FINALLY A Glimmer Of Hope For Ontario Voters...

Step 1: Hudak steps down and calls for one the elected conservatives to do so as well..
Step 2: Pressure McGoonty to Call An Immediate byelection.
Step 3: Hudak calls for a leadership convention.
Step 4: Kick provincial liberal butt.

John Ivison: Rocco Rossi’s political conversion hits Liberals where it hurts


Rocco Rossi clearly agrees with former British Labour leader Neil Kinnock’s belief that loyalty is a fine quality but, in excess, it fills political graveyards.


After all, this is the man who was the Liberal Party of Canada’s National Director; a man who claims Pierre Elliot Trudeau as his political hero and one who was instrumental in bringing Michael Ignatieff back to Canada. The former Toronto mayoral candidate has spent the past 30 years working on various Liberal campaigns and, until Tuesday, has never shown any love for the Conservatives. He even claimed John Tory made a mistake becoming leader of the Ontario PCs because “the Red Tory party that formed John doesn’t exist anymore.”
But while he believes it was the wrong party for Mr. Tory, he is less dogmatic when it comes to his own political leanings. Read More »

Cohn: Tim Hudak’s pocketbook campaign to be premier


The Tory leader remains the great unknown of Ontario politics and yet remarkably popular. Will his ‘enough is enough’ platform take him to the premier’s office?

Why are Rob Ford’s critics so angry?: Goldstein


By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN, Toronto Sun

To be fair, Rob Ford hasn’t yet been accused by his political, media and other opponents of being the anti-Christ, or the second gunman on the grassy knoll who assassinated John F. Kennedy.

Rocco Rossi's dollars make cents: Levy


It’s on days like today I wonder why Rocco Rossi hasn’t been able to move beyond single digits in the polls.

...sadly this election has become a "vote against" rather than "vote for" debacle and personally I have reached a point where I will probably not cast a vote for mayor and will concentrate on the councilor in my ward. If I do cast a vote for mayor it will probably be for Rocco.

Rossi a stronger T.O. mayor candidate than polls say

One On The Plus Side For Rossi...

Rossi vows to privatize garbage collection if mayor

Labour strife awaits any mayor that changes contract language, says CUPE Local 416 vice-president Jul 28, 2010

Second Place Just Doesn't Cut It...

...the apathy of Torontonians allows the social in-activists south of Bloor Street, waterfront condo owners, NDP island squatters, gentrificationists, artists,baratists, et al, to elect their mayor.

James: Ford riding a wave of discontent

By Royson James

  Rob Ford's leap into second place in the mayor's race shows the state of unhappiness with the current regime.

Print And Take To All Candidate Meetings...

Ford a close second to Smitherman: poll

An internal poll commissioned by the Rossi camp puts Pantalone third, Rossi fourth, Thomson fifth and Mammoliti sixth

Rossie Has Chosen His "Label..."

...so he should be able to be more forthcoming in his rhetoric and define his platform based on the definition: " learning lessons from history: relating to or analyzing the events of history with emphasis on the lessons that can be learned from them."

Don't call me right-wing, Rocco Rossi insists

March 21, 2010
Robyn Doolittle

Rocco Rossi, who says he's fiscally conservative and socially liberal, is a cyclist and doesn't eat red meat. (Jan. 21, 2010)

