Category: Municipal Politics

Olivia Chow has become something of a long shot in Toronto’s 2014 mayoralty contest. After a strong campaign launch in the spring, it has become clear to the media and the people hearing her speak that she lacks the one key ingredient Torontonians want: leadership. With a fractious, overly self-important council, her voice cannot be heard.

While Chow was a very sympathetic figure at the state funeral for Jack Layton, that is not an image that can be played at this time. Toronto needs cooperation, conciliation and concern. This is a city that needs so desperately to recreate itself in an environment of businesslike attention to detail, development and decency. Toronto needs to build on the strengths that the rest of the world sees in the city.

And Toronto hardly needs Chow to defeat Rob Ford. Rob Ford can defeat himself. Chow’s biggest mistake so far in this campaign was to turn people in her campaign loose on her real competitor, John Tory. They have treated a decent man despicably. They have attacked him without seeming to care for truth or reason.

But Toronto is not buying it. We are entering the real campaign for the mayoralty now and the challenge for the candidates is to articulate their vision for the city. And they have to be able to show that it is vision that can be endorsed by council. Without some broad cooperation on council, the mayor is just another vote.

While municipal candidates try to appear above their political leanings, they need that base vote to be in the race. Olivia Chow is a New Democrat. That is not hidden. While some Conservative and Liberal party members might be in her camp, her trust is in the NDP workers she has known for years. Her base is in downtown Toronto. We saw her base in Trinity-Spadina go down to the Liberals in the by-election to replace her.

While the lack of a strong Liberal in the mayoralty race frees party members to support her, it is not a comfortable alliance. There appears to be limited trust. What we are seeing as the race comes out of the back stretch is a flat line in support for Chow. She has hit a ceiling and is unable to grow support from here.

As more and more voters recognize her spoiler role in this race, her support will actually decline. People will switch from Chow to Tory to ensure the defeat of Rob Ford. She cannot win, she might not even place; she is just a show bet.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

There is a caveat to Babel-on-the-Bay’s publishing a morning line on upcoming elections. While we are more accurate than pollsters, a morning line is based on a knowledgeable observer’s assessment of the upcoming race. We make absolutely no guarantee. It is only fair to point it out. Once one of our carefully evaluated selections in a major stakes race in the U.S. broke from the gate in the lead and held the lead for at least two furlongs. And then the poor horse dropped dead. Nobody can forecast the future.

And that is why the morning line is different from the efforts of handicappers. Track handicappers are paid for their opinions. If they do not offer a winning selection occasionally, they lose customers. Political pundits are nowhere near as accurate as horse race handicappers. Pundits are used more for their entertainment value. We are thinking of doing some commentary on the pundits during the municipal election this year—provided, of course, that we avoid potentially actionable observations.

This is not to say that a horse race is the same as a political race. Horses are much more reliable. Accident prone politicians are liable to crash at any point in a campaign. In the Toronto 2014 mayoralty, the analysis already done on Councillor Karen Stintz’ campaign was a waste. She is an early scratch. Nice lady, good credentials, solid workouts. She had no chance to connect with the voters in the zoo of Toronto politics this year.

In a municipal race, incumbency is usually the key to re-election. Having three or four years in the job gets you known and gives you a chance to show what you can do. Good or bad, you have an easy leg up. Not so in the Toronto mayoralty this year. The incumbent Mr. Ford has been entirely too controversial. Luckily it is really the civil servants who keep the city operating at an even and stolid level. It has only been the political scene in the city that has been chaotic.

With another dozen days to throw their hats into the ring and nominate themselves, Torontonians will likely end up with about 70 candidates for mayor on the ballot. Not to worry though as only three of those candidates have a snowball’s chance in hell. They are Olivia Chow, Rob Ford and John Tory. Babel-on-the-Bay will comment on each after Labour Day and discuss the opening odds.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

Sometimes you have to eat your words. We said the other day that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford would not accept the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. He did—on his terms. With not so much as addressing the cause he was supposedly supporting, Ford pulled a number on the Toronto news media.

As someone who has supplied the Toronto media with background, articles and news releases over many years, you are sometimes amazed at how gullible the media can be. Rob Ford could pass wind and the Toronto media would want to report it. Mind you the Toronto Star would complain that it was the cause of air pollution while the Sun would comment on the smell.

While we refuse to waste time on whatever social media is hot this week, no doubt you can see Rob Ford there getting some water poured over him. Big deal. It is nothing but another cheap advertisement for Ford’s re-election campaign. It stars Tie Domi of former Toronto hockey fame, Doug Ford of former Toronto council fame and Toronto’s soon to be former mayor.

Instead of his usual suit and tie and ill-fitting dress shirt, the mayor is decked out in a warm-up suit. The event is outdoors somewhere and on the wall behind is a large sign promoting the fiction of Ford Nation. The mayor’s brother Doug and friend Tie lift what looks like a plastic cask with some water in it and covered with signs suggesting viewers re-elect Mayor Ford. We did not see any ice cubes. He does not appear to be very wet or particularly cold afterwards.

