There is no sadder thought to consider than Toronto with a mayor named Olivia Chow. And the fault would be blamed by some on the first-past-the-post voting. I deny that. It just serves to prove that you should not have first-past-the-post voting without run-off elections. How can you accept anyone as mayor of Canada’s largest city with less than 30 per cent of the vote.
And that can happen. Olivia Chow was never a good councilor. What makes anyone want her as mayor? Do Torontonians really want the pollsters and robot phone calls to tell them who to choose? Toronto needs a chief executive. That is not the role for this widow in her sixties. It is not just that time has past her by. She has never had any training or preparation for the role.
The reason that John Tory was so good at being mayor was because he had been training for the role for a lifetime. Toronto needs someone who can lead a very mixed and contentious council and do the right things. They should stop arguing about bicycles and deal with the economics of a large and dynamic city.
They have got to stop the extension of rules and build homes. They need geared to income housing. They need safe beds for the homeless. The city cannot wait for bumblers. It cannot wait for handouts from senior governments. It needs clear cut action. It needs leadership.
And it is not because Chow is a woman. There are two other women in the top seven and both of them have far more training for the role of mayor than Chow. One of them is Ana Bailão, a former councilor and John Tory’s lead in housing. She has far more of the experience needed than Chow. The other is former MPP Mitzie Hunter who actually has experience in running Toronto housing. This is another very impressive woman with the experience to get the Toronto mayor’s job done over the next three years. And there are four men who think they are qualified but that might only be in the mind of Premier Doug Ford.
Advance polls are already open. Be sure to vote by June 26. But think first. Toronto does not need incompetence in the mayor’s chair at this critical time.
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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry
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