Political apparatchiks can get into endless arguments about how best to handle the end game in a municipal campaign. The key question is in setting priorities. You will never seem to have enough workers to do the ground job. So what takes precedence? It is a question John Tory, Olivia Chow and the Ford brothers must be asking themselves as their campaigns go into the end game.
What are the chances, for example, for a good roorback? A roorback is an American political invention in that it is something scurrilous about your opponent that you disseminate when is too late for the opponent to respond. It certainly has to be something other than telling voters that John Tory endorsed Doug Ford four years ago. First of all it is true and secondly Olivia Chow’s campaigners have been telling people that for the last couple months.
The other problem is that today’s 24-hour news channels and social media have eliminated the problem of fast response. That can ruin a good roorback.
One of the most interesting aspects of this campaign for mayor is that most of the attacks on John Tory are falling on deaf ears. They are serving more to confirm the individual vote than to change it. It all comes down to transit. Despite all the virulent attacks on Mr. Tory’s transit plan, it is the only one that is connecting with the voters. Olivia Chow is coming across as the downtown champion of bicycles and buses that guarantees congestion for years to come. And the Ford brothers have already proved that their ‘subways, subways, subways’ mantra is going nowhere.
And even if John Tory’s SmartTrack plan is a crock, he will at least leave the city with some dignity as he goes down with his ship. After all, SmartTrack was just an interesting proposal. It only gains credibility in that the Ontario government is already planning electrification of the commuter train lines. It is a very short step from there to expand the number of stations along the way. When you look at Chicago, you see the logic of the train lines that became the elevated lines that served to speed that city’s progress.
During this week and on October 27, the objective of all municipal candidates has to be to get out the vote. By telephone, by door knocking and every way possible, you have to get the voters to the polls. If half the voters stay home, they are likely to be the ones who were thinking of voting for your candidate.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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