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Next Mayor of Toronto?

I'll be voting Smitherman. I think, and hope, he has the balls to stand up for the taxpayers against the unions and the left-wing council, as long as this stance is in his best interest of course (he is a politician after all).
 
It's weird because I think Smitherman will see more support from voters on the broad left and Tory from voters on the broad right, but I'm thinking their policies will be virtually identical. They'll both pledge to 'get tough on unions' but neither will.

That said, I dunno. Smitherman seems to have pissed off the premier with this announcement so his big selling point (to me, at least) - being the guy who can get things from the province - has faded. Tory continues to be likeable, but he's spent the last half-decade surrounding himself with the truly moronic and politically useless Ontario Progressive Conservative party.

The big red flag with Tory-as-mayor is that he completely and utterly failed in his role as leader of the PC party. He was unable to get the members on-side, unable to control the message and unable to set any kind of positive direction for the party. If he couldn't captain that boat - where everyone is ostensibly on the same side - how the hell is he going to handle Toronto City Council?
 
kEiThZ said:
I am scared Giambrone might come up the middle like Miller.
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I'm positive I like Miller more then most but I as well, am afraid of the above.

The issue is we really need a strong aggressive mayor this time around. It's not going to be a fun job - I'll tell you that much. We need someone with the balls to do what needs to be done - I haven't decided yet, I'll wait to hear the platforms -

The Go Tory is mainly for his pro business stance - something I think we really need for a little while at the very least ... but at the same time, I"m not asking for Haris - we need a comprise. It'll be a tough job no matter what.
 
Northern Magus said:
I can see where you're coming from but I'd argue you're comparing apples to oranges.

In 2000 there was an extremely popular incumbent who'd held off raising property taxes and was respected throughout the electorate for it. (Remember, this was *before* Mel's second term.) The NDP provincial wing were in the midst of a bitter backstabbing, infighting period following their withering defeats in '95 and '99 and in the process of running out moderates like Rae and Lankin. Federally they were not making much inroads against Chretien (their support proving to be very soft), and they'd been shut out of the mayor's office for years.

It's pretty understandable that they were demoralizing, demotivated times. And in 2000 just about every credible challenger decided to keep their powder dry.

Flash forward 10 years and all wings of the NDP have steadily been winning more and more. They've been the incumbents at city hall since 2003, learned the discipline of power, and had the chance to use it to implement some of the core issues they believe in. There's also much different, more hands-on leadership federally from someone who cut his teeth in Toronto council. And there's upcoming federal and provincial elections as well.

If I were Jack, I'd want to run a candidate in order to keep the party visible and relevant, and its messages percolating among the electorate. I'd also use this as a chance to keep my troops in campaign shape and forge more connections in ridings that might swing federally or provincially. And it would be a chance to have a dress rehearsal for 2014 when there's no more Miller baggage and an anti-incumbent campaign might get more traction.

The only challenge is finding a suitably high profile candidate to run. Pretty much by default, it's Giambrone's if he wants it.
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But to revisit this post: once again, "it depends".

Perhaps a subtle disincentive in Toronto's case might indeed be the absence of party politics/slates a la Montreal or Vancouver; otherwise, each party might well be bidding for a "full slate" of candidates, whether for mayoral or council positions. As it stands, even the NDP, which *does* run a slate, doesn't contest every single ward...
 
So Pantalone will be running. I wonder what he's thinking. After all of his years in politics he still doesn't have any name recognition north of (approximately) Bloor St.

Wondering how he'll raise the money, and also wondering how he thinks he can afford to take on the role of "spoiler/kingmaker".

I predict he'll drop out of the race early.
 
At a personal level, I think Smitherman will be a disaster - don't forget he is the one who presided over the MoH mess. The man is many things, transparency and rule of law it isn't. I might disagree with the politics surrounding Tory - but I have no doubt he is a better person than Smitherman.

AoD
 
Pantalone has been Miller's Deputy Mayor for both his terms and he's been a councillor for Trinity-Spadina for over 20 years. He definitely has the experience and internal networking to raise funds and get support.

I think that privately, he has Miller's endorsement although I'm not sure it would be wise to go in to this election with a public endorsement from the current Mayor.

For the first time in a municipal election, I'm not sure who I'm going to vote for. I'll be paying very close attention to the candidates' policies and their debates.

The question is, who's going to run for Joe's Ward 19 where he's been the easy incumbant winner for the past two decades?
 
MetroMan said:
Pantalone has been Miller's Deputy Mayor for both his terms and he's been a councillor for Trinity-Spadina for over 20 years. He definitely has the experience and internal networking to raise funds and get support.
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Actually, Adam Vaughan is the councillor for Trinity-Spadina (ward 20).
 
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