2014 Municipal Election: Toronto Mayoral Race

[Grimace]

In no way did I suggest the politics of Toronto is about me. That suggestion exclusively comes from you.

What is tenuous about my understanding of social and economic policy? I'm more than willing to admit I'm wrong if presented with better and/or more accurate information (I've already conceded once in this thread concerning the legality of deficits).

In the past 3 days you've posted about a half-dozen long explanations of your views on economic and social policy in this thread. Most of what you've written about isn't even in the realm of municipal responsibility. You claim to believe in the well-debunked concept of "supply-side economics", and somehow think this is connected to fiscal conservatism rather than the reckless deficit building of Reagan and republicans thereafter. You have come out as an advocate of two tier healthcare and education, which makes me question why you are a member of the federal liberal party. You seem to think the protestant work ethic, which you have dubbed the Weberian work ethic, has something to do with anything. You throw around terms like "tax and spend" and "slash n' burn". You have made a long series of assumptions about Chow that shows a gross simplification of the NDP policy platform, and a fairly crucial misunderstanding of how the municipal government works. You claim that Bob Rae "blew the budget" without any apparent understanding of the fiscal mess left by the Peterson government or the impact of the early 90s recession on Ontario. You make bald assertions about the impact of high taxes on an economy that show your supply side bona fides but which are unsupported and unsupportable by data.

In short, your brand of "fiscal conservatism" is a low tax model consistent with US republican party policy that has resulted in higher deficits and has slowed down the economy by putting greater wealth in the hands of the rich, who do not spend it, while stagnating and lowering the wages of the middle class, who do spend it.

Most of what I argued rests on this question: Should unions be paid more than their market worth by virtue of their affiliation with the public sector?

I don't think so. There is a lot of resentment among those in the private sector who do comparable work, but for a much smaller paycheck.

The contention that public sector workers make more than private sector workers is unsupported by data.

Some public sector workers in some fields may make more that workers in the private sector. When this happens, it is well publicized.

Much of the time, private sector workers make more than public sector workers in the same field. This is rarely publicized, and instead people will argue that public sector workers don't work as hard.

There is a concerted strategy on the right to try to engender resentment among non-unionized workers against unionized workers, public sector or not, by contending that the unionized workers get paid more. For private sector workers, the emphasis is on the claim that unions cause businesses to leave. For public sector workers, the emphasis is that you are paying for these overpaid workers. This is a race-to-the-bottom strategy that has been quite successful not only in engendering resentment, but also in causing the wages of the large majority of workers to increase at a rate lower than inflation over the last 20 years.

 

[jje1000]

It's a Forum poll so take it with a grain of salt, but keep in mind that fighting Ford will still be a challenge if he stays out jail. Here's hoping that Olivia does the right thing and stays out of this election until 2018. The city needs to be eased back to the centre, not swung hard to the left.

Toronto mayoral election poll shows tight early race among Chow, Ford, Tory
By: Daniel Dale City Hall, Published on Wed Feb 26 2014

Olivia Chow, John Tory and Rob Ford are locked in a tight early race for Toronto’s mayoralty, though Tory and Chow have much more room than Ford to improve, according to the first opinion poll since Tory announced his candidacy.

Monday’s Forum Research poll of 1,310 residents, conducted on the day Tory and Karen Stintz registered to run, gave Tory 39 per cent support, Ford 33 per cent, Stintz 15 per cent[/B], and David Soknacki 5 per cent[/B] in a race among the major declared candidates.

Chow, the NDP MP, has not formally started campaigning; she is almost certain to register by the end of March. In a hypothetical race with Chow included, she and Ford tied at 31 per cent; Tory, the former Progressive Conservative leader, had 27 per cent; Stintz, a city councillor, had 6 per cent; Soknacki, a former councillor, had 2 per cent.

In a three-way race without Stintz and Soknacki, there was a statistical tie: Tory had 33 per cent, Ford and Chow 32 per cent.

The Forum poll suggests Chow and especially Tory have far higher ceilings than Ford does. A full 50 per cent of respondents said they would never vote for Ford, compared with 21 per cent who said they would never vote for Chow and a mere 6 per cent who said they would never vote for Tory.

Those figures suggest Ford will struggle to stay afloat if voters who are unhappy with him eventually coalesce around a single top challenger. A competitive slugfest between two or more challengers, however, could give the polarizing incumbent a chance to eke out a victory with less than 40 per cent of the vote.

The automated voice response telephone survey is considered accurate within 3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
One-night polls may be less reliable than polls conducted over several nights; this poll was conducted on a day on which Tory received heavy media coverage. Forum’s automated-poll response rate is 3 to 4 per cent.

Voting day is Oct. 27, eight months away. Ford and Soknacki have been campaigning for a month and a half. Tory and Stintz made their first campaign comments Monday morning. Chow has said only that she is “seriously considering” a run.

