2018 Municipal Election: Toronto Council Races

[christiesplits]

I am under the impression that the whole Cressy thing is a little personal.

I don't detect that from MM. Locals thought that Cressy was unresponsive, and are looking for another alternative. I can't speak to JC's constituency work, but from afar, I like his action on city-wide issues like transit and affordable housing.

I think MM highlights one of the tricky balancing acts of city councillors, that of balancing city-building issues on council floor vs local neighbourhood items. Here in Toronto-Danforth, I would rather have Mary Fragedakis and her office available when it comes to local issues like speed humps or park repairs. However, on bigger city-wide issues, like opposing Ford's casino or standing up for the Relief Line, I would rather have Paula Fletcher on the council floor. Some councillors - Janet Davis comes to mind - were experts at balancing both. Of course, maybe councillors' performances on local, neighbourhood-level items are now irrelevant with the new giant wards making bread-and-butter local issues (and taking constituent phone calls) a thing of the past.

 

[MetroMan]

I am under the impression that the whole Cressy thing is a little personal.

It’s only personal in that Cressy is my councillor and I would like to have a city councillor that actually listens to their constituents. Mike Layton was my councillor before Cressy and so maybe I was spoiled by perhaps the best councillor at City Hall. My expectation is that I will receive a reply within a reasonable amount of time and that my city councillor will actually take the input of the people who he represents into consideration. A city councillor is the direct connection between citizens and City Hall. If they’re unresponsive, then citizens lose their representation in how policies big and small , that affect their daily lives and that of their neighbours, are decided at City Council.

I think you’ll find voters in this ward in a few camps:

- Constituents who are proactive and know that they have representation and call/email/tweet their councillor about issues in their neighbourhood. These generally dislike Cressy for the reasons stated above. He and his office are notorious for ignoring emails/calls/tweets.

- Constituents who just go about their lives, get angry at the government for the bad street layout in their neighbourhood, lack of garbage cans, streetlight pointing into their bedroom, etc but don’t do anything about it because they don’t know that their councillor is supposed to be their first line of action on these things. They could vote either way.

- Strongly partisan NDP voters who will vote for the NDP candidate, regardless of performance.

I consider myself a progressive voter. I worked on Olivia Chow’s campaign. I voted for Joe. I canvassed for him! He disappointed me repeatedly once elected and so I’ll do my best to elect a better person for the job.

 

[Northern Light]

Forgive me all for being a tad nebulous in this post.

But I want to discuss the value of being an engaged voter, without saying too much.

This week, I had to attend a public meeting.

A candidate for council........chose to be present outside said meeting, but not to actually attend it.

They did some glad-handing and such.

The candidate was one who is a real contender.

I had a chance to say 'hi'; and because I had taken a moment to ask questions of the candidate online, non-confrontationally, via social media they recognized me.

It resulted in a very engaging two-way discussion for about 15 minutes in which the candidate learned a great deal about how local government works, from me.

(that would be the candidate's own description)

I offer this not to brag, in any way, but rather to say, this election, like any other, is a chance for concerned citizens to become involved in and influence policy.

It does help some, if you know what has been passed or proposed.

But it isn't essential.

What is, is to go out and meet a candidate, particularly a likely or possible victor.

If only to open them up to hearing from you in the future, but maybe also to considering an issue of concern to you.

I can say this candidate had already published a platform, and yet gave me an in writing promise to support certain additional ideas.

Many of you are politically active and I apologize if any of this seems condescending.

I am speaking to those who might think their voice doesn't matter.

It does.

Maybe not as much as you'd like, maybe not all the time, but more than you would imagine possible.

Research your issue, know the arguments for and against. Speak honestly with candidates.

Make change happen!

Rant Done!

 

[christiesplits]

https://www.progresstoronto.ca/campaign-2018-action-plan/

Progress Toronto has made it's endorsements. Interestingly, they didn't endorse a candidate in York South Weston or Humber Black Creek, but rather listed the two 'alternatives' in each ward, who will possibly eat into each other's vote.

 

[christiesplits]

It will be interesting to see how well Amber Morley does against Mark Grimes in Etobicoke Lakeshore. There have been so many new residents in the area in the last four years, so incumbency might not matter. Morley is also much more youthful than Grimes, which could appeal to the younger Humber Shores set. Don't forget that Russ Ford nearly upset Grimey four years ago, and I hear she has most of his campaign team intact.

