[SJD_Toronto]

Soknacki has 5% of the vote - that is not "many" votes. Can you also say that Tory would be running away with it if Stintiz is not siphoning off so many voters.

Too many people actually believe Soknacki is raising in the polls that they don't see his numbers have barely moved since January. I think some people want Soknacki to be mayor so badly that they truly believe his numbers are on the move when by the looks of it, he is still at the back of the line. If any support is shifting anywhere, it's to John Tory.

 

[BurlOak]

Too many people actually believe Soknacki is raising in the polls that they don't see his numbers have barely moved since January. I think some people want Soknacki to be mayor so badly that they truly believe his numbers are on the move when by the looks of it, he is still at the back of the line. If any support is shifting anywhere, it's to John Tory.

Poor Soknacki, he seems like a reasonably smart fellow, but he lost the election on day 1 when he went back to the failed plan of having the SRT as LRT. If he could have campaigned to have it connected with the ECLRT, he still could have talked about still saving $1B, but also bragged about how Scarborough is still connected across all of Toronto with a rapid transit line.

I guess he is better than Stintz who lost the election on day negative 1000. Her failure in making the ECLRT/SRT plan work led to her downfall, and the fact they she did not propose any alternative other than the LRT with transfer plan that voters had just rejected.
What was even worse was just after she killed the combined plan (and went back to the LRT with transfer plan), she proposed the One City plan to extend the B-D Subway. This was killed and then she supported the LRT with transfer plan, only to bring back the B-D Subway extension plan a few months later, this time successfully.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

No offense BurlOak, not every candidate is made or broken by this one issue - ditto the forum threads.

AoD

 

[BurlOak]

No offense BurlOak, not every candidate is made or broken by this one issue - ditto the forum threads.

AoD

Maybe Soknacki is an idiot - I do not know the man. Many of his policies seem reasonable, but the one he led off his campaign with was to go back to the SRT/LRT, even though 5 month earlier a by-election was fought on that issue and 3 months earlier Councillor threw it support behind the subway. So I would say the only 2 possibilities are that Soknacki never had a chance due to lack of name recognition, or the major platform plank that he ran on (going back to the SRT/LRT) caused his lack of support.

As for Stintz, her biggest problem now is her flip-flop reputation - which she acquire during and shortly after her cancellation of the ECLRT/SRT combined line.

 

[jml]

Soknacki has 5% of the vote - that is not "many" votes. Can you also say that Tory would be running away with it if Stintiz is not siphoning off so many voters.

I don't think Soknacki is luring "many" total voters away, I said he's luring many of the particular demographic we're talking about: the young, urban, social media engaged. I think the real loss for Chow there is in enthusiasm rather than raw votes.

 

[WislaHD]

Maybe Soknacki is an idiot - I do not know the man. Many of his policies seem reasonable, but the one he led off his campaign with was to go back to the SRT/LRT, even though 5 month earlier a by-election was fought on that issue and 3 months earlier Councillor threw it support behind the subway. So I would say the only 2 possibilities are that Soknacki never had a chance due to lack of name recognition, or the major platform plank that he ran on (going back to the SRT/LRT) caused his lack of support.

As for Stintz, her biggest problem now is her flip-flop reputation - which she acquire during and shortly after her cancellation of the ECLRT/SRT combined line.

Having met the man, I assure you that Soknacki is actually quite smart.

I wonder, would it be perceived as a flip-flop if he did as you said, and advocated for interlining the ECLRT and SRT? Would it matter? He could go NIMBY and opportunistic on Chow about how her plan will force Scarberians and mothers with strollers to transfer trains at Kennedy station.

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

Poor Soknacki, he seems like a reasonably smart fellow, but he lost the election on day 1 when he went back to the failed plan of having the SRT as LRT. If he could have campaigned to have it connected with the ECLRT, he still could have talked about still saving $1B, but also bragged about how Scarborough is still connected across all of Toronto with a rapid transit line.

This makes no sense at all, as Chow also backs the same plan as Soknacki and she's the current leader in the polls. I do understand that it fits the narrative in your head, though, so that's good.

 

[BurlOak]

I wonder, would it be perceived as a flip-flop if he did as you said, and advocated for interlining the ECLRT and SRT? Would it matter? He could go NIMBY and opportunistic on Chow about how her plan will force Scarberians and mothers with strollers to transfer trains at Kennedy station.

Soknacki was a nobody before he entered the race (some will say he still is). As such, he could have come up with any policy and it would not have been viewed as much of a flip-flop as when Stintz did it in the public eye.
And really, connecting SRT with ECLRT is such a minor revision (only requires EA revisions and not a whole new EA) that most would simply view it as an improvement and compromise to get consensus - not a completely different plan.

