Toronto Mayoral Candidates

[Dutch Oven]

Your cowering fear of Chow is only surpassed by your non-sensible arguments of support for the politics and politicians that were involved in and wholly supported a $46.5billion funding gap over the next 10 years.

I see. So it is the "it's our turn to crash the car" pitch.

My support for politicians, in particular municipal politicians, is relative, not absolute. I don't think you can find a post of mine supporting Tory until worse alternatives put themselves forward. What makes you think Chow will solve any of Toronto's problems? She's never solved ANY problem during her political career to date. What makes you want the city to spend more, when, as you have demonstrated, overspending got us where we are today?

 

[Anbarandy]

I see. So it is the "it's our turn to crash the car" pitch.

My support for politicians, in particular municipal politicians, is relative, not absolute. I don't think you can find a post of mine supporting Tory until worse alternatives put themselves forward. What makes you think Chow will solve any of Toronto's problems? She's never solved ANY problem during her political career to date. What makes you want the city to spend more, when, as you have demonstrated, overspending got us where we are today?

I see. So, it's fear vs fact in your world.

No, your support for politicians is absolute as demonstrated in your "less government" is the "right government for me."

What makes you think that any of the candidates who support more of the same and the one candidate polling above 1% but less than 5%, Furious Furey" will solve any problem with "more of the same policies that created a cataclysmic $46.5billion funding gap over the next 10 years.

What makes you believe that a stagnant and declining revenue stream in relation to meeting the needs of an ever-growing city is a viable strategy as evidenced by these same strategies implemented over the last 13 that caused this fiscal calamity?

Every single City Manager and every credible and knowledge analyst for the last 13 years has stated, repeatedly stated that there is "a revenue problem, NOT a spending problem."

 

[Dutch Oven]

I see. So, it's fear vs fact in your world.

No, your support for politicians is absolute as demonstrated in your "less government" is the "right government for me."

What makes you think that any of the candidates who support more of the same and the one candidate polling above 1% but less than 5%, Furious Furey" will solve any problem with "more of the same policies that created a cataclysmic $46.5billion funding gap over the next 10 years.

What makes you believe that a stagnant and declining revenue stream in relation to meeting the needs of an ever-growing city is a viable strategy as evidenced by these same strategies implemented over the last 13 that caused this fiscal calamity?

Every single City Manager and every credible and knowledge analyst for the last 13 years has stated, repeatedly stated that there is "a revenue problem, NOT a spending problem."

I think candidates who support curtailing spending in favour of increased business development initiatives are far more likely to improve the economic position of the city, and only improving its economics offers the opportunity to improve services and social supports. The private sector funds everything. You have to look after business development as your first priority.

On that front, Chow is one of the WORST candidates on the ballot.

 

[Dutch Oven]

Every single City Manager and every credible and knowledge analyst for the last 13 years has stated, repeatedly stated that there is "a revenue problem, NOT a spending problem."

The revenue problem is that residents and businesses CAN'T AFFORD to pay more taxes. They could if they were doing better with their personal finances or with their businesses. The city needs to focus on growing the tax base, not on raising the tax rates.

Any spending beyond your means is a spending problem.

 

[Anbarandy]

I see. So it is the "it's our turn to crash the car" pitch.

My support for politicians, in particular municipal politicians, is relative, not absolute. I don't think you can find a post of mine supporting Tory until worse alternatives put themselves forward. What makes you think Chow will solve any of Toronto's problems? She's never solved ANY problem during her political career to date. What makes you want the city to spend more, when, as you have demonstrated, overspending got us where we are today?

I see. So it is the "it's our turn to crash the car" pitch.

My support for politicians, in particular municipal politicians, is relative, not absolute. I don't think you can find a post of mine supporting Tory until worse alternatives put themselves forward. What makes you think Chow will solve any of Toronto's problems? She's never solved ANY problem during her political career to date. What makes you want the city to spend more, when, as you have demonstrated, overspending got us where we are today?

Your argument that past mayors have done things wrong is not an argument to support that Chow will do anything right. Or is your argument merely "It's OUR turn to screw things up!"?

I think candidates who support curtailing spending in favour of increased business development initiatives are far more likely to improve the economic position of the city, and only improving its economics offers the opportunity to improve services and social supports. The private sector funds everything. You have to look after business development as your first priority.

