2018 Municipal Election: Toronto Council Races

[TransitBart]

Two observations.
1. Many council races results in a strong majority rather than a weak plurality. Hats off to Kristin Wong-Tam who won a majority against like two dozen (ack!$#@!) competitors. While lifer Frances Nunziata hung on with 32.06% and newbie Cynthia Lai ‘won’ with 27%.
2. Turnout, at best, seems to be about a third. Ugh.

 

[W. K. Lis]

The day after. The losing candidates should just sit back and munch on some potato chips. Bet they can't eat just one.

From link.

 

[christiesplits]

So it’s having an army of campaigners that makes a win? I find that hard to blog, but the evidence appears to be in. Very hard - from my POV - to explain why Mary Fragedakis and Fletcher were not more evenly matched.

Fletcher has deeper ties to the NDP machine. Fragedakis has those connections too - its what got her elected in 2010 - but they aren't as strong. While local MPP Peter Tabuns sat on the sidelines, it was obvious to people on the ground that the riding association and resources were mostly rallying around Fletcher.

Also, Fletcher's husband is the president of the Toronto Labour Council, which certainly doesn't hurt.

 

[OneCity]

At the risk of getting stoned to death here... Who cares? There were qualified and brilliant candidates of every stripe and colour. And in their infinite wisdom, the electorate chose from that group whom they thought would do the best job for them. The new council contains many faces whose ancestors did not hail from the British Isles.

There is no win (for anyone) in this thinking. It is a quagmire and we do no service to the candidates who through their determination to make it, made it.

Name recognition and party status hold far more weight over diversity. With no term limits we are simply lagging behind in demographics as for the most part those who get in, stay in.

 

[OneCity]

Did anyone mention Mammo's son became the school trustee? Just when you think its over lol

 

[facepalming_brooklynite]

The funny thing is the 4 minorities elected the only one that is even remotely centrist is Bailao and she gets hate for being a John Tory shill.

Wow. If Bailão counts as "minority" we really have a looong way to go

 

[Jacob Lisgar]

Wow. If Bailão counts as "minority" we really have a looong way to go

She is an immigrant from Portugal and she is a women on a male dominant council. Do you have another definition of minority that we should know about??

 

[Admiral Beez]

I wonder what job Mammo will get.

Hopefully something buried deep where we won't hear from him. Though I'm not so sure he is as close with DoFo as he was with RoFo. He might just be ignored and forgotten.

I'm so glad Mammo is out. The circus was tiresome.

 

[facepalming_brooklynite]

She is an immigrant from Portugal and she is a women on a male dominant council. Do you have another definition of minority that we should know about??

Looking at Census data:

• Women represent 51.9% of Toronto's population.
• Portuguese ancestry is not a category under "visible minority" (who by the way make up 51.4%)

I get that she counts as "ethnic" in a Canada where the descendants of British settlers dominate everything, but I thought we were trying to move past that.

 

[Avenue]

Bailao is not visible minority. In today's conjuncture she's considered white. Let's not bend over backwards to make excuses for a fake progressive/Tory lapdog.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Slightly off note - but clearly YVR is having a little taste of YYZ coming soon:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/can...-doug-mccallums-promise-to-push-for-skytrain/

AoD

 

[ShonTron]

Any thoughts on Council's demographic composition?

I think I'm counting 36% female, 64% male.

And 16% visible minority (err, hmmm, less than plurality?) LOL

I despise quotas and don't associate council's competence based on its make-up.

Still I think ideally a council should look vaguely like those it represents.

Seems there is still a hill to climb in that regard.

Four councillors elected identify as PoC; Wong-Tam, Thompson, Minnan-Wong, and now Lai. That's 15% (including the mayor). That's similar to the 44-member council elected in 2014, where 6 out of 45 members of council identified as PoC.

 

[Jacob Lisgar]

Bailao is not visible minority. In today's conjuncture she's considered white. Let's not bend over backwards to make excuses for a fake progressive/Tory lapdog.

Call her whatever you want, the people support her and what she is doing. She got 83% of the vote and at with over 26,000 votes she got more votes than any single councillor, left, right, upside down, black, white, whatever. She immigrated to Canada as a teenager and I think she should be a role model for all new immigrants regardless of what color spectrum you would like to place her in.

 

[Thorns_Embrace]

Looking at Census data:

• Women represent 51.9% of Toronto's population.
• Portuguese ancestry is not a category under "visible minority" (who by the way make up 51.4%)

I get that she counts as "ethnic" in a Canada where the descendants of British settlers dominate everything, but I thought we were trying to move past that.

My apologies on the Bailao point I mistakenly assumed she was from South America like the other councilor in the area Cesar Palacio.

 

[Avenue]

Call her whatever you want, the people support her and what she is doing. She got 83% of the vote and at with over 26,000 votes she got more votes than any single councillor, left, right, upside down, black, white, whatever. She immigrated to Canada as a teenager and I think she should be a role model for all new immigrants regardless of what color spectrum you would like to place her in.

The fact that people vote for her doesn't make anything right, which should be an obvious point. Personally I am extremely disgusted by her voting record.

She's proof that shallow politics can win regardless of the agenda underneath.