She IS a career politician. Would you prefer a man of the people?
I know what you mean ... I'm still waiting for someone I want to vote for jumps in. But with 2 of them polling in low-single digits (or less!), that leaves Tory and Chow. And I can never forgive Tory by hiring Kouvalis. Not to mention his odd LRT and subway promises ... wanting to spend less on transit than the province has already gifted onto the table.
I don't know, I'd prefer our municipal politicians to not give that vibe. This isn't party politics and party politics has no place in the municipal level. To answer your question, no, I don't want a raving populist like the Fords either.
Tory also gives me a different, 'plasticy' and fake, sort of vibes. This impression comes from who he is, which is a privileged white guy who seems out of touch with the rest of society representing an ideological background known for playing into corporate and lobbyist interests. But I as a theoretical educated voter would already know all this before casting a vote for him.
Olivia Chow on the other hand sells herself as a people-person, a champion of low-income housing and of taking the homeless off the streets, and as someone genuinely concerned with the well-being of those from lower tax brackets. Policy announcements such as improved bus frequency in the 'burbs plays well to this, but when it comes to issuing statements like the handgun ban, I am suddenly evoked with this feeling that I am being fooled by a career-politician making pandering misguided non-statements in order to win an election. In some way, these kind of non-statements make Chow look more fake than Tory.
Then we wonder why right-wingers dislike Chow/liberal politicians so much. They (generally speaking) don't hold highly those values that Chow champions for and instead pay attention to those non-statements. They will then observe the same feeling of unease as I did, as nobody likes being fooled, or alternatively, will critically judge Chow for being misguided and not actually understanding the issues she champions for, leading to the impression she isn't that smart. (As with the handgun "policy")
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You know what I want in a mayoral candidate? I want someone who can take all this partisan politics out of city hall and work together with councilors and people of all political or other backgrounds. Someone who approaches important city issues logically by looking at the numbers, cost benefit analysis, by wading through the positions and opinions of both sides. I do not want someone who approaches city issues from a partisan background, nor through an "us vs. them" mentality.
The only candidate that has convinced me as committed to these principles I hold is David Soknacki. He has proven this in the past by working under David Miller despite political differences and you can find examples from this mayoral campaign where Soknacki has reinforced this commitment consistently in areas as diverse as transit, the island airport, council reforms, last hour, food carts among others.