On that front, Chow is one of the WORST candidates on the ballot.

The revenue problem is that residents and businesses CAN'T AFFORD to pay more taxes. They could if they were doing better with their personal finances or with their businesses. The city needs to focus on growing the tax base, not on raising the tax rates.

Any spending beyond your means is a spending problem.

I cast my vote at the advance voting location, Annette C.C.

Which voting location are you going to cast your vote, the TERB Community Pooning Station?

Gotta luv these libertarian, city of Toronto political experts who live in semi-forested exurbia and bitch and complain that their commute is disturbed by congestion caused by other exurban and suburban single occupant vehicle drivers and that their brief presence in Toronto is somehow not worthy of anything less than exalted praise, reverence and glory.

 

[K Douglas]

Councillor	Ward	Community Council	Federal Electoral District	Notes
John Tory	Mayor		-
Vincent Crisanti	1	Etobicoke York	Etobicoke North	CENTER-RIGHT; RIGHT-WING
Michael Ford	2	Etobicoke York	Etobicoke North	HARD-CORE RIGHT-WING
Stephen Holyday	3	Etobicoke York	Etobicoke Centre	HARD CORE RIGHT-WING
John Campbell	4	Etobicoke York	Etobicoke Centre	HARD CORE RIGHT-WING
Justin Di Ciano	5	Etobicoke York	Etobicoke—Lakeshore	HARD CORE RIGHT-WING
Mark Grimes	6	Etobicoke York	Etobicoke—Lakeshore	HARD CORE RIGHT-WING
Giorgio Mammoliti	7	Etobicoke York	York West	HARD CORE RIOGHT-WING NUTJOB
Frances Nunziata	11	Etobicoke York	York South—Weston	HARD CORE RIGHT-WING
Frank Di Giorgio	12	Etobicoke York	York South—Weston	SUPER HARD CORE RIGHT-WING
Jon Burnside	26	North York	Don Valley West	HARD CORE RIGHT-WING
Jonathan Tsao	33	North York	Don Valley East	CENTRE-RIGHT
Denzil Minnan-Wong	34	North York	Don Valley East	HARD CORE RIGHT-WING NUTJOB
Michelle Berardinetti	35	Scarborough	Scarborough Southwest	CENTRE-RIGHT
Gary Crawford	36	Scarborough	Scarborough Southwest	HARD CORE RIGHT-WING NUTJOPB
Michael Thompson	37	Scarborough	Scarborough Centre	RIGHT-WING
Jim Karygiannis	39	Scarborough	Scarborough—Agincourt	CENTER-RIGHT NUTJOB
Norm Kelly	40	Scarborough	Scarborough—Agincourt	RIGHT-WING
Chin Lee	41	Scarborough	Scarborough—Rouge River	RIGHT-WING
Neethan Shan	42	Scarborough	Scarborough—Rouge River	CENTER-RIGHT
Jim Hart	44	Scarborough	Scarborough East	RIGHT-WING

You said you had 20 hardcore right wingers. But most of these you have not described that way. Plus you're wrong on a bunch of them as follows:

Ward 4 John Campbell is a centrist.
Ward 5 (my ward) Justin DiCiano is centre/centre left. In his one term he voted many times with the left leaning councilors against Ford.
Ward 6 Mark Grimes at most is centre right.
Ward 7 Giorgio Mammoliti has been all over the map. But he was a Ford backer later in his career so I'll give you that one
Ward 26 Jon Burnside is a centrist like Campbell
Ward 33 Jonathan Tsao ran as a Liberal in 2020. He's left wing.
Ward 35 Michell Berardinetti is married to a former Liberal MPP and worked for two Liberal MPP's offices. Centre left.
Ward 39 Jim Karygiannis is a lifelong Liberal. He's a nutjob all right but to the left of centre.
Ward 40 Norm Kelly is a former Liberal MP he's a centrist at the most.
Ward 41 Chin Lee is a Liberal and ran under that party's nomination in the 2018 provincial election. He's centre left.
Ward 42 Neethan Shan is an NDP'er. He was a former provincial party President. He's left wing.
Ward 44 Jim Hart worked for years for councilor Ron Moeser who was basically a centrist. I don't know Hart's political leanings but I see nothing to indicate he's right wing.

