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Next mayor of Toronto?

Krysten Wong-Tam.

fresh blood, fresh ideas and pro active, willing to consult constituents - residents, businesses and developers, about ways to make their neighbour hood better for all concerned.
 
Wong-Tam is definitely the most popular candidate put forward, if you were to go by Facebook / Twitter mentions that she 'should' run.
 
cdr108 said:
Krysten Wong-Tam.

fresh blood, fresh ideas and pro active, willing to consult constituents - residents, businesses and developers, about ways to make their neighbour hood better for all concerned.
Click to expand...

Not a chance. She'll capitulate way to much to the city unions, polarize the city again like Miller did.

Josh Matlow
or long shot, Bob Rae.
 
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js97 said:
Not a chance. She'll capitulate way to much to the city unions, polarize the city again like Miller did.

Josh Matlow
or long shot, Bob Rae.
Click to expand...


really, i didn't get the impression KWT was pro union.
 
cdr108 said:
Krysten Wong-Tam.

fresh blood, fresh ideas and pro active, willing to consult constituents - residents, businesses and developers, about ways to make their neighbour hood better for all concerned.
Click to expand...

She couldn't even get 30% of the votes in her own ward. If being gay was an issue for smitherman you think someone who helped fund Queers against Israeli apartheid has a chance to win?
 
I've been impressed with Shelley Carroll lately. Whatever secret sauce she is using to hold on to her seat in the heart of Ford Nation would be useful in a mayoral campaign. The negative would be a very close association with Miller, but then again by 2014 lots of voters may be looking back to the Miller years with considerable nostalgia.
 
Carroll still probably has the best shot at 2014 -- assuming that we don't see a schism with the right that leads to Ford getting challenged by a more-principled conservative candidate -- but I was so impressed by the way Kristyn Wong-Tam handled both the Mayor-at-Pride controversy and the Jarvis lanes that I wouldn't rule her out completely.
 
Of all the new councillors, I've been most impressed by Wong-Tam. She seems like a really hard worker, and on point in most of her questioning. She actually seems like the best councillor there right now. I especially liked one episode when the Housing Board was being tossed. She asked a couple questions of Holyday that clearly reinforced that she'd done more business in the real world than the old conservative had ever encountered. There have been a couple times when she has seemed defeated by the obstinate stupidity of the ruling majority on council and has fallen into the unproductive speech-making and hopeless amendments of Fletcher, Davis, Perks, etc, but overall she seems to be striving to wring the best result out of a bad situation. However, she doesn't seem - at this time - to be a personality that will capture the faith of the entire city in the the wake of Ford.

A politics wonk who needs to be the moderate voice of reasoned debate, at least in his own head, Matlow seems to drift a bit. I hear that he voted no to the Jarvis lanes by mistake at last meeting, but his vote never seems to be predictable on any issue. When I see results of any vote, I always look for his first, just because he can be all over the map.

Carroll can seem petulant and disruptive. I don't get the affection for her.

I wonder if Colle has any legs. I haven't seen him do anything in council, but he may be as well-connected as anyone there, and seems to be working the backroom politics to make himself the leader of the moderate newcomers.
 
GraphicMatt said:
Carroll still probably has the best shot at 2014 -- assuming that we don't see a schism with the right that leads to Ford getting challenged by a more-principled conservative candidate -- but I was so impressed by the way Kristyn Wong-Tam handled both the Mayor-at-Pride controversy and the Jarvis lanes that I wouldn't rule her out completely.
Click to expand...

I think a right-wing schism isn't beyond the realm of possibility--and nor is the prospect of Ford not even running. A great deal can happen between now and then. For the moment, everyone right-of-centre in Council has yoked themselves to Ford, and from their perspective that's perfectly sensible. But we are already seeing that he's much more extreme on some issues than literally anyone else on Council, and if and when those tendencies extend to substantive rather than symbolic issues his ostensible allies are going to feel the heat.

I also have to wonder how relations are on a personal level between Rob and his Council backers. He famously made no friends at all except Doug Holyday during his first decade at City Hall.

In the event of a right-wing schism, I'd like to see Michael Thompson run. Though I have never dealt with him personally his heart seems to be in the right place.
 
The rumblings about a split between Ford and Stintz are interesting as she absolutely had mayoral ambitions at one point. Though she was totally drinking the Kool-Aid last week with her terrible "Think of the mother who has to miss dinner with her children because of GRIDLOCK" speech supporting the Jarvis lane elimination.
 
I feel that it is way too early in the game to speculate on who might be the next mayor, or who may challenge.

I can say with some degree of certainty, now, that there will be a lot of unrest in the next three years; unrest in many forms. The next election may end up being an opportunity for a high profile outsider to pounce. I think that the majority of Ford backers are going to be a sorry lot.
 
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I am surprised there is no mention of Vaughan yet. He seems like a fairly obvious potential choice.
I'd say Matlow will be a candidate eventually, but not yet. I don't think it's a smart idea for anyone to run for mayor after a single term as a councilor (though I'm sure someone will chime in saying "so and so was a 1 term councilor").
 
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