Fantino to run for Mayor of Vaughan?

[fiendishlibrarian]

If you think Fantino wouldn't beat Miller in a mayoral race, then you don't know the city, at all, beyond the boundaries of the downtown core. It wouldn't even be close if Fantino ran even a competent, John Tory-like campaign.

Homeowners who delivered Lastman, Holyday, et al. mayoralities in the old Metro (and who still, let's not forget, elect councillors like Mammoliti, Ford, Hall, Holyday, Jenkins, Feldman, and even Thompson in Scarborough during each election) would elect Fantino in a heartbeat, and would not care less what NOW or Spacing or other downtown types dredge up about Fantino's past. If anything, they would be *more* likely to vote for Fantino out of spite just to put people like them in their place, people they view as threats to the city, not assets. In fact, Fantino would probably bring out voters who may have stopped voting out of despair from seeing Miller not having any chance of being beaten. I can just see Fantino using a slogan similar to the one Miller used when he first ran (something about taking back the city).

It would be divisive, certainly, and ugly, but certainly not a cakewalk for Miller, no way in hell.

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

i'm not criticizing it for any other reason. i'm criticizing the slogan its self. it's arrogance wrapped into a geographic description. it's not even a apt geographic description. if there was a city above toronto, we'd probably wouldn't get much sunlight. why not use "the city north of toronto"? and why include the name of another city as your slogan and focus your slogan on another city?

i've always seen it as a sort of snub. it's a double entendre. when i read their signs, i really see: "hey toronto, we're insecure of our own existence therefore we have to resort to snobbery just so we can feel good about ourselves".

Yup. For what it's worth, they're in the process of coming up with a new one. That should singlehandedly clean up any poor perceptions have of the city, right?

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

That should singlehandedly clean up any poor perceptions ______ have of the city, right?

you, we, torontonians, anyone may, etc. which one fills the blank?

 

[Archivist]

Vaughan is the Congo of Ontario municipalities - it's complete and utter corruption with it's pretentious little slogan do invite rich bellylaughs.

I love this though - Fantino and Vaughan deserve each other.

 

[lordmandeep]

the only thing that is good about Vaughan is that it has Ikea, Wonderland and Vaughan Mills.

However that beats anything Brampton has.

 

[Transportfan]

Don't get so pious. Toronto is just better at hiding its corruption.

Vaughan doesn't need to hide its corruption--people hardly knows it exists anyways. even the GTA weather map on the news shows it as just Woodbridge

 

[Hydrogen]

I, for one, hopes to see Fantino become mayor. He will finally be in a position where he must answer to the people.

As Vaughan mayor, he'll also do wonders for the helicopter business in Canada.

 

[realtycoon]

"the city above toronto"

what arrogance.

Wow, I guess you don't venture up to York Region (or anywhere else) much.. Toronto has to have some of the most arrogant people in North America (based on travels to Ontario, Quebec and the USA)

 

[Hydrogen]

Funny, I thought Prometheus was commenting on the city slogan, and not all the people in Vaughan.

But I guess on the basis of your utterly impartial and objective observation, Toronto is bad - even when compared to Vaughan's slogan.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

Wow, I guess you don't venture up to York Region (or anywhere else) much.. Toronto has to have some of the most arrogant people in North America (based on travels to Ontario, Quebec and the USA)

toronto can have whatever it wants. it can have hired clowns who make balloon penises and hand them out to old ladies for all i care. i was talking about THE SIGN.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

Funny, I thought Prometheus was commenting on the city slogan, and not all the people in Vaughan.

TY.

also, my other criticism of vaughan, besides the sign, is a majority of the design (street layouts) and architecture (cookie cutter design) of the place. i'm not a fan of it. of course, this is subjective, to each their own.

 

[Archivist]

realtycoon: Wow, I guess you don't venture up to York Region.

Well, yes, I have actually, and I can't say that it's helping. and for Vaughan to call itself the city above Toronto in any way - from an urban point of view, architecturally, culturally, or clearly, in the realm of civic administration, is a pretentious joke for which they deserve to be richly mocked. Vaughan is a corner of the suburban blob that extends beyond the City of Toronto, it could be amalgamated tomorrow with something else and disappear entirely as a separate municipality, and people would barely remember that it ever existed mere months later. In fact, that's its most likely fate.

You may call this arrogant, I call it reality. The same is true of many other suburban overflows, whether they be Surrey, Brossard, Nepean, or Mount Pearl. In fact, some of those are gone already!

 

[Hydrogen]

TY.

also, my other criticism of vaughan, besides the sign, is a majority of the design (street layouts) and architecture

There's architecture in Vaughan?

See, you're actually too damn kind!

 

[adma]

If you think Fantino wouldn't beat Miller in a mayoral race, then you don't know the city, at all, beyond the boundaries of the downtown core. It wouldn't even be close if Fantino ran even a competent, John Tory-like campaign.

Homeowners who delivered Lastman, Holyday, et al. mayoralities in the old Metro (and who still, let's not forget, elect councillors like Mammoliti, Ford, Hall, Holyday, Jenkins, Feldman, and even Thompson in Scarborough during each election) would elect Fantino in a heartbeat, and would not care less what NOW or Spacing or other downtown types dredge up about Fantino's past. If anything, they would be *more* likely to vote for Fantino out of spite just to put people like them in their place, people they view as threats to the city, not assets. In fact, Fantino would probably bring out voters who may have stopped voting out of despair from seeing Miller not having any chance of being beaten. I can just see Fantino using a slogan similar to the one Miller used when he first ran (something about taking back the city).

It would be divisive, certainly, and ugly, but certainly not a cakewalk for Miller, no way in hell.

I'm not so sure.

It isn't that a standard-bearer of the right can't beat Miller; but rather, whether Fantino is the sort of individual who can galvanize said right. Ten, fifteen years ago, he might have been--but that's Fantino's problem; he's an artifact from ten, fifteen years ago. He's as tired and cheesy as the Toronto Sun--and incidentally, he's also getting up there t/w his John McCain years. He's no longer fresh, and Toronto politics has changed in his disfavour--as far as 2003-race equivalents go, he's too Nunziata-like for a "John Tory" big-tent constituency.

I'd rather place my bets on Michael Thompson or even Karen Stintz as an officially endorsed "Miller killer"--in any event, either of them could cancel out the need for a crutch like a Fantino candidacy...

 

[lordmandeep]

Michael Thompson or even Karen Stintz likely could not beat Miller unless the next election is really heated and has a decent turnout.

If you get the typical low turnout, the union NDP special interest groups would carry the election for Miller.

Its either going to be Miller vs one of those two or some third centrist star candidate like George Smithermen.