Rob Ford was killing it tonight on the The Agenda Mayors Debate. Smitherman can't say anything of substance. Pants has great clothes. Sarah needs a stylist. And Rocco blew his shot. He had some momentum, but not being an experienced city politician like Pants and Ford, he just dropped it.
Wow. I feel like I watched a different show or something.
Thomson looked out of place and irrelevant. Rossi was almost charismatic, but overall seemed smug while having nothing original to offer. Neither came off as deserving more than the 10-15% they're polling.
Ford stuck to his talking points alright, and kept getting called on his apparent failure of 3rd grade math. He concluded the show by appearing extraordinarily petty and childish, being incapable of saying a single decent thing about his leading opponent. Rossi dressed him down solidly in the final minute and made him look like a complete ass.
Smitheman was bland, mildly defensive, bland...and more bland. I'm not sure why he was even there. If he's not going to actually say anything he should give up his spot to Achampong.
The clear winner in my mind was Joey Pants. It looks like he may have finally found his angle...positivity! Imagine that! He was the only candidate that came across as actually
liking the city. While the rest of them were busy bitching about irrelevancies, he was extolling our recent growth, and looking forward to continuing that growth through continued investment. His whole thing about the 'slash and burn' mentality of his opponents was perfect, though a bit too quietly spoken. It would really help if he was a stronger speaker.
Obviously, a lot of people think our city is circling the drain and are willing to support otherwise unsuitable candidates just to prove that point. But if you ask me, Toronto is pretty awesome, and has been getting awesomer, and can continue to get even awesomer still. If Pants can continue pushing
that, anyone sharing that opinion should be drifting Pants-ward. Not to mention the fact that he is now the sole left-wing candidate, as Smitherman continues drifting to center in a vain attempt to appease the Ford-ites. I predict the (mostly left-wing) undecideds will start shifting toward Pantalone, and poll-by-poll slowly pulling the anyone-but-Ford votes with them.
I'm seeing a pretty tight Pants v. Ford race over the last month. It should come down to whether or not self-respecting intelligent conservatives can stomach voting for Ford, and whether or not so-called liberals can resist the lure of lower taxes. Interesting indeed.