By SUN-ANN LEVY
Ride the Moscoe-mobile
How Mayor Miller and his NDP core of councillors hope to roll to victory
Coun. Howard Moscoe -- who on a good day has more nerve than a toothache -- has been scaring up votes by shuttling through his North York community on a big bus.
It's not a TTC vehicle, the TTC chairman was quick to stress yesterday. "It's an airport shuttle bus ... we leased it from a (private) company," says the 27-year NDP councillor.
But Moscoe readily conceded he's using the 30-foot bus -- which is "big and bright and gets a lot of visibility" -- because it's a "great way" for the person who heads up the TTC to campaign.
In other words, it quickly reminds voters that this is no ordinary run-of-the-mill schlepper but a man who is allegedly going places at City Hall (my words, not his). "The image is important," he said.
The bus -- the cost of which is being shared equally by Moscoe, his loyal pal Mayor David Miller and NDP trustee incumbent Maria Rizzo -- is regularly taken to neighbourhoods and community meetings held on it, he said. It is also parked outside of supermarkets -- a highly visible backdrop while he canvasses.
Asked how environmentally friendly a 30-foot bus that usually carries just two passengers (Moscoe and an aide) can be, Moscoe insisted it's far better than a car. He added that buses are a "time-honoured tradition" in politics.
But Moscoe's chutzpah is no less pronounced than that of environmentalist and would-be councillor Gord Perks, an ever-present fixture in the mayor's office during council's last term.
The 43-year-old Perks, one of 14 candidates vying for the Ward 14 seat vacated by Sylvia Watson, has done little to hide his tight ties to Miller. He's pictured on his campaign literature joined at the hip with the mayor.
He even uses the same campaign colours and typeface as Miller. "Most people (at the door) are very excited that the mayor and I are running together and promoting the kinds of issues they care about," he said.
THE OLD STANDBYS
There's no doubt such cross-pollination will prove fruitful should Miller be re-elected on Nov. 13 along with his trusty core of NDP councillors.
Those who look likely to return include the old standbys who seem better at recycling themselves than the city's garbage: Moscoe, Maria Augimeri, John Filion, Kyle Rae, Adam Giambrone, Joe Pantalone, Pam McConnell, Paula Fletcher, Janet Davis, Sandra Bussin, Shelley Carroll (who says she's a Liberal but always votes with Miller) and Glenn De Baeremaeker.
There's also Paul Ainslie, who's running in Scarborough's Ward 43. Appointed to fill the vacancy left by Bas Balkissoon, he completely went to the left last term.
In Ward 17, fiscally conservative incumbent Cesar Palacio is facing a tough fight from 35-year-old Alejandra Bravo. "I am not running as a New Democrat ... I'm running as a community candidate," she said, nonetheless admitting she has the endorsement of some unions and left-of-centre councillors.
In at least two more wards it's a tight race between two left-of-centre candidates: Helen Kennedy vs. Adam Vaughan in Ward 20 and Joe Mihevc vs. John Sewell in Ward 21.
I count 18 potential votes on which Miller could likely rely. Not enough N-Dippers to warm all of the seats of Moscoe's campaign bus, but certainly it could mean a socialist stranglehold on council for the next four years.
3 comments:
Thanks to Miller, party politics is playing a bigger role in this election than ever before, but without any of the party discipline that makes it function properly at higher government levels. What will become of local politics?
While Trudeau famously referred to non-cabinet MPs as "nobodies," the nuts-and-bolts constituency work of a councillor is still the essence of municipal politics. If a councillor is negotiating with developers and other councillors, he or she had better have a good grasp of the priorities of their ward.
Has David Miller even thought about how parachuting in a candidate like Gord Perks will affect Ward 14, for example? Perks is obviously strong on the environment, but he has had absolutely no prior connection to the ward before now. He is being supported strongly by Miller and Joe Pantalone, whose only connection to ward 14 is their desire to run the Front Street Extension through it. Miller and Pantalone also seem to believe that Toronto's waterfront ends at the western edge of Pantalone's ward, keeping all the TWRC money for the central waterfront. How can we expect Perks to fight for the ward if he is so beholden to Miller and Pantalone?
It is hard to balance the interests of Toronto as a whole with the interests of one's ward. The current political culture favors slow negotiations over sweeping changes, and this can be both good and bad. But when a completely new system is grafted onto the old culture, it could be a recipe for disaster, allowing individual wards to be completely ignored while the "party" pursues its own pet projects, based on an undisclosed agenda and a nonexistent mandate.
Either bring in a proper party system, with platforms and accountability, or stick to traditional municipal politics. A Frankenstein mash-up only invites chaos.
I think it's quite unfortunate that not only will Miller get so many of his cronies back on council, but that one of them will be do-nothing Scarborough councillor Glenn de Baeremaeker. On his website, his only accomplishments from the last three years are that he voted in favour of specific motions that he was presented with, he wasted a crapload of taxpayer money on office and marketing expenses (was third highest and fifth highest overall in those categories among councillors), was never there when we needed him, but was always there when he wasn't, and it's that face time that will likely get this fool re-elected. The Star this past weekend considered him to be one of council's biggest disappointments, especially after he, formerly known as 'Mr. Environment,' voted for the garbage dump in St. Thomas, and I think it's important for the people of Scarborough and Ward 38 to know this, and to consider the other people running against him, the majority of whom have well rounded platforms and plan to tackle what's important to the people of this community, and not just spend our money irresponsibly and kiss the Mayor's ass.
Please sign this on-line petiton to stop Joe Mihevc's 16% TTC fare hike.
This year, Toronto City Councillor Joe Mihevc promised he would increase TTC fares by 16%, the amount equal to the benefit most would receive from the federal transit tax credit.
Toronto Tory city candidate John Adams has decided to take the gloves off and expose this crazy idea to the voters of St. Paul's ward 21 and beyond. This new website is Take-A-Hike.ca.
Please forward this email to any and all friends so they too can join the fight against this anti-transit, anti-environment policy.
It doesn't matter where in the City of Toronto you live. This is a vitally important issue.
I for one will be posting the http://www.take-a-hike.ca site on other conservative blogs and I hope others do too.
Don't assume a win for John Adams. He is up against two NDP'ers John Sewell and Joe Mihevc who has the support of unions and NGO's he gets the city to fund. The Mihevc forces are out in droves on the streets.
To make sure the socialist hoards don't win in Toronto's ward 21 St. Paul's you can always put your money where you mouth is and volunteer by calling 416-637-5245 or e-mailing volunteer@votejohnadams.ca It doesn't take a lot of time only a lot of people so if you have friends in that area of Toronto you might give them a little nudge to volunteer a few hours.
That is how most elections are lost - complacency - by assuming voters will do the logical thing, but it still is very important to get the message out and that takes a lot of volunteers.
So visit the elect John Adams for Toronto city councillor Ward 21 site.
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