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Next Mayor of Toronto?

Today's Globe and Mail:

Anna Mehler Paperny


Mayoral candidates Rob Ford and George Smitherman remain locked in a tight battle for the mayor's chair, according to a Leger Marketing poll, which put the two within the margin of error.

Thirty-one per cent of the 600 Torontonians surveyed plan to vote for Mr. Smitherman, compared to 30 per cent for Mr. Ford. Deputy mayor Joe Pantalone garnered 10 per cent of the vote. Eighteen per cent of those polled said they're still on the fence.

And while 42 per cent of respondents pegged the former deputy premier when asked which candidate would make the best mayor compared to 36 per cent for Mr. Ford, the Etobicoke councillor had the most support when voters were asked who was most likely to bring change to City Hall – 47 per cent compared to 23 per cent for Mr. Smitherman.

With the Oct. 25 election just four days away and multiple recent polls indicating Mr. Smitherman and Mr. Ford locked in a dead heat, the candidates have been endeavouring both to reach out to undecided voters and mobilize supporters to ensure they get to the polls Monday (more than 60 per cent of Torontonians didn't bother casting a ballot in the 2006 municipal election). And while Mr. Smitherman has been painting himself as the only candidate who can beat the bombastic Mr. Ford, Mr. Pantalone has steadfastly insisted he's the only one of the three with a progressive vision.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ntrunners-no-margin-for-error/article1766631/

Wow! This poll is all a Smitherman supporter could ask for. Joe @ 10?? Woo! If Pants had shown any climb in this poll, then some of his supporters reluctantly going to Smitherman, would come back seeing that there might be hope for Joe to win. Losing 1/3 of his support from the last poll definitely means that Smitherman is going to end up taking these voters.
 
Recall that Ford's strategy for dealing with youth violence and gangs is high school football. Recall that his strategy for waterfront redevelopment is "it's too expensive." Recall that he seems to hold a belief that using debt to fund capital projects is a Very Bad Thing, which makes one pause and wonder how the hell he's going to fund capital projects. Recall that all this talk about how many busses it takes to replace streetcars is ultimately meaningless because surely he'll do a 1:1 replacement, crow about the operating money saved and leave transit commuters to rot. Recall that he has a record of voting against libraries, cultural funding, very successful harm reduction programs for the homeless and even donating our decommissioned emergency vehicles to third world countries who could still make good use of them. Recall that he wants to give TTC workers a guaranteed raise through arbitration every three years.

But, yeah, mostly I'm just not voting for him because I don't like the way he looks and that he represents the 'common man' which I look down upon from my lofty perch.

Ford voted against donating our decommissioned emergency vehicles to third world countries? Really? I've never heard that. Why would he be against giving our old ambulances away, if we can't use them anymore? Wont they just go into landfill if we don't give them away? What was his reasoning behind that? It just sounds like a really douchy thing to do. It makes no sense.
 
Pantalone using the Calgary mayor as a reason to vote for him is pretty comical. While it was true that a couple weeks before the election, he looked to be a distant third, his support really picked up in the final week. This poll was released Thursday before their Monday election http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/lo...lection_poll_101012/20101013/?hub=CalgaryHome

That's basically the same sort of poll as today's Globe is, both 4 days away from the election. As you can see, Nenshi had 30.1%, Pantalone has 10%. Nice try, Joe.


Joe's numbers will be even smaller now that the unions are leaving him for George.


Unite Here Local 75 representing 7,000 hotel workers are now backing Smitherman

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/878954--hotel-workers-union-backs-smitherman
 
Ford voted against donating our decommissioned emergency vehicles to third world countries? Really? I've never heard that. Why would he be against giving our old ambulances away, if we can't use them anymore? Wont they just go into landfill if we don't give them away? What was his reasoning behind that? It just sounds like a really douchy thing to do. It makes no sense.

There was a whole list of similar things from last week's eye weekly.
Rob Ford's Toronto

BY Chris Bilton October 13, 2010 13:10

Despite mayoral candidate Rob Ford’s insistence on fighting for taxpayers, all he has ever done on council is fight against everything — even, and sometimes especially, the things that benefit the city and its taxpayers. Based on his past voting record and the motions he has introduced in council — and the fantastic provision that he could convince others to vote alongside him — this is what Rob Ford’s Toronto would look like.

The city would not be clearing snow and ice from sidewalks, so seniors and the disabled will be on their own. (Ford introduced an unsuccessful motion to cancel snow clearing.)

We’ll either be building affordable rental homes with city tax money or building them with love. (Ford introduced an unsuccessful motion to refuse $43 million in federal/provincial funding.)

The city would not be expanding its library system — the busiest and most popular one in the world — or building any new libraries. (Ford introduced an unsuccessful motion to cut spending from the capital budget on library expansion.)

Trees, you’re on your own, since we wouldn’t be hiring any permanent staff for tree maintenance and planting. (Ford introduced an unsuccessful motion to not hire additional staff.)

Future waterfront redevelopment would be left to natural erosion as all projects get cancelled. (Ford introduced an unsuccessful motion to cut waterfront redevelopments from the capital budget.)

We’d have no new community centres and no expanded facilities. (Ford introduced an unsuccessful motion to cut spending on such initiatives from the capital budget.)

We’d have fewer beautification projects as Business Improvement Areas wouldn’t be getting any funding. (Ford introduced an unsuccessful motion to cut spending from the capital budget.)

Remember the garbage strike? Yeah, that wouldn’t be resolved. (Ford voted against approving the strike-ending contract.)

Hope you like the smog-inducing, heat-island effect of all these concrete high-rises because there wouldn’t be many new green roofs. (Ford voted against mandatory green roofs.)

Streets to Homes would have to get by on less money because, you know, homeless people don’t need that much help. (Ford voted for reducing their budget by 5 per cent.)

We wouldn’t be spending any money on making the city’s website more accessible. (Ford voted against it.)

We would be waging an ill-informed “war on drugs” rather than using science-based harm-reduction policies. (Ford voted against the Vienna Declaration endorsement.)

Fuck charity; we’d keep our old ambulances rather than donate them to an impoverished country. (Ford voted against giving two decommissioned ambulances to El Savador.)
 
Ok! Good to see that the momentum continues despite Smitherman being beaten up in the last couple of debates.

If Unions are leaving the NDP candidate, you know it's over for him. No point in dropping out at this point. Like an article earlier this week said: "Joe pick your poison". Either drop out and endorse George (impossible now) or stay in the race and either end a 30 year career with embarrassing numbers or end it being responsible for splitting the progressive vote and handing Toronto to its most destructive mayor ever.
 
There was a whole list of similar things from last week's eye weekly.

It looks like the cavalry is coming out for George. The media, unions and other groups, prominent individuals are flooding the internet, print and airwaves with anti Ford / Pro George messages. I think that the Toronto Sun is the only one writing supportive articles about Ford at this point -- and Levy is the one doing the writing.
 
Thanks Darkstar. I had already printed some and posted them in my building's laundry room but I think I'm gonna print a lot more this weekend and distribute them all over my neighbourhood.
 
I've gotten my entire family + family friends to vote for Ford (~30 people) I know a lot of my friends are doing the same.

It probably wasn't hard.

"Do you like taxes? If not, vote for Ford"

It's not hard to spread the word of a populist candidate.
 

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