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Next Mayor of Toronto?

^^ that's like me calling you a racist.....
how is it substantiated?


If he was a councillor, you'd probably see a bunch of civil lawyers on our tax dime serving you with a hefty suit.
 
Darkstar416 said:
He's also a homophobe.
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Not everybody's perfect. As long as he isn't advocating any homophobic policies (cancelling the parade for example) or speaking out openly against LBGTs, I am willing to live with him providing he does some good for the city. I am sure there isn't a person on the planet who has some private views that the public would not tolerate. Then again, that may just show how disappointed I am with Miller!

But, yeah, I am curious to know how you reached this conclusion. This is the first time I heard this.

I have always though he was a rather friendly guy. My cousins and I ran into him and his wife in Buffalo airport a few months back. Despite his wife losing her passport, he agreed to snap a few quick photos with us after we told him we were from TO, before he ran off to look for the passport.
 
Good grief, what does it matter if he's a homophobe? I could care less if he hates or loves gays, I'm not looking to date him. I'm sure there are many politicians out there of all party affiliations who do dislike gays or who are secretly racist or misogynistic, or who kick puppies when nobody is looking. As long as his policies are not homophobic why does it matter? If his policies are inappropriate he will either be booted out of office and/or in trouble with the law.

We have to stop voting for weak ineffectual leaders just because they offer us a supposed perfect and untainted image of political correctness. Nonsense. Lets judge leaders by what they will propose to do for the city which is to hopefully stand up to city council, the province and the feds, and the labour unions and minority interest groups, with a vision so as to start realizing the potential of this fantastic city through strong leadership. This is what Toronto needs, desperately.

Edited to add: I'm not necessarily arguing that he is the person to do this, only that we shouldn't be so quick to toss the baby with the bath water when considering the potential of a candidate.
 
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I disagree. What a person believes and does is a reflection of their thought process which is exactly what we should be evaluating. A candidates list of policies can be no more than a well scripted advertisement and history is littered with politicians who campaigned on one thing and did another. We need to understand how a politician thinks in order to know that when a politician changes their mind it will be based on logic and and evaluation of the situation, not based on some illogical ideals and beliefs.
 
Maybe I missed this, but how is Clemons a homophobe? I'm not a sports person so it is entirely possible I missed it, but looking over his wiki page it doesn't seem to mention anything about homophobia, even minor homophobia. All it says is that he is a "devout Christian", so maybe it wouldn't surprise me if he opposed SSM, but that doesn't make him a homophobe or somehow.
 
I don't know much about Clemons' politics or homophobia or whatever, but I will say that electing a dude who lives in Oakville and who is not a Canadian citizen to Mayor of Toronto might be kind of a challenge.
 
^ Where did you hear that he doesn't have Canadian citizenship? That's certainly news to me. As for the guy living in Oakville. I doub that would be much of an obstacle. Clemons is about as close as you can get to a "Mr. Toronto".
 
kEiThZ said:
^ Where did you hear that he doesn't have Canadian citizenship? That's certainly news to me. As for the guy living in Oakville. I doub that would be much of an obstacle. Clemons is about as close as you can get to a "Mr. Toronto".
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Wiki has him as a "Permanent Resident" but not a citizen. His foundation page says he has applied for citizenship, though, so maybe he's going to get it.

And not having lived in Toronto (at least for a very long time) would certainly be a negative in my mind.
 
Glen said:
Promises of zero % or inflation indexed tax increases while spending increases at 6% per year is the norm at city hall. So while the voting public is to blame for unrealistic expectations, they are, nonetheless, the expectations given to them by the Mayor and council. First and foremost they are culpable.
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Not all of the potential candidates for Mayor made those types of promises. We've opted to only elect a person as Mayor if they do make that promise.

I don't think anybody saying "I will raise taxes 6% per year" or "I will cut spending by 6% per year" can be elected.
 
EnviroTO said:
I think to represent Toronto you should live inside Toronto. Michael Ignatieff at least currently lives in Canada. If Clemons runs he should do so in Oakville.
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Just like Ignatieff, he can move in to the relevant jurisdiction just before running for office.
 
kEiThZ said:
Just like Ignatieff, he can move in to the relevant jurisdiction just before running for office.
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That would be fine. There needs to be that commitment. Passing new taxes, service level changes, etc that have no impact on oneself just doesn't seem right to me. He needs to live it.
 
I'm not a big fan of candidates parachuting in to run, either. It was why I was glad Ignatieff didn't win Liberal leadership the first time around. At least now he's lived in Canada for almost five years.

I'm also generally wary of celebrity candidates. We already tried electing the guy with the catchphrase from the Bad Boy Furniture commercials and Noooobody really benefited from that.
 
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