Torontonians now have the main contenders for the Toronto mayoralty in October. You hardly need public opinion polls to tell you who are the serious three and the lesser two. With Olivia Chow, Rob Ford and John Tory in the race and Karen Stintz and David Soknacki looking on, the city is settling in for a long political summer. If you know now who is going to win in October, you are much smarter than the rest of us.
But there is not one of those campaigns that could not change the odds by running a better thought out and better organized operation.
The Rob Ford campaign is running on a wing and a prayer. With titular campaign manager Doug Ford’s inexperience, the only people propping up Rob Ford’s candidacy are the news media. They follow him like puppies waiting for the next vulgarity. The strength of his campaign is in his ability to titillate.
The smartest campaign to-date seems to be Olivia Chow’s. The credit will have to go to John Laschinger, the Conservative gun-for-hire who is running her campaign. While the campaign needs more than a crafted biography to win votes, Laschinger might want to rein in Liberal Warren Kinsella who seems to be positioning himself as Olivia’s attack specialist.
This is no time for attacks on opponents. The mud comes later—when you are desperate.
The strangest attack was the young Barbie Doll with real hair who showed up on television as a spokesperson for John Tory. We did not catch her name but she did a one-liner on Olivia Chow that seems to be the right-wing answer to left-wing Chow. Somebody on John Tory’s campaign bus had better rethink that attack. And if a slander is worth doing, it should be done by the candidate—otherwise there is no benefit.
The only proper answer to Olivia Chow’s announcement was offered by David Soknacki (whomever he is) who politely welcomed her to the mayoralty campaign. He knows he can attack her more effectively later.
And nobody is above attack. Everybody is vulnerable.
But this campaign is about one of the most difficult political jobs in Canada. It requires leadership without power. There is no party discipline and there are not many perquisites for a mayor to distribute. It is not the same as in Calgary or New York City but Toronto candidates could learn some things from those mayors.
The candidates have to start talking about where they want to take Toronto. And you need to use the KISS principle: keep it simple stupid!
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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