Tory is an honest, decent guy who doesn't win elections. Although he may have a shot at this one.
It's an open question whether he has the stamina and willpower to push through an agenda of keeping taxes in check and making sure there is fiscal accountability and responsibility at City Hall. If he has the strength to stand up to the rapacious union civic bosses who plunder the public purse remains to be seen.
Current mayor Rob Ford, though plagued with personal scandals, has been steadfast in his integrity as a public official and furiously determined to advance an agenda of financial responsibility.
An interesting development will be if Ford's media enemies, who are legion in the city, will enthusiastically support Tory, or continue to encourage Trinity-Spadina NDP MP Olivia Chow to enter the mayoral race. Chow would most likely siphon votes from Tory rather than eat into Ford's rock-solid support base. Chow, the widow of the late NDP leader Jack Layton has very little support outside of her downtown base and has a number of reprehensible political associates and allies whose agenda she would advance. But the possibility of the city continuing to be headed by someone who isn't naturally inclined to socialist policy may be a hard pill for them to swallow.
In addition to Tory, City Councillor Karen Stintz and former Councillor David Soknacki have declared their candidacies, which divides the anyone-but-Ford pie into smaller pieces.
One thing is for sure - for the candidates running against Ford this election, a loss will come like a stake through the hearts of their future political careers.
4 comments:
I don't quite know if I would use the words "honest and decent" to describe John Tory. Manipulative, perhaps?
Tory was the one behind the infamous "negative billing" campaign at Rogers -- a position he got solely due to family connections -- and spearheaded the nasty campaign against then-PM Jean Cretien, poking fun at his facial paralysis due to Bells Palsy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D000Amn9CIA
I dunno. Ford apparently took a big chunk of NDP voters last time out, and you can assume they'd go home to Chow. I'd also be worried about women and the famous "ethnic vote," particularly in the suburbs.
I'm not saying that's enough to throw the election, but I also don't it'll go that far.
Tory came out yesterday with a huge social media presence and a working website with donation buttons, two things the Ford campaign pointedly doesn't have.
Despite being in the campaign, no one has any idea how to donate to Hizzoner. And even I don't think he's dumb enough to self-finance.
We're no longer in the "Let's mock Soknaki stage of the campaign because shit just got real. And I haven't seen that Etobicoke Slim has raised s much as a dime. Worse, he's spending the day with Matt Lauer, reminding everyone that he's a drunk and a crackhead, which might be less than ideal positioning.
With every day that passes I'm increasingly convinced that Ford will drop out by Canada Day at the latest.
Jesus Christ and All the Dwarves in Disneyland, I just had the saddest and most terrible idea of all.
What if Ford is staying on the ballot just to ensure that Chow wins.
Think it through. Ford's odds of winning with a crowded field on the right are somewhere between "slim" and "none." But if he draws as much as 20% from a candidate that CAN win, Olivia gets the prize.
Since there's no reason for Hizzoner to spend so much time on US TV other than auditioning for a job, he can bide his time for four years and attempt a comeback.
Tory probably can't survive another loss, but if El Robbo can spin everything on his love of crack, he just might....
Or not.
http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/toronto2014election/2014/02/26/toronto_mayoral_election_did_councillor_doug_ford_lose_valuable_2010_voter_data.html
Jesus God, if this is true - and there's no reason to believe that it's not - it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
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