 

[animatronic]

It will be interesting to see how well Amber Morley does against Mark Grimes in Etobicoke Lakeshore. There have been so many new residents in the area in the last four years, so incumbency might not matter. Morley is also much more youthful than Grimes, which could appeal to the younger Humber Shores set. Don't forget that Russ Ford nearly upset Grimey four years ago, and I hear she has most of his campaign team intact.

Surprised they didn't go with Pamela Gough. She has much higher name recognition from being a school trustee.

 

[WislaHD]

I yawn at progresstoronto's endorsements. Some of their endorsements are just candidates with self-acclaimed progressivism, as opposed to proven track records being good community advocates.

e.g. - I'd much rather urban planners like Beth Levy and Brad Bradford to win over the likes of Youssefi and Dyson/Kellway.

 

[ShonTron]

Surprised they didn't go with Pamela Gough. She has much higher name recognition from being a school trustee.

I'm pretty sure Pamela Gough is a Liberal (though not the dank corner of that party that Maloney, Grimes and Di Dunpar reside in), while Morley is more tied with the NDP. Either would be a big improvement over Grimes, though, but I fear a vote split.

I'm disappointed by some of the endorsements as well.

 

[W. K. Lis]

As an aside, we should make a glance at the City of London, Ontario elections. They are using ranked ballots. Something Toronto should have used a couple of elections ago. See link.

 

[Thorns_Embrace]

I watched the ward debate in wards 23 and 24 and partially 25(was distracted for this one)

Ward 23 Felicia Samuel was probably the best speaker in the debate. However my political opinion is that she focuses on the wrong issues and their are other candidates I trust more and would rather have in office. The interesting thing that she said is that she opposed property tax increases. I am not sure what the deal is. Remember she is endorsed by Progress Toronto yet she takes this position. Feels like she is playing to the audience. I don't trust her in general and her political leaning make me like her less.
Maggie Chi formerly worked with councilor Chin lee and is a logical fit to replace him. I didn't find her that impressive but also she didn't say anything really stupid. So there is that. Is a better speaker than most at the debate but also didn't really passionately sell me on her plan. She has a bit of the "just not ready" vibe going on sadly.
Cynthia Lai has good credentials. She is not the greatest speaker but I actually trust her vision more than other people in the debate. She came second in 2014 but she is going to need a lot more votes. If I lived in this riding I would vote for her.
Also shout out to Dameon Halstead was probably the most impressive of the not likely to win candidates. And he seems conservative which I like.

Ward 24 only had 3 candidates attend, and the chicken commonly known as Paul Ainslie didn't attend. Did he not want to defend his LRT votes? The three candidates that attended were Wayne Emery, Michelle Spencer and Priyanth Nallaratham. The funny thing is I think they were all better speakers than anyone at the ward 23 debate with the exception of maybe Samuel. I liked Priyanth Nallaratham the best because he seemed the most conservative, but he was a reasonable conservative and not radical.

In the ward 25 debate shoutout to Reza Khoshdale for actually having a real debate on property taxes. I don;t 100% agree with his position but I like that somone is standing up and actually taking a difference stand and calling people on bs. It makes for a better debate. There were a lot of candidates and I wasn't fully paying attention. Jennifer Mckelvie is probably the best speaker in the group but also probably didn't break new ground. Neethan Shan really didn't impress considering he should be able to say what he accomplished while councilor.
Also I like the Zoo naming rights idea. I think it was Paul Cookson who said this but not 100% sure. I mean I like it from an outside the box perspective and for making a more interesting debate, and I am not really opposed to the idea either though he is overselling the amount it will bring for sure.

 

[W. K. Lis]

From link.

Toronto city council race turns bitter in York South—Weston

The crowded 11-candidate contest includes two veteran incumbents: councillors Frances Nunziata and Frank Di Giorgio.

The new, larger Ward 5 — formed after the province recently slashed the number of councillors in Toronto — combines the former Ward 11 where Nunziata was councillor and Ward 12, Di Giorgio’s turf.

The race has featured some nasty squabbles involving Nunziata, a feisty, street-savvy politician and former City of York mayor, and Chiara Padovani,one of the other candidates running.

A few weeks ago, Nunziata’s brother John, a lawyer and former three-term Liberal MP and later Independent for York South—Weston, posted controversial comments on the Facebook page of the Black Creek Alliance, a pro-environment community group in the area.

