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News Roundup for April 18, 2024
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Ridiculous comments and claims made by City Councillors

How about Perks' comments about how traffic congestion/gridlock adds a sense of vibrancy to neighbourhoods during that debate about traffic signal coordination? Seemed ridiculous to me because it takes forever just to drive a few blocks in this city.

I don’t want to live in a ghost town. I want to live in a vibrant exciting place where I’m meeting people on the street and saying hi.
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the lemur said:
What do we know about Giorgio's family?
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That they make a pretty mean pizza:
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DSC said:
One really despairs of the electorate who re-elect buffoons like Ford (of both kinds), Mammo and Jimmy K. All have been re-elected - some several times - so people cannot plead ignorance.
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Our municipal voting system needs an overhaul. Evidently, ignorance is the reason why such people keep getting re-elected (see below). Here are the results from the 2014 municipal election in Ward 34:

2014 Toronto election, Ward 34[20]
Candidate Votes %
Denzil Minnan-Wong 9,761 53%
Mary Hynes 5,953 32%
Douglas Owen 1,171 6%
Faisal Boodhwani 705 4%
Amer Karaman 486 3%
Alan Selby 453 2%
Total 18,529 100%

Everyone below Mary Hynes' name didn't even campaign or have any online presence or literature delivered to constituents. Evidently, the 4 candidates in question only got votes because people just checked off random names on their ballot. How else could these candidates get so many votes when no one even knows they exist (beyond family, friends, colleagues)? There has to be stricter rules in place going forth. If one is too lazy to campaign, why should they be rewarded with votes? What would be the motive for such a person to even register their name as a candidate? One has to wonder if it is just a way to make one's resume look more impressive.

Maybe there needs to be some sort of authoritative body that monitors all candidates. If it is found out that there is no presence or platform put forth by candidates, their names should be scratched off the ballots.
 
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DSC said:
One really despairs of the electorate who re-elect buffoons like Ford (of both kinds), Mammo and Jimmy K. All have been re-elected - some several times - so people cannot plead ignorance.
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Stupidity on the other hand is still available for the taking.

AoD
 
DSC said:
One really despairs of the electorate who re-elect buffoons like Ford (of both kinds), Mammo and Jimmy K. All have been re-elected - some several times - so people cannot plead ignorance.
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how about pleading stupidity
 
Jimmi T said:
How about Perks' comments about how traffic congestion/gridlock adds a sense of vibrancy to neighbourhoods during that debate about traffic signal coordination? Seemed ridiculous to me because it takes forever just to drive a few blocks in this city.
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I wonder if he meant something like slower traffic and pedestrian crossings make a place more livable than traffic signals set to let traffic zoom through and pedestrian greens are infrequent? Not that that's a reason not to coordinate traffic signals.
 
Armour said:
Our municipal voting system needs an overhaul. Evidently, ignorance is the reason why such people keep getting re-elected (see below). Here are the results from the 2014 municipal election in Ward 34:

2014 Toronto election, Ward 34[20]
Candidate Votes %
Denzil Minnan-Wong 9,761 53%
Mary Hynes 5,953 32%
Douglas Owen 1,171 6%
Faisal Boodhwani 705 4%
Amer Karaman 486 3%
Alan Selby 453 2%
Total 18,529 100%

Everyone below Mary Hynes' name didn't even campaign or have any online presence or literature delivered to constituents. Evidently, the 4 candidates in question only got votes because people just checked off random names on their ballot. How else could these candidates get so many votes when no one even knows they exist (beyond family, friends, colleagues)? There has to be stricter rules in place going forth. If one is too lazy to campaign, why should they be rewarded with votes? What would be the motive for such a person to even register their name as a candidate? One has to wonder if it is just a way to make one's resume look more impressive.
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I think the issue in wards like Mammo's, DMW's, etc. is that other candidates don't have much of a profile and it's hard to establish one when the incumbent sucks up all the oxygen/airtime. It's actually pretty impressive that someone got 32% against DMW, but maybe DMW does some kind of retail politics (potholes, etc.) that endears him to some voters despite his personality. I certainly wonder what's going on in Mammo's ward: it doesn't seem very populous and Mammo never seems to do much except pop up now and again to say something asinine.
 
