News   Jul 25, 2024
Street Scale and City Scale
 212     0 
News   Jul 24, 2024
Infill Towers Proposed on Markham Road South of Ellesmere
 757     1 
News   Jul 24, 2024
Hullmark, First Capital, and Woodbourne Break Ground on 1071 King West
 1.4K     1 

Next Mayor of Toronto?

And the next mayor of Toronto...will not be David Miller!

What a twist. All of a sudden instead of the right worrying about a candidate, it's the left that has nobody. Smitherman vs. Tory. Now that would be a good fight to watch. A real battle for the centre essentially.
 
There is definitely an opening for someone left of Smitherman. The NDP base will not support him, and that is the best organized group municipally in Toronto. There is enough money there to run a campaign as well.

Would a non-Dipper like Carroll or Vaughan be able to win over this group? Miller's heir apparent has always been Giambrone, but it might make sense for him to wait an election or two for the right's popularity to be ebbing.

Without Miller I don't see either Tory or Smitherman running on a "kill the unions" "end the war on cars" type campaign which would leave a space on the right for a candidate like Stintz to stay in it.
 
Smitherman's definitely going to move left now. It's not like he was ever really right-wing to begin with. I'm still not convinced Tory is going to run now - I think he saw an opportunity in running as Miller's main opponent. Running against Smitherman, who is going to have a provincial government behind him, has got be pretty daunting for a dude who just loss to an unknown musician in Haliburton.

I don't know who they'll get from the Miller camp. Giambrone is too young and not a great speaker. Maybe Joe Pantalone?
 
ear2ear said:
Olivia Chow, perhaps?
Click to expand...

You know, running for mayor could be an out for Jack Layton from his NDP leadership quagmire.

Needless to say, I'm sure all kinds of dusty politicians from the woodwork of all three levels of government, past and present, are popping their heads out and making phone calls to old connections asking "do you there's any chance..."
 
Last edited:
kettal said:
Adam Vaughan! He's one guy on council who actually uses his brain. And he's media smart too.
Click to expand...

I didn't think this was very smart:

What about the Greater Toronto Area, what's your favourite spot?

Never been there. With no apology and without the slightest bit of shame, I am a Torontonian and the GTA is the rest of Canada. The reality is that there's Toronto and there's the rest of Canada and I don't mean to offend anyone, but I won't apologize for this city, I like it too much.
Click to expand...

http://www.blogto.com/people/2009/07/toronto_through_the_eyes_of_adam_vaughan/
 
I half suspect Miller resigned because the province might have refused to bail out Toronto next year....which means he'd have to run after having to raise taxes a lot and cut services.

This contest just got interesting though. Can you imagine somebody who comes right out and says that services like garbage collection should be privatized? There are some easy vote getters to be had, now that Miller is not around.
 
What about the Greater Toronto Area, what's your favourite spot?

Never been there. With no apology and without the slightest bit of shame, I am a Torontonian and the GTA is the rest of Canada. The reality is that there's Toronto and there's the rest of Canada and I don't mean to offend anyone, but I won't apologize for this city, I like it too much.
Click to expand...

Wow, in 2009 no less! He may love his city, but he doesn't understand it very well.
 
My biggest disappointment with Miller's deparature is the sense particularly among the far right wingers lurking on CBC and TheStar.ca that this is some sort of vindication of righ wing conservatism in Toronto. It's hard to take these posters seriously when they continue their screams of "Rob Ford 2010."

Fortunately, even if John Tory gets in, it will be far from a victory for the far right. He will play the middle and do little to shake up the tight grasp unions hold over the city. The city will be even more aggressive in asking for handouts, only to make the burden of raising taxes fall on our provincial and federal counterparts (taxes are taxes, people). And with a deficit ridden Queens Park and Parliament Hill, history shows that requests for cash won't come easy.

To the disappointment of many on the pro-Ford fringe, Toronto will never elect a mayor who claims that maintaining school pools in low-income neighbourhoods is socialism or that users of breakfast school programs need to realize that "life is unfair" (both are comments I have read on CBC.ca in the last 48 hours alone).
 
kEiThZ said:
I half suspect Miller resigned because the province might have refused to bail out Toronto next year....which means he'd have to run after having to raise taxes a lot and cut services.

This contest just got interesting though. Can you imagine somebody who comes right out and says that services like garbage collection should be privatized? There are some easy vote getters to be had, now that Miller is not around.
Click to expand...


I agree. It is the upcoming budget that is going to lay bare the ugly financial issues facing this city.

As much as there are many people believing that the garbage strike tarnished Mayor Miller, to the point of being unelectable, I think the truth is yet to emerge.

IMO, it is next year’s budget that would make him completely unelectable. Toronto’s non-residential assessment base continues to shrink (these are revenue positive). The reserves have been bled dry. The province has no money or inclination to continually bail out the city.

The result of all this is that the city will need to increase taxes by 15% to 25%. This after the LTT, VRT, and various other fee increases. The ‘left’ on council will want the increase to be distributed equally on all classes, which will further accellerate the declining commercial assessment base. This in turn will just exacerbate the problem. The ‘right’ on council will simply insist that taxes are to high.

I doubt that next year’s budget will pass council, and the the Province will have to intervene.

This city is not economically sustainable and has reached a crisis point.
 
Glen said:
I agree. It is the upcoming budget that is going to lay bare the ugly financial issues facing this city.

As much as there are many people believing that the garbage strike tarnished Mayor Miller, to the point of being unelectable, I think the truth is yet to emerge.

IMO, it is next year’s budget that would make him completely unelectable. Toronto’s non-residential assessment base continues to shrink (these are revenue positive). The reserves have been bled dry. The province has no money or inclination to continually bail out the city.

The result of all this is that the city will need to increase taxes by 15% to 25%. This after the LTT, VRT, and various other fee increases. The ‘left’ on council will want the increase to be distributed equally on all classes, which will further accellerate the declining commercial assessment base. This in turn will just exacerbate the problem. The ‘right’ on council will simply insist that taxes are to high.

I doubt that next year’s budget will pass council, and the the Province will have to intervene.

This city is not economically sustainable and has reached a crisis point.
Click to expand...

and fire, and brimstone, etc.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top