It seems the mayor missed the point. This bucket business is not about him. It is about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Rob Ford probably cannot even pronounce that. Maybe he can say ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Solving the mystery of that disease is far more important than Mr. Ford’s hopeless attempt at re-election.

We do hope though that he remembered to send in $100 or more to the Canadian ALS Society. The campaign to solve ALS is very important. Some day, there will be a solution. Re-electing Rob Ford as mayor of Toronto is much less likely.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

This item has more to do with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) than the Toronto municipal election, so we are running it before our ban on municipal elections items is lifted. Known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, ALS is a terrible progressive neurological disorder that destroys the body’s ability to control the voluntary muscles. And until there is some relief found for people with this disease, it remains one of the strongest arguments in favour of assisted suicide.

The ALS Association in the U.S. lucked into a summer fund-raising idea this year that is racing around North America. It is the Ice Bucket Challenge and it started with some Boston area baseball coaches. The idea is that you either have a bucket of ice water dumped over your head or you donate $100 to the ALS Association. Most people accept the ice water to show they are cool and donate the money as well. In the first two weeks of the craze on social media, the ALS Association received more than $4 million.

There being no reason why the ALS Society of Canada should not also cash in on a good idea, the promotion is getting good play in Canada. In Toronto, for example, television personalities, hopeful politicians and sports figures are getting the challenge. To-date, we understand the only major mayoralty hopefuls to accept the challenge have been Olivia Chow and Karen Stintz. Both endured a bucket of water that did nothing for their hair styling. There seems to be no answer from Rob Ford or John Tory.

Since they can both easily afford a donation to the ALS Society, we will assume they made it. Neither would want to endure a bucket of ice water over their heads. It would just be for different reasons.

It would certainly not be a problem for Rob Ford. The man desperately needs a dose of reality. The only problem is that you have not likely ever seen that man in anything other than a suit and tie and a shirt that does not fit. You have to figure that those suits are wool and worth a lot more than $100. He would not want to have a picture of himself on social media looking wet in a ruined suit.

John Tory has a different problem. We have always assumed that this gentleman wears a hairpiece. You really would not want to see what can happen when a flood of water and ice cubes hits a hairpiece. We can well appreciate his decision to pay the price of refusing the challenge.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

Enough of this mealy-mouthed graciousness, already! They are getting rid of Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair and good riddance to him. It is surprising that he had the gall to ask for an extension to his tenancy at Police Headquarters. Enough is enough. Mind you, just letting him go solves nothing. He remains culpable for the worst civil rights infractions in Toronto’s history at the G-20 in June 2010.

While some people complain about Julian Fantino, Blair’s predecessor being a loud mouthed bully but he just might have been more aware of when he was being used than Blair. And sure Bill McCormack, Fantino’s predecessor might have had his weaknesses but he was liked and at least understood that citizens have rights in this country. Blair blew all his credibility and support in one disgusting weekend.

It has always seemed that Bill Blair had some dislike for the people of Toronto. The running battles he had with carding could have been handled but it seemed as though he was reluctant to actually stop the practice. The incident last year with the unfortunate Sammy Yatim on a Toronto streetcar speaks volumes about Blair’s management. Who the hell were those officers afraid of when they repeatedly shot and then tasered an obviously disturbed young man with a small penknife?

But Blair is not the only problem here. People need to question the entire process. Start with who is in charge. Why do we not have a system where the head of our police force is a civilian? The police work for the citizens. They are not a pseudo-military organization given dominance over the public. They are civil servants who provide an important service to the public and have to learn to think that way.

And the Police Services Board is a joke. These people are appointed by politicians and are quickly co-opted by the police to handle their liaison with the politicians who pay their salaries and buy them their big kids’ toys. When the head of the police services board goes to the politicians with the police budget requests, you quickly recognize just who is running who.

And please do not get us going about the idiocy of provinces that have to use poorly trained Royal Canadian Mounted Police fresh out of Regina to act as though they are a provincial police force? Red coats can look spiffy but you really need sentient humans to wear them in public.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

‘Stupid’ is a derogatory term for a person who appears slow-witted and might not be able to grasp simple concepts. ‘Ignorant’ refers to a person who just seems uninformed. ‘Luddites’ are people who, during the industrial revolution in England, sought to destroy the machines that they perceived as threatening their livelihood.

Today’s lesson is about city clerks in Ontario who are charged under provincial law with managing the process of municipal elections. While it might seem more appropriate to choose someone less biased as to the outcome in these elections, most city clerks take their election responsibilities quite seriously. The only problem is that if municipal electors ever took their role more seriously, the clerks would be inundated with angry voters who find how inadequate the voting arrangements are in most municipalities.

