This has been a tough campaign. I've went from supporting and volunteering for David Soknacki to being undecided after he dropped out, to the Tory Camp. Even though I feel ideologically closer to Chow, not once this election have I felt like she deserved my vote. Olivia Chow has disappointed me so much this campaign. I find her uncompromising and ideologically driven to a fault, which is in my opinion the worst thing possible for politics at the municipal level because you must work closer with planners, Councillors and communities who might not share your views. Sticking blindly to dogma and ideologues is contrarian to progress and good governance in my book as the past 4 years have shown with Ford. At every debate I've watched her in, she has stuck to blatant pandering (mothers with strollers, bulldozing whole neighborhoods) which appears fake and shallow, and I not very fond of her "alliance" with Ford at debates and her overall negative campaign attacking Tory's platform instead of promoting her own. Chow trying to instigate NIMBY-ism in regards to GO RER is also gravely disappointing.
The most important issue to me this election is transit, and while Chow has promised to go ahead with things already planned, I find her overall very weak on transit. Despite her past as the NDP's transit critic, this entire campaign, from debates to press conferences, has convinced me that Chow does not understand transit issues, policies and infrastructure. Her bus plan is misguided, misleading, unworkable and will go way above her budget, she doesn't understand the need for GO RER and is instead inciting NIMBY support against it, and her early-campaign move to support the (superior) Scarborough LRT was a populist campaign move to distance herself away from the "tax-n-spend NDPer" label. This is not the person or rationale I want planning our city's transit, even if it is currently a platform I like.
Lastly, and this has been actively discussed since yesterday on here, but Chow's opinion that 60,000 household income is enough for a family of 4 to comfortably live in the inner city tells me that she is out-of-touch with most lower-middle class families, like myself. kEiThZ is right in the other thread, whether this is absolutely true or not is besides the point, what matters is how voters perceived the candidates answer to the above question, and for me it has solidified my vote away from Chow.
As for John Tory, well I am not exceptionally fond of him, I do think he is a hard working, compromising and cooperative person, can work with both sides of council and bridge the divide the Fords have created in this city over the past 4 years and return us to normalcy. I think he will be a weak mayor and easily swayed by council, expert advice and public opinion, which is actually alright in my book. I also think Tory is the best person to have as mayor to ensure Toronto gets its fair share from the Provincial Liberals and Federal Conservatives(/Liberals after 2015). I was upset about his words on Eglinton Connects early this campaign, but he's bracktracked on that and in any case, Eglinton Connects has overwhelming support in council and won't even reach council chamber until after 2018. As for transit, I am not fond of his choice of Scarborough subway, but we'll see what happens once the EA's return. As for the rest of it, he has pledged to continue Sheppard and Finch LRTs as scheduled. SmartTrack is a horrible "plan" as conceived in this campaign, but what SmartTrack looks now and after the election I suspect will be two very different things. I think if Mayor Tory could get Metrolynx to implement aspects of SmartTrack into their GO RER plans, meaning fare integration, throughrouting and prioritization of Stouffville and Georgetown lines, and additional stations inside the 416, it would be a MASSIVE victory for Toronto transit. We would essentially be converting a 905er commuters route into a subway route that we could paint on our TTC map and deliver rapid and reliable transit to the outer Toronto suburbs, and the province will be footing most if not all of the bill! Beyond that, John Tory has been a huge advocate for the DRL for years (prior to his summer SmartTrack flipflop), and I am sure whatever preliminary DRL studies and EAs that come through council are safe with him as mayor.
This will be my first time voting in a municipal election, I am glad I've taken the time to follow the campaign (and even volunteer with candidates) and become an educated voter in the process. The above are my conclusions with little more than a week to go before election day. I'm not voting for Tory strategically, but because of the three frontrunners, Tory's mayoralty by far makes the most sense.
For reference, I did the CBC Vote Compass and my results were:
Olivia Chow - 70%
John Tory - 54%
Doug Ford - 34%