 

[K Douglas]

Cripes the fact he has this already on a premade spread sheet makes the question the level of crazy posting here......

I give him credit for the spreadsheet but its riddled with errors as I have pointed out.

 

[dvous11]

Ford has launched automated robocalls to residents endorsing Saunders. Yikes!

 

[dvous11]

I got one from John Tory for Ana Bailao

They resort to these robocalls in the home stretch.
Is it legal to mass robocalls political endorsement?

 

[Anbarandy]

You said you had 20 hardcore right wingers. But most of these you have not described that way. Plus you're wrong on a bunch of them as follows:

Ward 4 John Campbell is a centrist.
Ward 5 (my ward) Justin DiCiano is centre/centre left. In his one term he voted many times with the left leaning councilors against Ford.
Ward 6 Mark Grimes at most is centre right.
Ward 7 Giorgio Mammoliti has been all over the map. But he was a Ford backer later in his career so I'll give you that one
Ward 26 Jon Burnside is a centrist like Campbell
Ward 33 Jonathan Tsao ran as a Liberal in 2020. He's left wing.
Ward 35 Michell Berardinetti is married to a former Liberal MPP and worked for two Liberal MPP's offices. Centre left.
Ward 39 Jim Karygiannis is a lifelong Liberal. He's a nutjob all right but to the left of centre.
Ward 40 Norm Kelly is a former Liberal MP he's a centrist at the most.
Ward 41 Chin Lee is a Liberal and ran under that party's nomination in the 2018 provincial election. He's centre left.
Ward 42 Neethan Shan is an NDP'er. He was a former provincial party President. He's left wing.
Ward 44 Jim Hart worked for years for councilor Ron Moeser who was basically a centrist. I don't know Hart's political leanings but I see nothing to indicate he's right wing.

You don't know your ward or former ward councilor Justin Di Ciano very well.

He served on council for 1 term from Dec 2014 - Dec 2018. Rob Ford served from Nov 2010 -Nov 2014. They were never in the same council/mayoral term together.

Please tell us how many times and on which council votes did he vote with "left leaning councilors" against Ford?

Wait you aren't required to answer that question, because we already have the answer. ZERO times.

When I look at which council members are left, center, right or any other derivative thereof, I look at their voting record. On regarding your list above, they voted with John Tory and his center-right agenda the vast, vast majority of the time.

Jon Burnside, John Campbell, Norm Kelly, Jim Hart are/were as centrist as Rob Ford was a left-wing radical.

 

[Anbarandy]

After thinking through multiple candidates I will be voting for Mitzie Hunter.

I had 3 candidates in mind: Mark Saunders, Ana Bailao, Mitzie Hunter. Although I agree with Saunders and Bailao the most, I am not voting for them because Saunders is Doug Ford's candidate and a former cop who will only do things for cops. So no go. Ana Bailao is John Tory's "more of the same" centrist candidate. So no go. Among the left wing candidates Mitzie Hunter seems the closest to the center and the one I agree with the most. Plus she has a fully costed platform, and although some of it seems unrealistic, I like that she has a full platform in detail.

So my vote goes to her. This is my first time voting as a Canadian citizen, so not sure if I am right in my decision lol. But this is my decision for this time around!

Mitzi Hunter is a good choice.

Hope you are aware that she has stated she champions a 6% property tax increase for her first proposed budget which kind of blows your "low tax because people are financially struggling with affordability" narrative to smithereens.

 

[Anbarandy]

I am of the opinion now that each of these guys will raise taxes for one thing or another. So it kind of takes that concern out of the equation.

But, but .... won't that make life so unaffordable for the millions of Torontonians struggling with affordability, drive business and investment out of the city and cause fear and panic throughout the boundaries of Toronto?

And what about all these multi-property residential investors, who have monetized housing for their own personal greed, won't they be doubly, triply, quadropoly, nthly traumatized?

 

[Frankfooter]

Ford has launched automated robocalls to residents endorsing Saunders. Yikes!

Guess that means its ok if JT does the same during a provincial election.

 

[wigglee]

Ok....... Now it looks like Furey and Saunders are cancelling each other out and the only viable alternative to Chow providing free heroine to all the city park campers is a last minute dash up the middle by Ana Bailao!

 

[Frankfooter]

Ok....... Now it looks like Furey and Saunders are cancelling each other out and the only viable alternative to Chow providing free heroine to all the city park campers is a last minute dash up the middle by Ana Bailao!

