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salsa said:
This should be turned into an election issue and thrown in his face at every opportunity. Instead, not even a tweet about it from Keesmaat. Why?
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Definitely so- even the newspapers have hardly been pinning the blame on Tory. Keesmaat needs to step it up or this opportunity will be lost.
 
Thorns_Embrace said:
I mean these storm water upgrades can funded through the normal tax base LIKE EVERY OTHER PROJECT. No need for a new tax. There is a reason all thew downtown councilors are in favor of this tax because it is a tax on people with large properties.
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Why would that be the reason someone would be in favour of it? What sort of paranoid delusion logic fail is that? What supporting evidence do you have?

Maybe....get this........some are in favour of it because it would be a dedicated source of funding to help protect the properties of the same people who would be paying it.

Whoah! What a mindfuck, eh?

You know, the most sinister explanation for the state of something is usually not the correct explanation. Flat-earthers called, they want their failure to think rationally back.

Honestly, what's with this forum the last couple of days?
People pulling shit out thin air just to fit their personal irrational narrative.
 
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MTown said:
Why would that be the reason someone would be in favour of it? What sort of paranoid delusion logic fail is that? What supporting evidence do you have?

Maybe....get this........some are in favour of it because it would be a dedicated source of funding to help protect the properties of the same people who would be paying it.

Whoah! What a mindfuck, eh?

You know, the most sinister explanation for the state of something is usually not the correct explanation. Flat-earthers called, they want their failure to think rationally back.

Honestly, what's with this forum the last couple of days?
People pulling shit out thin air just to fit their personal irrational narrative.
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I really don't think my theory is that farfetched to be honest. I mean there is an argument for the tax and I will be willing to listen to why it is better than paying for it through other means.
But the twitter talking heads are really playing politics over this issue because #1 it would not be able to have stopped these storms, at least in the short term. #2 there was never a push by anyone to get funding for these projects through other means which is a bit suspicious in my opinion.
 
Thorns_Embrace said:
I really don't think my theory is that farfetched to be honest.
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It is. Just think about what you're saying.
First of all, is the idea to have the levy be based on size of property? Or will it be like property tax: based on property value?
Second of all, why would anyone be a proponent of it just because it would be based on property size?

I mean there is an argument for the tax and I will be willing to listen to why it is better than paying for it through other means.
But the twitter talking heads are really playing politics over this issue because #1 it would not be able to have stopped these storms, at least in the short term. #2 there was never a push by anyone to get funding for these projects through other means which is a bit suspicious in my opinion.
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Ok, now you're talking sense....sort of.
First of all, it won't stop storms. How would that work? Magic? I'm guessing you mean it wouldn't help mitigate negative consequences of heavy storms.
Second of all, what "other means"? Through the regular budget?
I'm guessing that might be because some proponents are worried that doing so would divert money from whatever else it is they think the money should go towards, not because it'd be based on property size. :p

I don't even know if I'm for it or not, I just didn't like your ridiculous baseless accusation. It read so poorly.
 
Videodrome said:
Is Tory really in trouble, or is this just internet noise?
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It’s his election to lose. Incumbents with no juicy scandals almost always get re-elected. There’s no “ballot question” for a challenger to champion and the economy isn’t in the tank.

However, he does have a track record of fumbling at the 5 yard line. Keesmaat has room to grow. Right now I’d put him at 80%.
 
^ Keesmaat has talked and is on record for stormwater management and more:
Chief City Planner Jennifer Keesmaat on how to fix Toronto
By Riley Sparks in News, Politics | April 21st 2017
[...]
You’ve talked about historical mistakes made in terms of how we deal with nature in the city – water, for example. What do you see coming in terms of re-integrating that, and what do we actually want?

"A generation ago, it was all about conquering nature and over-engineering the city. There are many places in the city where there were streams and we essentially encased them in concrete and built on top of them and said, ‘Good thing we got that stream out of the way.’

As the water table has risen in the city, it has put pressure on the infrastructure, and also put pressure on other storm water systems. So the new model, which is very much a model that’s being advocated by the Dutch, is really about recognizing that water should come into the city, and it will come into the city.

We can plan for water levels to go up and for water levels to go down, but also for storm water management to be a visible part of the landscape of the city. We can actually have amenities centred around storm water features in the city, not unlike what we have in our ravine system.

The new model is really about saying let’s work with nature – let’s actually recognize that we want to bring nature into the city. We want wildlife in the city, we want trees in the city. This is a critical part of creating a livable urban environment, as opposed to the city noir, the concrete jungle. We’ve recognized that’s actually pretty hard on human health.

Features around storm water, for example – what would that look like?

"There’s a tremendous amount of work we’ve done around naturalizing the mouth of the Don River, which flows from the hinterland right into Lake Ontario. The mouth of the Don has been contaminated and polluted, and in many ways destroyed. Bringing back the shoreline, managing the water flow, getting the combined sewers out of the water – all of that is a critical part of beginning to see water as an important part of urban life."