This makes no sense at all, as Chow also backs the same plan as Soknacki and she's the current leader in the polls. I do understand that it fits the narrative in your head, though, so that's good.

With their similar LRT plans, Soknacki has gone from 4% support to 5% in 6 months and not broken out of fifth place. Chow has dropped 6- 8%.

Soknacki was such a new guy on the scene that he needed to make a big splash in order to get noticed. My opinion is the supporting a plan that was rejected by the Province, Council and public was not the correct strategy.

 

[jml]

With their similar LRT plans, Soknacki has gone from 4% support to 5% in 6 months and not broken out of fifth place. Chow has dropped 6- 8%.

So you think Chow's drop in support in the most recent poll is owing to a policy she announced four months ago?

 

[ssiguy2]

Tory maybe a bit right of centre but so what. He is certainly no ideological nut and is fairly liberal on social issues. At least he is clear that Toronto needs subways but has the logic to use existing infrastructure to put in place. Chow seems to think a 10% increase in bus service is a all that required to get the city moving again. If Chow wins and anybody here votes for her, don`t bitch when Toronto goes another 5 years without a subway shovel in the ground. Her gun proposal is incredibly cheap politics as she knows that it is not under local jurisdiction.

Voting in a left leaning mayor is no guarantee the city will progress. Miller exemplifies this. For all his great city building talk he did nothing on the transit file except buy new streetcars. He certainly has the political capitol to introduce gas taxes, tolls etc to pay for transit expansion but never did. He could have spearheaded a tear down or renewal of the Gardiner but didn`t. He could have put in streetcars ROW or widened the downtown sidewalk, reduced or eliminated cars on Yonge to make the city more pedestrian friendly but alas no. His answer was simply to bitch at Queen`s Park even though Queen`s Park was already giving Toronto more transit expansion funds that it had ever had and had uploaded many city services onto the province relieving some of Toronto`s expenditure outlays.

A liberal or more conservative mayor is no reflection of competence or political will.

 

[WislaHD]

Tory doesn't support subways (see flip-flop on DRL) and is not a advocate of progressive city issues. (see Eglinton Connects)

I'd be considering voting for him otherwise.

 

[BurlOak]

Having met the man, I assure you that Soknacki is actually quite smart.

I wonder if Soknacki is smart enough to realize that he is stuck at 5% support and has no chance of gaining support unless something changes.

I would think that he could probably still fit a connected ECLRT and SRT into his plans without appearing to be changing his plans. I don't think that Eglinton portion has been discussed much, so he could add this to his third transit announcement and get some new buzz into his campaign.

Somehow I doubt that Soknacki even wants to win, he is probably going for name recognition for a run in the 2015 election as a Liberal.

 

[W. K. Lis]

At least Chow, Tory, and Soknacki didn't "raid" FordFest. I avoided it, and any future FordFests.

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

Voting in a left leaning mayor is no guarantee the city will progress. Miller exemplifies this. For all his great city building talk he did nothing on the transit file except buy new streetcars. He certainly has the political capitol to introduce gas taxes, tolls etc to pay for transit expansion but never did. He could have spearheaded a tear down or renewal of the Gardiner but didn`t. He could have put in streetcars ROW or widened the downtown sidewalk, reduced or eliminated cars on Yonge to make the city more pedestrian friendly but alas no. His answer was simply to bitch at Queen`s Park even though Queen`s Park was already giving Toronto more transit expansion funds that it had ever had and had uploaded many city services onto the province relieving some of Toronto`s expenditure outlays.

A liberal or more conservative mayor is no reflection of competence or political will.

I know you're just trolling Miller supporters, but he put in a comprehensive LRT plan that you vilify, but was COMPREHENSIVE. He bought new subway cars, new streetcars, and Ford's underground ECLRT was possible due to Miller's plan being horsetraded by a dick who couldn't stop it all. He put in the great new ROW streetcar on St. Clair that is no way a disaster. Can we stop with the revisionism about Toronto's best Mayor in my time in Toronto (91-14)?

 

[Cooper]

I know you're just trolling Miller supporters, but he put in a comprehensive LRT plan that you vilify, but was COMPREHENSIVE. He bought new subway cars, new streetcars, and Ford's underground ECLRT was possible due to Miller's plan being horsetraded by a dick who couldn't stop it all. He put in the great new ROW streetcar on St. Clair that is no way a disaster. Can we stop with the revisionism about Toronto's best Mayor in my time in Toronto (91-14)?

Yep. Anyone who says Miller did nothing for transit isn't paying attention. By all means, criticize Transit City if you wish. (I'll respectfully disagree.) But don't accuse of Miller of dawdling on the transit file.