If you want more John Tory then Ana is your choice.
Nobody else is willing to do DoFo's work for him.

 

[K Douglas]

You don't know your ward or former ward councilor Justin Di Ciano very well.

He served on council for 1 term from Dec 2014 - Dec 2018. Rob Ford served from Nov 2010 -Nov 2014. They were never in the same council/mayoral term together.

Please tell us how many times and on which council votes did he vote with "left leaning councilors" against Ford?

Wait you aren't required to answer that question, because we already have the answer. ZERO times.

When I look at which council members are left, center, right or any other derivative thereof, I look at their voting record. On regarding your list above, they voted with John Tory and his center-right agenda the vast, vast majority of the time.

Jon Burnside, John Campbell, Norm Kelly, Jim Hart are/were as centrist as Rob Ford was a left-wing radical.

I misspoke meant to say Tory. However Rob Ford was a councilor for all of 2015 before his passing in 2016. His nephew Mike took over his seat on council in 2016 and voted the same way.
Voting record is only one thing to look at because many of the votes are for items that are generally of a non partisan nature.
Bottom line is that I proved that your methodology is flawed that there weren't close to 20 hardcore righties on Council from 2014-2018. Care to look at 2018-2022 next?

 

[K Douglas]

Olivia Chow is very likely to be the next Mayor of Toronto and it isn't going to be close. The downtown progressives have flocked in droves to the early polls while the burbs have trickled in.
I don't see total voter turnout being much more than it was in the fall of 2022.

 

[Anbarandy]

I misspoke meant to say Tory. However Rob Ford was a councilor for all of 2015 before his passing in 2016. His nephew Mike took over his seat on council in 2016 and voted the same way.
Voting record is only one thing to look at because many of the votes are for items that are generally of a non partisan nature.
Bottom line is that I proved that your methodology is flawed that there weren't close to 20 hardcore righties on Council from 2014-2018. Care to look at 2018-2022 next?

You didn't "misspoke", you tried to narrate that Justin Di Ciano as a left-wing ideologue who voted 'opposed to' Rob Ford's council voting issues. When called out, you did a Wiki search to whitewash your narrative.

I didn't look at voting records regarding minor issues, such as "Joe's patio wants to add an extras 2 square meters of space", which are the most prolific type of issues voted on in council, but on major issues. And the record is clear, the councilors that I listed voted as center-right/right-wing the majority of the time.

I did not state anywhere that this center-right/right-wing voting bloc that dominated city council were all hardcore wingers, you just formulated it in your mind that I did, because it did not fit your narrative, which is nonsense by the way.

 

[K Douglas]

You didn't "misspoke", you tried to narrate that Justin Di Ciano as a left-wing ideologue who voted 'opposed to' Rob Ford's council voting issues. When called out, you did a Wiki search to whitewash your narrative.

I didn't look at voting records regarding minor issues, such as "Joe's patio wants to add an extras 2 square meters of space", which are the most prolific type of issues voted on in council, but on major issues. And the record is clear, the councilors that I listed voted as center-right/right-wing the majority of the time.

I did not state anywhere that this center-right/right-wing voting bloc that dominated city council were all hardcore wingers, you just formulated it in your mind that I did, because it did not fit your narrative, which is nonsense by the way.

No I misspoke. And I never tried to portray Di Ciano as a left wing idealogue. I just said that he voted with the left wing councilors on several occasions. As you can see here he did. He was also absent for votes quite frequently.

Toronto City Council Scorecard, Updated September 19, 2018

docs.google.com

You said there were 20 hardcore right wingers on council (out of 44). I showed you that several of your picks were just wrong. Toronto is a lib left city it would be impossible to have even half of council be centre right to right wing.

 

[Butler1000]

Olivia Chow is very likely to be the next Mayor of Toronto and it isn't going to be close. The downtown progressives have flocked in droves to the early polls while the burbs have trickled in.
I don't see total voter turnout being much more than it was in the fall of 2022.

I think the anyone but Chow vote has been waiting for the frontrunner to appear. And so will be voting on Monday.

Chow is polling pretty much where she did the first time around. And that may be close to her ceiling. The polling doesn't take into account nor tell really the percentage of undecided, which in this election I think isi bigger than normal.