2023 Toronto Mayoral by-election

[rbt]

If Ford and Chow have some policy in common, they will work together to achieve it. They'd be idiots not to. They do want to screw each other over, but they want to be re-elected more, and being able to pass policy smoothly is a political win.

Agreed. Fiscal right and civil-rights left have achieved some very significant changes in the past such as Deinstitutionalization.

 

[toaster29]

How is Matlow polling at 1% in Etobicoke??

Interesting, as a lot of people credit him with helping Morley get elected as he was campaigning there with her throughout the last municipal election.

 

[Towered]

So this conversation is from a few pages back but I want to drag it up again because I want to address it head on: the idea that certain candidates will work well with other elected politicians like Ford and others (Chow or Matlow) will not.

This sort of criticism is levied at all kinds of politicians but it never bears out in reality. There was once a time that the most unliked, independent councilor on council was Rob Ford. Then he became mayor and suddenly he had all kinds of friends and allies.

If Ford and Chow have some policy in common, they will work together to achieve it. They'd be idiots not to. They do want to screw each other over, but they want to be re-elected more, and being able to pass policy smoothly is a political win.

If they disagree, then so what? Let them fight. That's politics baby. Our job as voters is not to read the tea leaves to try to elect someone who can be best friends with the premier.

And what if the premier changes? We elect Mark Saunders or whoever so that he can get along with Doug to "get stuff done". Then the PCs lose the next election and we have Mark Saunders trying to get along with Premier Marit Stiles. Then what?

Another thing: the idea that we have a political spectrum in this country is laughable. You need a microscope to find the difference between Canadian left and right. They all get along fine.

Agree. Do people forget how often Lastman railed against the province??

 

[picard102]

This sort of criticism is levied at all kinds of politicians but it never bears out in reality. There was once a time that the most unliked, independent councilor on council was Rob Ford. Then he became mayor and suddenly he had all kinds of friends and allies.

Who? He was stripped of all his powers and relegated to being a joke.

 

[picard102]

Agreed. Fiscal right and civil-rights left have achieved some very significant changes in the past such as Deinstitutionalization.

This doesn't seem like a win.

 

[rbt]

This doesn't seem like a win.

I didn't say it was a win: I said significant change.

 

[Northern Light]

I don't want to veer things here too off-topic, but to chime in again, I have to say, privately, many law makers (at whatever level of government) often have similar takes on many issues (privately). By no means all the same, but not nearly
so different. as they might have you believe.

This should really surprise no one as the majority are upper-middle-income, university educated, own single-family homes, have children (young or adult), and most have never experienced life on social assistance, lived in public housing, or had to deal with a disability etc.

Given similarity of background and lived experience, you'd expect similar views.

I get the need to sometimes draw a line of contrast between yourself and another, be that fully real, or a modest exaggeration, in the service of obtaining or retaining power. But I do wish we would see more open consensus politics.

You still see this sometimes in Quebec, where there was multi-party consensus on Medically-assisted dying, on abolishing religious school boards and a few other issues, while retaining differentiation on many other points.

We ought to be able, at every level of government to agree on some key goals/outcomes and some of the paths of achieving them. At least now and again.

 

[LemonCondo]

The poor guy thinks that the views equal support, rather than everyone making fun of his distracted driving.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1663198070073327617

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7232109825629474091

 

[TonyV]

Just a thought for all you peeps to ponder. Do any of you think it’s time for a whole new generation at city hall? Everyone seems so stuck on old ideas that no longer work. I’m pretty disillusioned with the legacy hangers-on in power, and entrenched bureaucracies - silos, as someone wisely called them, earlier up.

There’s been a massive change in the demographics of Toronto and I’d love to find out what is on the minds of young people with regard to our future.

 

[Northern Light]

Just a thought for all you peeps to ponder. Do any of you think it’s time for a whole new generation at city hall? Everyone seems so stuck on old ideas that no longer work. I’m pretty disillusioned with the legacy hangers-on in power, and entrenched bureaucracies - silos, as someone wisely called them, earlier up.

There’s been a massive change in the demographics of Toronto and I’d love to find out what is on the minds of young people with regard to our future.

There was a decent-sized shift last time out.

Minnan-Wong, Grimes, Fillion all departed.

Several younger faces, more women and minorities; its just an unfinished project.

Looks like Crawford is headed to the exit, that's a great opportunity for further change; a new Mayor is incoming as well.

Still in need of a path to the exit: Cllrs - Bradford, Fletcher, Perks, Holyday, Robinson, Peruzza, Thomson and Burnside

There's a bit more dead weight, but that list being swapped out could do wonders, provided we got good replacements.

In that group, Bradford is actually young, but he seemed to run out of good ideas immediately after the Danforth Bike lane, so his second term should be his last (which he ran on doing anyway, but I digress)

 

[Admiral Beez]

Just a thought for all you peeps to ponder. Do any of you think it’s time for a whole new generation at city hall?

Until we have term limits we'll continue to see the old guard linger.

Looked at in 2019 and 2020.

Politicians to look at term limits for city councillors

Has the time come to impose term limits for those elected to Toronto council?

torontosun.com

Does Toronto need to set term limits for city councillors?

Coun. Brad Bradford says Toronto needs term limits to get more diverse voices on council.

www.thestar.com

 

[christiesplits]

There was a decent-sized shift last time out.

Minnan-Wong, Grimes, Fillion all departed.

Several younger faces, more women and minorities; its just an unfinished project.

Looks like Crawford is headed to the exit, that's a great opportunity for further change; a new Mayor is incoming as well.

Still in need of a path to the exit: Cllrs - Bradford, Fletcher, Perks, Holyday, Robinson, Peruzza, Thomson and Burnside

There's a bit more dead weight, but that list being swapped out could do wonders, provided we got good replacements.

In that group, Bradford is actually young, but he seemed to run out of good ideas immediately after the Danforth Bike lane, so his second term should be his last (which he ran on doing anyway, but I digress)

I've warmed up to term limits recently. I think 4 terms is sufficient. It strikes the balance between rewarding the good councillors and incessant incumbent advantage.

 

[adma]

If Ford and Chow have some policy in common, they will work together to achieve it. They'd be idiots not to. They do want to fuck each other over, but they want to be re-elected more, and being able to pass policy smoothly is a political win.

Keeping in mind that Rob Ford and Jack Layton had a counterintuitively collegial relationship when they were seatmates on Council in the early '00s.

 

[Towered]

I've warmed up to term limits recently. I think 4 terms is sufficient. It strikes the balance between rewarding the good councillors and incessant incumbent advantage.

I'd go with 3. 16 Years is still a very long time.

 

[Northern Light]

I'd go with 3. 16 Years is still a very long time.

Fletcher is in year 20
Peruzza is in year 17
Thompson is in year 20
Holyday is in year 9 (seems like longer)
Perks is in year 17

So @mjl08 's 4-term limit would remove 4/5 of the above.

Bradford is term 2
Burnside is nominally term 1, but its his second stint.