RENÉ JOHNSTON/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

Rocco Rossi is not right-wing, he wants you to know.
He's a cyclist, an environmentalist, a progressive-thinking son of Italian immigrants, with a soft spot for social justice.
Still not convinced?
He doesn't eat red meat.
"I really believe the true progressive of the 21st century knows that unless you get the finances right, you can't pay for the social good you want to do," Rossi said recently.
Rossi's early opposition to bike lanes along major city thoroughfares, such as Jarvis and Bloor Sts., has proved widely unpopular with left-minded voters.
The former Liberal fundraiser was also the first to talk about outsourcing and selling non-core assets to pay down Toronto's debt, two traditionally right-wing fiscal strategies.
But with expectations mounting that uber-conservative Councillor Rob Ford will announce his candidacy next week, it looks as though the right-wing side of the race is about to get a lot more crowded.
Not so, says Rossi.
"I don't see myself as right or left. I see myself as pragmatic. Fiscally conservative and socially liberal," he said.
"I think that there's a reflex to try and make things easier by categorizing each of us into buckets: Rocco Rossi is right, Joe Pantalone is left, George Smitherman is centre."
And when this happens, he continued, policies and ideas that don't fit that narrative get ignored.
Rossi points to his controversial City Builders Fund proposal, which he says has left him unpopular with some developers.
Today, when the city approves a building project outside current zoning, the developer pays additional fees that are redirected to the community.
But most development occurs in affluent neighbourhoods, and that's widening the gap between rich and poor, Rossi said.
If elected, Rossi says, he will ensure that 50 per cent of those funds reach Toronto's 13 priority neighbourhoods.
But many of Rossi's policies are right-wing.
He shot down candidate Sarah Thomson's proposal to implement a $5 road toll to pay for a city-wide subway system – "I think you need to get your fiscal house in order before taxing (people) even more" – and has called for an immediate halt to bike lane expansion.
"This is a controversial campaign issue," he said in a statement. "Until the voters decide who their next mayor will be, all efforts to proceed with the lane reduction project on Jarvis St. should be halted."
His efforts earned kudos from Rosedale and Lawrence Park, where many residents enjoy a speedy trip to downtown offices via Jarvis.
"Look, I'm a cyclist. I'm probably the only one of the major candidates," he said. "I support bike lanes. I support an interconnected network around the city. I don't support them on arterial roads."

Promises, Promises, Promises...

...if the promises made by candidates for mayor and city council over the last decade were written on asphalt we could resurface miles of Toronto streets. How many potholes did you encounter today?

Making his case to be mayor: Rocco Rossi in his own words

By Rocco Rossi

Rocco Rossi made his first major speech as a candidate for mayor of Toronto to the Economic Club at the Royal York Hotel on Thursday. Here’s an excerpt.

Nothing captures our rising frustration more than how difficult it is to get from point A to point B in the city by bus, bike or car.

Gridlock is choking our streets, our economy and our quality of life.

Car commuting times are doubling, transit fares are rising and service is declining.

The TTC in particular seems deaf to the mounting frustration.

Its dogged determination to tear up our streets, sever neighbourhoods and interrupt established shopping patterns — as it is doing on St. Clair West — shows all the signs of too much political interference and too little discipline, accountability, business sense and respect for taxpayers’ money.

Torontonians are united in their belief — no more St. Clair’s.

We are beyond the time for after-the-fact blue ribbon panels to look at fiascos like St. Clair.

Ranking at the top of my proposals to get Toronto moving again will be a commitment to install a private sector board of directors at the TTC as has been successfully done at Metrolinx.

We don’t need more political oversight on the TTC board. That’s what City Council is for.

We do need technical excellence, business sense and a desire to build a first-class modern transit system that works in harmony with cars, bikes, pedestrians and the rest of the region.

For too many years City Hall has been stuck in the zero-sum game that transit and biking are good, and cars are bad.

Cars are neither good nor bad. And until we build the first-class transit system of the future — and we will — cars are simply a necessity for many people.

I love cycling. I once cycled 1,900 kms to raise funds for life-saving defibrillators.

I spend a lot of time on my bike in the city, but as mayor I’d call a truce in the war on the car by opposing any further bike lanes on arterial roads — including Jarvis St.

I’d couple this with fast tracking the completion of Toronto’s bike-lane network on quieter streets parallel to arterial roads.

Because common sense and safety tell me that bike lanes and arterial roads do not mix.

We have to get Toronto moving again or the world will vote with its feet and go elsewhere.

Economic prosperity

Which brings me to my third priority — ensuring Toronto’s future economic prosperity.

For too many of the last seven years we have been without an economic development manager.

No other major city in the world has taken business and economic development so for granted.

Invest Toronto is a strong first step, but what we really need is Invest GTA where we work and compete as a region, the way all strong regions do.

For too long, economic development has been about stealing business from one side of Steeles or the other.

We need to eat Chicago’s lunch, not Richmond Hill’s.

Boston’s lunch, not Vaughan’s.

And Dallas’s lunch, not Mississauga’s.

Toronto needs to show some leadership and put the T back in the centre of the GTA where it belongs.

I want a Greater Toronto in an even Greater Toronto Region.

The 2015 Pan Am games are a tremendous opportunity for the GTA and beyond to think, plan and act like a region with respect to transportation and infrastructure.

From Oshawa to Niagara, from Lake Ontario to Barrie, let’s seize the opportunity so we all benefit from this exciting hemispheric event and build better working relationships and models for the future.