Northern Light
Superstar
Rob Ford ran on stopping the gravity train, John Tory pushed SmartTrack. Olivia Chow hasn’t presented anything of real substance or catchy.
Now that's funny.(bold)
If she wins, she is winning based on name recognition in a by-election where most people don’t want to pay attention to. “I’m Olivia Chow and I love Toronto” is all I have really heard from her. Name recognition is very important in an election like this but it’s not everything. If name recognition was everything, Olivia Chow should have been elected in 2014. That said, with what looks to be a very low turnout for the election and without another contender to capture the attention away from Chow, it seems Chow will walk into this vital role because she is Olivia Chow, not because she presented something that rang true with voters.
There is nothing substantive about running against the 'gravy train'; Rob didn't improve efficiency at City Hall by one iota, nor did he have a plan to do so.
Smart Track was patently absurd, back-of-the-napkin nonsense from everyone's favourite self-promoting would-be transportation expert It was utter nonsense, and anyone who paid attention saw through it. Tory was not elected on it. He was elected on not being a Ford.
Given Chow’s political leaning, if she gets a lot of left leaning politics passed through council, I firmly believe there will be negative results down the road. I think people will grow tired of it all.
What a bizarre assertion for which you have provided no evidence. What 'left leaning stuff' would be so bad? What are you talking about? I'm perfectly fine w/you disagreeing with something Chow stands for or is committed to, but please spell it out, rather than waving your hand dramatically about and yelling but she's no good without saying why.
By then, I think the city will be asking for change, much like how we went from David Miller to Rob Ford and then found the safe, middle road with John Tory.
John Tory did not govern as a centrist, he penny-pinched all the way, cutting City services to the bone, starving them of resources and left the City worse than when he was elected. He didn't even govern as 'progressive, conservative', but rather as an arch one.
Its only that his rhetoric was moderate, his substance was not.
As for Josh Matlow, I personally think he would be a disaster for the city and given his reputation as being stuck up and difficult to work with, I don’t see a majority of city council members working well with him at all.
Josh might be an issue in respect of his ability to play well w/others; but he's by far the best policy wonk of the leading candidates.
I want to believe in a mayor who will try to work with everyone, not a small few group.
The last mayor to meet that criteria was Miller; Tory has kept a very tight circle and almost entirely excluded the left from power. He made nice w/Cressy for a bit; but that's about it.
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