Padovani is a member of the group, which identifies itself as non-partisan, and John Nunziata accused the group of “clearly being a front” for Padovani. He charged that the group is “contravening election laws” with its Facebook page and needs to register as a “third party.”

In his post John Nunziata said a “formal complaint will be filed and a prosecution will follow” against Padovani and the administrators of the Facebook page. He added that “a civil action will also be launched for slander and defamation.”

In an interview Padovani said the group has done nothing wrong. She said she views John’s post as an attempt to “threaten and intimidate” her and the group’s members.

In an interview, Frances Nunziata distanced herself from her brother’s Facebook remarks, saying she wasn’t told in advance that he’d be posting them, he doesn’t speak for her and there will be no legal action.

John Nunziata told the Star no legal action will be happening and that his post was meant as a “caution” because he found some of the comments on the Facebook page were “nasty, slanderous and defamatory” toward his sister. The offending comments have since been taken down, and John Nunziata said they didn’t represent the entire organization.

In a separate incident, Frances Nunziata is distancing herself from a comment by white nationalist Faith Goldy, whom Nunziata said she doesn’t even know.

Padovani is criticizing Nunziata after Goldy, a mayoral candidate, recently tweeted: “Toronto is blessed to have the Nunziata family fighting for more than politics, but actual principles the people hold.”

Padovani, a social worker whose platform includes concerns about affordability, poverty and declining services in Ward 5, says Goldy’s tweet and seeming endorsement of the Nunziata family is out of bounds given the diverse ethnic makeup of the ward. Padovani said Frances needs to disavow any connection to Goldy.

Nunziata told the Star when she first learned of the tweet she had no idea who Goldy is. “I don’t know Faith Goldy, and I don’t want to know her,” Nunziata said.

Squabbles aside, Ward 5 — bounded by Hwy. 401 to the north; GO rail tracks to the east; Humber River to the west and CP rail tracks to the south — faces myriad issues.

Among them are serious flooding problems faced by homes in the Black Creek and Humber Blvd. area, crime and youth unemployment challenges near streets like Jane and Weston Rd., and the expected development boom that will accompany the completion in a few years of the TTC’s Mount Dennis stop on the Eglinton Crosstown transit line.

The stop, located near Eglinton Ave. W. and Weston Rd., will be the western terminal station for the Eglinton Crosstown, and serve as a massive transit hub. There are plans for the station to include a TTC bus stop, a link to the GO Transit Kitchener line and a UP Express stop.

Laura Alderson, co-ordinator of the Mount Dennis BIA, says as a result, developers are buying up land in the area to build on, anticipating the number of people that will be drawn there.

Alderson added that building housing in the area — “whether it be midrise or highrise, purpose-built rental, condos or affordable housing” — makes sense from a number of perspectives.”

She added: “the new councillor will need to be able to work well with the local community, city planning department and developers to arrive at a consensus on what’s best for the area.”

The area is currently a bit desolate looking, with a lot of abandoned businesses. Both Nunziata and Di Giorgio say they want to see the area rejuvenated.

Both are also calling for more support for community groups that help youths in the ward, some of whom are gravitating to gang activity and crime.

The incumbents also want to see more jobs created for youth.

“We need to deal with issues that are driving people to feel they’re not part of the opportunities other people are getting,” Di Giorgio said in an interview.

York South—Weston candidates: Keaton Austin, Deeqa Barre, Joey Carapinha, Frank Di Giorgio (councillor), Fred Fosu, Harpreet Gulri, Frances Nunziata (councillor), Cedric Ogilvie, Lekan Olawoye, Chiara Padovani and Luis Portillo.

I maybe voting for Chiara Padovani.

 

[King of Kensington]

It would be great to drive the Nunziatas out of Toronto politics for good.

 

[animatronic]

It would be great to drive the Nunziatas out of Toronto politics for good.

Except they're probably going to be around for another 50 years. That kid running for trustee is no doubt getting ready for a 2022 council run.

 

[christiesplits]

It would be great to drive the Nunziatas out of Toronto politics for good.

Good God, I despise that family so much. Thankfully John Nunziata lost to Di Giorgio by a nail in 2014. Imagine Mammo, Karygiannis AND John Nunziata?

 

[steveintoronto]

I had a friend who rented a house from John Nunziata. Shenanigans ensued. Without having reference to post, I leave it at that save to add that the house failed building inspection.