You’re not a politician, but there are political implications to a lot of these decisions. If we look back at the recent history of Toronto, there was a resistance to things like bike lanes, for example. Within a fairly short period of time, you’ve done a lot of things like adding bike lanes on Bloor, trying to increase the pedestrian friendliness of the city – do you worry that there might be some pushback to that coming over the next couple of years, from doing too much too quickly?

"There are different schools of thought. One school of thought – which I would actually say has historically been the Toronto school of thought – is that you take a few steps forward, you pause, you evaluate, you collect lots of data, then you take a couple more steps forward. That’s a model that’s particularly risky if you’re very, very far behind, because it means you’ll never catch up – you’ll never get ahead.

We are growing so quickly that on the one hand, we’re transforming the city, and on the other hand there are these ways that we need to be changing the key infrastructure of the city, like the use of the ravines, like the use of our streets, making them more into people-places as opposed to car-places. The risk is that if you add lots of growth but you don’t actually catch up quickly, that you’re going to begin to destroy the quality of life in the city.

So I would say there’s not too many areas where we’re going too fast. I don’t think that’s our problem."
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https://www.nationalobserver.com/20...ity-planner-jennifer-keesmaat-how-fix-toronto

Keesmaat is still honing her platform. You can bet she'll be bringing this issue up since her stance on it was made clear a year and a half ago.
 
Videodrome said:
I have only seen that one poll so far though.
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That poll did not even have an "other" option.

I wonder how they will decide who to invite to the debates.
Having Tory alone on the stage seems nonsensical - but probably accurately reflects the polls.
There are no Councillor running so there is no obvious 2nd choice.
Keesmaat has the endorsement of 1 Councillor (and no provincial or federal politicians) - is that enough to make her #2?
I imagine they will have to do some serious polling to reduce it down to the top 5 or 6 candidates. Possibly the last debate could be between 2 or 3.

I imagine that Tory would like all debates to have 35 people - because that would accomplish nothing and he could hold his lead.
 
I thought Tory would crush Keesmat, but the hiring of an asshole like Kouvalis comes across as desperate. I don't think Tory hires him if he doesn't think Keesmat is a threat.
 
I want to see a more detailed poll, with more candidates used.
 
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steveintoronto said:
^ Keesmaat has talked and is on record for stormwater management and more:

https://www.nationalobserver.com/20...ity-planner-jennifer-keesmaat-how-fix-toronto

Keesmaat is still honing her platform. You can bet she'll be bringing this issue up since her stance on it was made clear a year and a half ago.
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Keesmaat definitely needs to be more aggressive now in changing low-information voters' views of Tory. She has to get out of the "educated twittersphere" and bring her message to the "people". Yes, low-information voters and people who listen to 680 News and talkshow sports radio- people who don't know why things are the way they are and imagine Tory's term as a stay-the-course paternalistic "wise and stable" mayoralship. People who head over to the voting booth at the last minute and think "Tory's good enough."

Keesmaat has to tear down that image and show a penny-wise-pound-foolish Tory who's caused problems that directly affect citizens (broken TTC AC due to budget cuts, flooding city due to a refusal to fund the stormwater system, no Smarttrack progress, etc.)- and then offer her platform as an smart, for-the-people alternative.

She's running against incumbency and a decade or two of name-recognition and needs to shove her name into public view. Otherwise, she's going to be seen as a "dangerous-leftist-outsider" radical who's going to "needlessly" rock the boat- something Kouvalis would very much be willing to do (and is already doing).

@goldsbie said:
The John Tory campaign, which took 92 days to offer a broad statement on tax rates, lashes out at Jennifer Keesmaat for not offering a "tax plan" within her first 20 days:
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https://twitter.com/goldsbie/status/1030136778206916614



Also wondering, who does Keesmaat have on her team at the moment?
 
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jje1000 said:
Keesmaat definitely needs to be more aggressive now in changing low-information voters' views of Tory. She has to get out of the "educated twittersphere" and bring her message to the "people". Yes, low-information voters and people who listen to 680 News and talkshow sports radio-people who don't know why things are the way they are and imagine Tory's term as a stay-the-course paternalistic "wise and stable" mayoralship. People who head over to the voting booth at the last minute and think "Tory's good enough."
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Agreed on all points. Outside of the urban chattering class, Keesmaat has very little name recognition. In fairness, neither did David Miller in 2003, but he only needed to get 43% of the vote in a crowded race, something which Keesmaat can't rely on. Keesmaat also has considerable catching up to do when it comes to building a base of volunteers and donors. Before Keesmaat joined the race, Tory had already raised over a million dollars, according to the media.

Also wondering, who does Keesmaat have on her team at the moment?
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Right now, Sean Meagher, the former Director of Social Planning Toronto, is the main guy. Most of Olivia Chow and George Smitherman's team have moved on to Alberta or Ottawa.

I imagine some of the Progress Toronto people, notably Michal Hay, will get poached once Labour Day hits and the 'official' campaign starts.
 
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