[GraphicMatt]

Oh man, maybe Rossi will double his support amongst decided voters to 10%.

Recall elections are either a very bad idea or completely irrelevant and never used, depending on how they're implemented. The reality of public office is that people in power sometimes need to make decision that might be unpopular in the short-term. The dangling threat of recall will force everyone toward populist governance.

 

[grey]

Rob Ford comes out on the losing end of last night's mayoral debate on heritage issues. http://bit.ly/dCx0Le

Rob Ford, surprisingly, called for more money and staff for Heritage Toronto. "What would you rather have, $100,000 coming to Heritage Toronto...or $100,000 for free food for council at council meetings?" Ford asked. The extra money Ford spoke about would thus come from the reallocation of existing funds.

George Smitherman, riding on the wave of his heritage preservation policy announced earlier in the day, called for a crackdown on those who own and neglect heritage properties, more resources for Heritage Toronto, and a deeper engagement in the preservation process by local groups.

Sarah Thomson spoke about pre-zoning designated areas to protect heritage sites.

Joe Pantalone complained the provincial government is not giving its fair share to heritage preservation, and Rocco Rossi said that heritage needs to become a larger component of the overall planning process.

Achampong said he wants more authority for Heritage Toronto, which is currently dominated by larger agencies.

And the comedy relief:

St. Lawrence Hall was packed with a downtown crowd, and, judging by the volume and the enthusiasm of applause, Smitherman was the clear favourite. By the same standard, Ford was the night's loser.

"You really believe we have to spend $45 million on renovating Nathan Philips Square?" Ford asked at one point of the debate. Spontaneously, the audience shouted back "Yes!"

During his closing remarks he told everyone to ask themselves on election-day who they trust to avoid scandals at City Hall. The audience exploded with laughter.

To be fair, this wasn't really Ford's crowd (I think there was an episode of World's Most Dangerous Police Chases that night). But it's interesting that he actually does have a faint glimmer of progressive ideas in terms of heritage preservation. I'm sure we can expect more hilarious quotes as the mayoral debates intensify.

 

[Coltaine79]

Looks like there are some skeletons in Sarah T's closet too?

http://oddmanic.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/sarah-thomson-the-palin-discoveries/

Err, looks like it is from 2 weeks ago. Didn't see it posted yet though...

 

[Rowe]

To be fair, this wasn't really Ford's crowd (I think there was an episode of World's Most Dangerous Police Chases that night).

That made my day.

 

[Redroom Studios]

yep, that was priceless!

 

[allabootmatt]

One of the things that is bothering me about the campaign is Ford's evident comfort with repeating statements that he knows are demonstrably false. By all accounts he is repeating the 'there is a plan for one-million new immigrants line all over town,' despite endless confirmation that no such plan exists. I may be mistaken but I think this kind of wilful misstatement is a relatively new phenomenon in Canadian politics, and something we might more readily expect south of the border (eg 'death panels'). Look, the average voter doesn't know the ins and outs of various growth plans and so isn't about to correct Ford, but the fact that he feels it's OK to keep repeating the lie is pretty troubling, and an interesting genie to have out of the bottle.

 

[CDL.TO]

During his closing remarks he told everyone to ask themselves on election-day who they trust to avoid scandals at City Hall. The audience exploded with laughter.

I hate how they can never manage to even get the quotes right. By re-wording it and taking it out of context, it just makes it seem like the audience was hostile to him. What Rob Ford actually said that caused everyone to explode with laughter was the impossible promise that "Under Rob Ford there will be NO scandals at City Hall".

 

[grey]

I may be mistaken but I think this kind of wilful misstatement is a relatively new phenomenon in Canadian politics, and something we might more readily expect south of the border (eg 'death panels').

It's not new. The federal Conservatives have actually done much worse in going out of their way to create incidents and drum up fear in order justify unnecessary defense spending.

reference: http://bit.ly/9im2Kj and http://bit.ly/cLikEg

 

[js97]

One of the things that is bothering me about the campaign is Ford's evident comfort with repeating statements that he knows are demonstrably false. By all accounts he is repeating the 'there is a plan for one-million new immigrants line all over town,' despite endless confirmation that no such plan exists. I may be mistaken but I think this kind of wilful misstatement is a relatively new phenomenon in Canadian politics, and something we might more readily expect south of the border (eg 'death panels'). Look, the average voter doesn't know the ins and outs of various growth plans and so isn't about to correct Ford, but the fact that he feels it's OK to keep repeating the lie is pretty troubling, and an interesting genie to have out of the bottle.

TO call it 'death' panels is a little drastic. I don't think ( at least i don't see) how/why 1million people to this city should envoke 'fear' or any sort of emotional distress compared to a 'death' panel.


That being said, most of the math that comes out of Fords campaign is shotty at best, but same can be said about the left candidates like Smitherman's campaign

How's that for soundbyte?!

 

[allabootmatt]

I made the death panel comparison mostly because of the way in which an offhand remark has, apparently, morphed into one of the key planks of the Ford non-platform. That kind of sudden pickup of a random line as a crusade brings Sarah Palin to mind more than anything, no?

 

[nfitz]

Looks like there are some skeletons in Sarah T's closet too?

http://oddmanic.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/sarah-thomson-the-palin-discoveries/

Err, looks like it is from 2 weeks ago. Didn't see it posted yet though...

Wow ... So Sarah Thomson is that kind of Conservative is she ...

It's no wonder that Tory was thinking of jumping back in. Ford's a buffon, and Thomson is much further right than most Toronto conservatives.

I guess all that subway and environmentalist talk is simply BS to get some votes ...

 

[MetroMan]

Keep in mind that James Di Fiore, who writes that blog is running for election (he's one of the many fringe candidates). He's found some facts that the website shares office space with The Women's Post but offered no evidence that Thomson has any editorial control or even ownership of the site.

Note that Di Fiore keeps repeating that it is her website, even though he offers no proof of that. He also belittles the fact that she never writes a thing for the site, but makes it sound like she does by saying "Thomson's website".

It's worrying if it's true that she runs the site but I'm going to go by what I know about her and the policies that she's proposing.

For the record, Sarah Thomson is a registered Liberal AND Conservative. She's a member of both parties as to have access to information from both sides of the political spectrum.

EDIT: I just received word that tomorrow's BikeCity press conference has been postponed.

 

[King of Kensington]

I'm pretty sure you can't be a member of more than one party at the same time.

But the provincial and federal Liberals and Conservatives are separate parties, so I suppose one can be a provincial PC and federal Liberal at the same time, or vice-versa.

 

[nfitz]

I'm pretty sure you can't be a member of more than one party at the same time.

Why not? I can't think of any law that would stop that.

 

[adma]

Weren't there some concurrent PC/Reformers in the 1990s?