And that starts with our largest municipality, Toronto. In February this year, Toronto’s not overly effective city council took time off from berating their mayor to vote in favour of electronic voting processes to enable disabled voters an opportunity to cast a vote this fall. To nobody’s surprise, Toronto’s city clerk cancelled this worthwhile exercise because she believed there was insufficient time to implement such a program in time for advance voting this year.

Timing was why this writer—with more than 30 years experience in the computer industry that included being president and then chairman of a company that specialized in database development and high level encryption—made an appointment with the Babel City Clerk over two years ago to see if something could be done about the inconvenient municipal voting in this city. It was not a fun experience. Mind you, Babel’s City Clerk is a very pleasant and friendly person. She was gracious and interested in discussing voting and the various concerns. It was only when wrapping up the conversation that we felt knee-capped. To the question: “What can we do to help?” her response was, “Nothing.” She seemed quite satisfied with the awkward, cumbersome, inadequate, slow and vulnerable system that has been discouraging Babel voters.

While Ontario municipalities such as Markham and Peterborough have been spearheading the development of Internet voting for the past ten years, most Ontario’s municipalities still claim their concern is about security. What some city clerks might not understand is that Internet voting can be far more secure than the antiquated systems they have been using for municipal elections in recent years.

Regrettably Internet voting is not the panacea to getting increased voter participation but the easier and more convenient we make it for people to vote, the more chance citizens will take an interest and vote responsibly.

But when they go to vote this fall, Ontario voters can make up their own minds about who are the ignorant, stupid or Luddites.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

Babel-on-the-Bay promised a month or so ago to ignore the municipal scene until it becomes relevant. That will be after Labour Day. In the meantime, we have two more months of glorious summer in which to revel. Why spoil it? And why is Toronto’s soon-to-be-former mayor getting all the newspaper space and radio and television time in the middle of the summer? Is he that much better at feeding the beast?

In many years of public relations and political work, we have written hundreds of thousands of words each year to feed the media beast. Whether news releases, scripts, speeches, backgrounders or opinion pieces, the media is a ravenous beast and you work continuously to keep it fed and happy.

But there is always the caveat that your food for the beast is tainted with a supposed lack of objectivity. It is suspect. Too often, you have to use subterfuge. There is the sly slip of the tongue in conversation, the careful spin on what the reporter has already seen and the helpful leads. They are all part of the games used in feeding the beast.

But what has become of the innocence and honour that allowed you to go home each day, hug your children and say, “I did good work today”?

You never needed to lie. You never needed to defame opponents. Yes, you sometimes walked briskly past the negatives but never to create a lie. We left that to others.

You leave the deliberate slanting of news to the news media. They have their bias, their motives often obvious and sometimes obscured. You rarely risk censure to buck the flavour of the day. It never pays to argue with the beast.

There is a truism of the media that says: If it bleeds, it leads. The toughest problem in feeding the media beast is to find fresh blood for them.

And that is why the poor bastards cannot resist the meal the mayor of Toronto presents to them. Even when not in residence, he plays hide and seek with the media. He defies their moralistic shams. He lies to them. He abuses them. He restricts their access to him. He hides. He laughs at them. He reviles them. For him, it appears to be a game.

We can all enjoy the game as it plays out to the end of October. Then, there has to be a new sheriff in town.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]

Yes, Babel-on-the-Bay promised not to talk about the Toronto mayoralty until September. So, we lied. When your hobby is politics, you do pick up some political traits. What we did not expect over the summer is the constant attempts to smear John Tory by Olivia Chow’s attack dogs. They should take a day off occasionally. Especially when Tory reintroduces the best solution to Toronto’s downtown subway overcrowding.

Maybe it would be too much of a novelty for a politician to admit that an opponent has a good suggestion. The voters might not be able to comprehend that. So a good solution gets dumped on by people who seem to have no understanding of what is involved.

What mayoralty candidate John Tory showed Torontonians was a low-cost use of existing rail lines to relieve the subway congestion into downtown. That is hardly a new idea. The Ontario Liberals are already promising to electrify those lines to enable the city to have more stops and better service for commuters across the city. Electric trains on already built rights-of-way will be fast, efficient and less expensive than any other solution.

If you have ever wondered why Chicago, also built along a lakefront and with a similar size population, is much more prosperous than Toronto just look at its transportation system. The old rail rights-of-way into that city became what they now call the ‘Els.’ In the downtown Loop, those electrified trains literally loop around the old downtown bringing hundreds of thousands of Chicago workers and visitors downtown every day. Some people think those elevated trains are ugly. Maybe they are; they work.

And maybe that is the reason we respect John Tory. He works. It is not his political stripe that matters in the mayor’s job. He gets behind the good ideas and pushes them. That makes for a good mayor. It is mutual respect that can make a mayor’s job easier. Councillors and the mayor have to work together. Confrontation is no way to run a city.

It is also why the Olivia Chow campaign continues to disappoint. While it is being run by a Conservative, it feels too much like your typical us-against-the-world NDP campaign. They just attack.

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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry

Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]