I feel inclined to give you some facts, as your understanding of the services TFS and TEMS provide are a little off.
In your previous post you mentioned firefighters are trained as EMTs, this is false. In fact, Canada does not even have an ''EMT'' designation. Firefighters have 2 weeks of ''medical training'', akin to a lifeguard. Essentially they can do CPR, can assist in basic delivery of a baby, and they can give oxygen.
A paramedic has minimum 2 years of intensive training in the class room, as well as about 8 months training with paramedics on ambulances.
To see what a Paramedic can do you can read here:
http://www.ontarioparamedic.ca/paramedics/
When you're having a heart attack or a stroke, or any other number of medical emergencies you want a paramedic, not a firefighter.
Firefighters used to be sent to most ambulance calls as a way to ''stop the clock'' until an ambulance arrived. The belief was that because there are so many of them, and they are usually in their station, they would get there first. Unfortunately, statistics showed that ambulances arrived first to these calls around 70% of the time.
More important however, stats also showed that firefighters were ''ineffective'' on up to 98% of medical calls they were sent on. As a result, Sunnybrook, which runs Toronto's pre-hospital care program, removed firefighter first response from a number of types of calls.
The only ones they were left on are one's where they were found to be able to provide a critical intervention in > 1% of cases.
Merging of the two services has time and time again been proven to be completely impractical, uneconomical, and most importantly provides no positive impact to patients.
For some reading if you like,
Here is the summary of the independent study by POMAX advising against a merger and advocating for an increase in Paramedics and ambulances on the road.
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2013/ex/bgrd/backgroundfile-59902.pdf
Here is the study that led to the reduction in fire-fighter response to medical calls.
https://www.msdsb.net/images/EMS/re...around medical tiered response in ontario.pdf
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RC8
Senior Member
Thanks for that post.
WislaHD
Superstar
Heh, I hope he uses it to good effect.
gabe
Senior Member
I read it over and agree with it.
This was from last year http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-ems-overwhelmed-understaffed-says-report-1.1959591 Toronto EMS overwhelmed, understaffed, says report
Woman dies after waiting 3 hours for ambulance http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/woman-dies-after-waiting-3-hours-for-ambulance-1.1310971?autoplay=true
A Toronto man who had to lie outside in the cold with a badly broken leg for nearly an hour before an ambulance arrived says the city's Emergency Medical Service (EMS) is failing its residents.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toron...g-waited-hour-in-cold-for-ambulance-1.1313809
Why is there such a large funding gap between EMS and the police and fire? It will be interesting to know where the candidates stand on this issue.
christiesplits
Senior Member
I love this...
Adam C-F @AdamCF 2h
(Rumour is that @NickKouvalis was paid so little by Ford that the deal is he would own the voter contact list. Penny wise, pound foolish.)
JasonParis
Moderator
As of right now, I'd pick Soknacki over anyone else. If Chow enters, that could easily sway me, but I have no real hint of her platform yet.
While I do think the political spectrum plays a role in municipal politics, I feel it to be less so than other levels and that people should really focus on the issues, the ideas, the ability to get stuff done, instead of where someone thinks someone else sits on the spectrum. For instance, I shoot left, but realize Soknacki shoots right and I'm fine with that.
In Ontario there's a case for that. Much less so with NDP governments out west who have often been the most fiscally responsible.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
and fiscal responsibility does not always mean low taxes, just that you are taxing as much as you are spending.
VTB
Active Member
And spending it wisely.