Tory’s Monday numbers were higher than they were in Forum’s other polls this winter. He had the highest approval rating, at 55 per cent. Ford’s approval was stable at 44 per cent. Chow’s was 51 per cent, Stintz’s 38 per cent, Soknacki’s 26 per cent.

Tory’s support was spread relatively evenly throughout the city. Chow was strongest in the old municipalities of Toronto and East York, with 39 per cent; Ford was weakest in those areas, with only 19 per cent, but stronger than both Chow and Tory in the suburbs.

Ford has fared worse in polls conducted by Ipsos Reid than polls conducted by Forum. A mid-November Ipsos Reid poll had Chow at 36 per cent, Tory 28 per cent, Ford 20 per cent, Stintz 13 per cent, Soknacki 3 per cent. In a mid-December Ipsos Reid poll, 61 per cent said they would not consider voting for Ford.

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_ha...ws_tight_early_race_among_chow_ford_tory.html

 

[WislaHD]

Who are these people still willing to vote for Ford?

Hmm, maybe it is better that Chow doesn't run this year. I don't see what she hopes to gain by running either, she has a great job in Ottawa with a pension.

 

[PinkLucy]

Who are these people still willing to vote for Ford?

Hmm, maybe it is better that Chow doesn't run this year. I don't see what she hopes to gain by running either, she has a great job at Queen's Park with a pension.

When did she switch to provincial politics???

 

[Arg0]

shots fired

Came across this:

This is wonderful. Hats off to the Soknacki campaign team.

 

[WislaHD]

When did she switch to provincial politics???

Brain fart, forgot she was an MP, not an MPP.

 

[Southcore]

It sucks that Soknacki has no chance and will drop out towards the end (and put his support behind Tory?) most likely but I've been a enjoying his efforts thus far. Wish he ran as a councillor instead (especially in Mammo's ward).

 

[WislaHD]

It sucks that Soknacki has no chance and will drop out towards the end (and put his support behind Tory?) most likely but I've been a enjoying his efforts thus far. Wish he ran as a councillor instead (especially in Mammo's ward).

If only we had ranked-ballot.

 

[freshcutgrass]

Most of what I argued rests on this question: Should unions be paid more than their market worth by virtue of their affiliation with the public sector?

This total obsession with "unions" explains a lot of things about the conservative-thinking mind.

 

[Silence&Motion]

According to a tweet from Daniel Dale, Stintz is proposing to sell Toronto Hydro in order to pay for the DRL.

Let's keep this logic in mind: sell off a money-making asset in order to build something that will require huge annual operating costs in the future #fiscalresponsibility

 

[Palma]

According to a tweet from Daniel Dale, Stintz is proposing to sell Toronto Hydro in order to pay for the DRL.

Let's keep this logic in mind: sell off a money-making asset in order to build something that will require huge annual operating costs in the future #fiscalresponsibility

That is crazy. Even if it went ahead and was sold, it would not bring in all the money to pay for the DRL. This is really carzy

 

[Southcore]

Reminds me of Chicago leasing (for 75 years) their parking meters to a huge consortium (banks and Abu Dhabi government primarily) for a lump sum payment of $1.2B...seemed like a good idea at the time, since they were getting about $20 mil a year in revenue...only they blew through that billion plus in a few years and parking rates went from as low as $2/hr in some areas to as high as $6/hr downtown! And the city is still in a mess financially.

I saw some bits of Stinz's TO board of trade speech on CP24 talking about using assets to pay for the DRL, so I guess hyrdo is first on the chopping block as per her plan. No thanks...though considering Tory is playing the revenue tools game coy and talking about keeping property taxes low, I wonder if he has similar ideas? Time will tell but selling off money making assets is not the way to go.

 

[EagleEye]

Stintz has already lost me. Sunflowers? Really? And "I'm a mom". Who cares! You have kids, big whoop, it doesn't make you a better fit for mayor. Add this to the subway flip flop flip flop and I'm ready for her to go.

 

[JasonParis]

According to a tweet from Daniel Dale, Stintz is proposing to sell Toronto Hydro in order to pay for the DRL. Let's keep this logic in mind: sell off a money-making asset in order to build something that will require huge annual operating costs in the future #fiscalresponsibility

Don't agree at all with Stintz, but may she argue (and would it be incorrect?) that the DRL, like the Yonge line, won't add to the TTC's operations costs?

 

[Palma]

Don't agree at all with Stintz, but may she argue (and would it be incorrect?) that the DRL, like the Yonge line, won't add to the TTC's operations costs?

Why do I keep reading in the transit formums that the DRL is funded? If that was the case (which I believe not), no need to sell off Toronto Hydro. These politicians are always short sighted its unreal. John Tory better not have the same idea. You know then Chow if she runs will be against that and that will be 1 dividing line between her and the others.