the lemur said:
maybe DMW does some kind of retail politics (potholes, etc.) that endears him to some voters despite his personality
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I actually think that's a key factor. Rob Ford is a buffoon, but always excelled at working on these bread and butter issues for constituents. There are people in his ward who may not even like his politics, but on a practical level he's the one who made sure their street got ploughed more regularly, got the grafitti removed from the nearby community centre, got Transportation Services to end the nearby road closure sooner than planned, etc. etc., and so they vote for him. I have heard that Georgio is very good at supporting local groups - if the Legion is having an issue with X, or the softball league is having issues with y, etc. Georgio is out there seemingly working to get it fixed.

There was a time in Toronto, in the 1980s when we still had two-tier local government, when the first place candidate in a (former) Toronto ward became the Metro Councillor and the second place candidate became the local City Councillor (this practice ended in the early 1990s, IIRC, when Metro wards no longer matched City wards). And there was a common phenomenon whereby in the following election, the previous second-place finisher would place a strong first, and the previous first-place finisher would fall back. This was largely attributed to the fact that the lower-tier areas of jurisdiction (e.g. local roads, local parks, local recreation centres, etc.) gave the City Councillor the opportunity to do the retail type of politics which enabled them to score a lot of points in the community and to place first the next time around. In contrast, the macro and Metr0-wide issues that were the focus of the Metro Councillor did not give him/her the same exposure in the ward.
 
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the lemur said:
I think the issue in wards like Mammo's, DMW's, etc. is that other candidates don't have much of a profile and it's hard to establish one when the incumbent sucks up all the oxygen/airtime. It's actually pretty impressive that someone got 32% against DMW, but maybe DMW does some kind of retail politics (potholes, etc.) that endears him to some voters despite his personality. I certainly wonder what's going on in Mammo's ward: it doesn't seem very populous and Mammo never seems to do much except pop up now and again to say something asinine.
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immigrants and lack of English
 
the lemur said:
I think the issue in wards like Mammo's, DMW's, etc. is that other candidates don't have much of a profile and it's hard to establish one when the incumbent sucks up all the oxygen/airtime. It's actually pretty impressive that someone got 32% against DMW, but maybe DMW does some kind of retail politics (potholes, etc.) that endears him to some voters despite his personality. I certainly wonder what's going on in Mammo's ward: it doesn't seem very populous and Mammo never seems to do much except pop up now and again to say something asinine.
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I live in Denzil's ward. I think the problem is that people out here are just disengaged. The suburbs, in general, are where most families live, therefore I think priorities are more meat and potatoes (as you suggested, potholes, road conditions, snow removal in winter, etc.). Periphery issues like heritage, arts and culture, public realm, etc. aren't even really on the radar of said individuals. Plus, parents are too busy raising their children to have the time to be concerned with those aforementioned subjects. Also, Denzil is a family man and that appeals to other families in the ward. He can get away with being a ghost in his ward, that only comes out every 4 years when it's election time, because basically no one is paying attention to what he is doing. Taxes remain low and quality of life remains the same, therefore, he must be doing a good job (is the mentality, I assume, many share). Denzil is also financially backed by wealthy individuals, so he is able to get his name out in the community better than any of his opponents. It's probably going to take another person with deep pockets and the ability to pick apart Denzil's demagoguery to defeat him at the ballot box. I don't have much hope that this will happen (Peter Youngren, in 2010, was his greatest challenge). I can actually see Denzil representing Ward 34 until he decides to retire. I think he will only be replaced if term limits are implemented.

I assume most of Mary Hynes' votes came from the apartment and townhouse complexes in Ward 34. She's an NDPer and this ward is pretty conservative. I even voted for her and I'm right of center, socially. I was just so desperate to get rid of Denzil.
 
I was disappointed when I googled Karygiannis. I assumed he'd be one of the stars of this thread but I didn't find much.
 
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