On October 25, Torontonians will go to the polls to elect a new mayor and city council. These municipal elections, held throughout the province of Ontario, will take place a week and a day before the US midterms.
The election campaign that officially began in January is turning out to be a strange one for Canada’s largest city whose downtown core is a hotbed of Canadian elite socialism. There are certainly parallels between what is happening in what was once called “Toronto the Good” and what is taking place in the US with the success of the Tea Party candidates.
Rob Ford has been a member of Toronto’s City Council since 1993 and is known as the tightwad of the chamber. He constantly rails against the city’s excessive spending that is at the heart of the problems that Toronto is facing. Every year, each of the city’s 44 councillors is allowed $53,000 for office expenses. Although Ford has spent a few bucks here and there during his years in elected office, he usually spends none of the city’s money, preferring to use his own. While a lot of councillors’ expenses are legitimate, many incur the wrath of the voters. One long serving councillor who is not seeking reelection spent $12,000 to throw himself a going away party. Another councillor once charged the hard working taxpayers of the city to pay to rent a bunny costume to wear in the Easter parade. And now, in 2010, the people are angry over the waste of their money. When Ford formally entered the race in March, even some of his supporters chuckled. Ford - the mayor of the Peoples Republic of Toronto – never!
Since 2003, David Miller has been mayor of Toronto. The best thing about Miller is that he has never pretended to be anything other than what he is. He and his socialist allies on council are beholden to the unions. Miller’s top priorities are making Toronto the greenest place in the world and damn the cost, getting more people to ride bicycles on Toronto’s congested streets and protecting the underworked and overpaid unionized city workers. Money is given to pretty well every pet cause of the left. Recently, the city approved a city owned residence for starving artists. As to ordinary people who are struggling with increased unemployment and the effects of the current recession, well, they can all go to hell.
David Miller decided not to seek reelection. His downfall and the current anger of Torontonians began in the summer of 2009 when the city’s outdoor workers went on strike. Miller allowed the garbage to pile up in the sweltering heat for 37 days before caving in to his union buddies. No one was surprised that he caved. What angered residents was the fact that he let the strike go on for so long just so he could pretend to show how tough he was.
When the chuckling over a Ford candidacy stopped and he became a serious candidate, the other four main candidates in the race focused their ammunition guns (can’t use that kind of language in Toronto) on him.
At a mayoral debate held the week after a boatload of 492 Tamil migrants reached Canada, the candidates were asked if Toronto should take in more immigrants. Ford replied that the city can’t look after the 2.5 million people who are already here. The horror! Canada in general and Toronto in particular prides itself in its diversity and Ford’s opponents were quick to cast him as intolerant and a racist. The polls didn’t change.
About a week after this incident happened, Ford was confronted by a reporter concerning a 10-year-old conviction in Florida for DUI. Ford denied that it ever happened. Then he admitted that he refused a breathalyzer test. When copies of documents, including his mug shot, were obtained from the Florida, he finally told the truth. He was charged with DUI and possession of marijuana for having a joint in his pocket. The drug charge was dropped and he pleaded no contest to the drinking and driving offence. He was fined and had to do community service. Despite the initial lie and the confirmation of the Florida conviction, his poll numbers didn’t change.
Ford is also accused by opponents of missing a lot of meetings in order to run his own business. Yep, he operates a business. Of course to his supporters, this is a plus. We instinctively known when he’s at his business he’s probably spending his company’s money and ours. Nobody cared.
A just released
poll that was taken between September 14 and 16, shows that Rob Ford has the support of 45.8% of decided voters; more than double the 21.3% that the second place candidate, former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister George Smitherman has.
When Bill O’Reilly asked Newt Gingrich if Delaware senatorial candidate Christine O’Donnell if she has a chance Gingrich answered that it depends upon what the election is about. If it’s about O’Donnell, she’ll lose. If it’s about the economy and the direction the United States is going in she has a chance.
In shades of Karl Rove and other members of the Republican elites who look down on Tea Party candidates, 38 members of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party issued a letter saying why they are supporting Liberal Smitherman.
To those who support Rob Ford, the election is not about him. It’s about the poor state of the city of Toronto. It’s about ever increasing spending, increasing property and other taxes to pay for it and the control that the unions have over the city. People are fed up; and they aren’t going to take it anymore.
Two different types of elections in two different countries. If Toronto can end up with a Mayor Ford then the US can certainly end up with a Senator O’Donnell and a Governor Paladino.
