Archive for 2010
Selley: City Has Spoken, And It Is Angry
The National Post’s Chris Selley offers his take on the Toronto election results and what politicans should take from them: “Whatever happens over the next four years, this election sent a hugely important message to Canadian politicians: Ignore voter anger at your peril. If you think voters shouldn’t be angry, make your case early and [...]
Ashton: Ford May Stop The Gravy Train, But Here Comes The Grease
Former councillor Brian Ashton suggests that mayor-elect Rob Ford may need some political grease to get his agenda through: “For our new mayor, it’s not all roses and “watch-people-jump” when you speak. You are where the buck stops and media criticism begins. The bag of goodies is indispensable for greasing the political slews, but is [...]
Globe Ed: Rob Ford’s Election Is A Mandate For Change
The Globe and Mail editorial board offers that the larger challenge for mayor-elect Rob Ford is to successfully bring change to Toronto: “Mr. Ford ran a blunt campaign that fed an appetite for change. He responded to, as he put it in his victory speech last night, a popular sense that “enough is enough”. But [...]
Sun Editorial: Ford’s Election A Game Changer
The Toronto Sun Editorial Board offers their view that the election sends a clear signal that voters want to see results, and are looking to mayor-elect Ford and Council to deliver: “As mayor, Ford now has an obligation to work with this new council and to govern for the good of the entire city. But [...]
Goldstein: Rob Ford Slays A Goliath
The Sun’s Lorrie Goldstein offers that Rob Ford’s election dispels a number of myths about municipal campaigns: “In the wake of this election, it’s time to put a knife through the heart of the political fiction that only the NDP engages in party politics at the municipal level. The Liberals’ entire Big Red Machine, backed [...]
Gee: Ford Raged Against The Machine, And Now Runs It
Marcus Gee of the Globe suggests that Rob Ford’s next challenge will be to run a government as successful as his campaign: “Whether Mr. Ford can deliver that in the city of Toronto is, to say the least, an open question. In a system where there are no political parties and the mayor’s is only [...]
Star Editorial: Ford Needs To Reach Out
The Toronto Star Editorial Board thinks that mayor-elect Rob Ford’s first order of business is to start building bridges with Council and other stakeholders: “He needs to extend a hand beyond the right-wing councillors who backed his campaign to the more progressive ones who opposed him. It would make sense for Ford to put at [...]
Levy: City Hall’s Broken, Voters Want It Fixed
The Sun’s Sue Ann Levy offers her thoughts on last night’s election results – voters are fed up: “By giving Ford the nod, Toronto citizens have said enough to wasteful spending on pet projects while basic needs like road repairs, parks maintenance and our dirty streets are consistently neglected. They’ve said enough to self-serving politicians [...]
James: What Happens Now? Four Turbulent Years
Royson James predicts that the next four years will be marked by political battles as Mayor Ford works to push his agenda through council: “Issues like contracting out garbage services and ending sole-source contracting and the sale of city assets promise titanic struggles among the left-leaning councillors. And any mayor who attempts to cut front-line [...]
Herald: Naheed Nenshi On Rob Ford
The other municipal story of the moment, Calgary mayor-elect Naheed Nenshi, speaking to the Calgary Herald about Toronto’s new mayor, Rob Ford: Calgary’s new mayor learned during a media scrum Monday night about the election of Rob Ford as Toronto’s new mayor. While many Hogtown scribes showed Cowtown envy, Nenshi himself was all congratulations and [...]
Rob Ford’s Toronto: Fewer Wildcat Strikes, More Subways
The Toronto Star outlines what voters can expect from the next four years under a Rob Ford administration, based on his campaign platform: Work for a union? If you are a garbage collector with the city, your job is about to be outsourced to a private company. If you happen to work for the TTC, [...]
Joe Pantalone Misses The Hail Mary
The National Post takes a look at the Joe Pantalone campaign, which was never able to capture the imagination of voters clearly tired of the current regime: “In pre-election poll after poll, Mr. Pantalone was down by 30 points. The 58 year old did not need a Hail Mary. He needed a voice of reason [...]
A Campaign That Quickly Lost Its Way
The Toronto Star examines the candidacy of George Smitherman and how he went from the frontrunner to defeated candidate over the course of the 9 month campaign: “In the opening weeks of the campaign, Smitherman used a conventional front runner’s strategy: He coasted along, saying little on policy, meeting few voters, in a bid to [...]
Mayor-Elect Ford, Meet Your Fresh-Faced Council
The wave of change did not stop at the mayor’s chair last night, as a full six incumbent councillors went down to defeat last night, putting a total of 14 new faces on council: “It is this council that will have to deal with the extraordinary Mr. Ford, who not only comes with an aggressive [...]
Rob Ford Elected Mayor
With the majority of polls reporting, Rob Ford has been elected as the 64th Mayor of Toronto, beating opponent George Smitherman by a wide margin: “The city’s choice marks the end of a dramatic, twist-filled 10-month campaign, and the unofficial close to the David Miller era that saw an expansion of city programs and spending, [...]
NP Election Panel: Forget About The Mayor’s Chair
The Post’s municipal election panel turns their attention away from the mayoral horserace to look at some of the more interesting local races: Furey on Ward 19 There is no greater symbol of clannish politics than the Layton cabal’s attempts to stranglehold municipal politics. We see this in Jack’s unashamed history of consistently running for [...]
Spacing Votes: Round-Up: The Endorsing Editorials
Spacing Votes provides a helpful summary of the various newspaper and blog editorials offering their picks for the next mayor of Toronto: “The Toronto Sun also published its endorsement last Sunday, but went the other way, endorsing Rob Ford. The editorial argues he’s the only person who can tackle the big job of cleaning up [...]
