The ornithologist might study some strange birds in a lifetime, but there are also some strange birds in politics. There is that breed of cowbird, for example, that prefers to lay its eggs in other bird’s nests. That seems to be happening in the current mayoralty by-election in Toronto. It is a practice that attempts to draw from the vote for a viable candidate.
If you are worried about the 40 plus other candidates for mayor, don’t be. There are possibly ten real candidates and all the rest are running for a wide variety of reasons. Anyone in this second group who really believes they can win the mayor’s job would be better off spending time with that nice doctor who asks all the funny questions. It might not be too expensive to get your name on the list as a candidate but a contest such as this is very, very expensive to win.
And don’t ever think that the news media are going to do the job of promoting your candidacy. The news media are mainly in the business of reporting the news and selling advertising. Giving you free advertising does not keep them in business.
The candidate that made me think of the cowbird is Celina Caesar-Chavannes. She is a former liberal and a former member of parliament. She left the liberals in a huff and was defeated in the 2019 election as an independent. I think she might have been misled to think this by-election in Toronto would help her sell copies of her book. And the fact that she has no chance make’s it a bad career choice as well.
My major problem in the coming weeks is to sort through the backgrounds and credentials of 10 or 12 credible candidates for mayor and come up with a usable Morning Line. I am still going to target May 5.
I have been asking my conservative friends for advice and they all admit that there are far too many conservatives in the race. It doesn’t look like Olivia Chow will make it to the starting line, which could mean she is smarter than I thought.
Someone ran a poll the other day but it is meaningless at this point. We haven’t even got all the horses into their gates.
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