All Entries Tagged With: "David Nickle"
Nickle: A Strategic Endorsement For Anybody-But-Ford For Mayor
Toronto Community News columnist David Nickle makes the case for George Smitherman – if only because he is not Rob Ford: “At its most benign, Ford’s vision is both destructive and unrealistic. Smitherman’s is flawed too, and ifhe were to fully implement the plan as presented, it too could be destructive to Toronto’s future. But [...]
Nickle: Is Strategic Withdrawal A Factor In Municipal Races?
Columnist David Nickle wonders if the spate of withdrawls seen recently is a deliberate tactic: “All candidates are operating under the same principle, however – gaming the electoral system to ensure that voters wanting to vote against a particular incumbent or candidate have a single place to park their votes. Scarborough councillor Brian Ashton is [...]
Nickle: New Council And Mayor As Shackled As The Last
Pundit David Nickle figures that no matter who wins in just over a week, change will not be easy to come by: “The reality is that any mayor and council who comes into the job is going to be facing the same constrained set of options as shackled the last. The city’s books never balance [...]
Nickle: Stopping Rob Ford: Looking To The Left Of Centre
Toronto Community News City Hall Bureau Chief David Nickle examines the endorsements that were made this week, especially Joe Mihevc and John Sewell endorsing George Smitherman: “There’s a depressing defeatism about these so-very-strategic movements. The fact is that the only candidate who seems to have actually captured voters’ imaginations and created a solid block of [...]
Nickle: Smitherman Supporters Need To See Sign He Can Win
Toronto Community News columnist David Nickle reminds us that Rocco Rossi and Joe Pantalone don’t need to drop out for George Smitherman to become the natural alternative to Rob Ford: “Those candidates need not suspend their campaigns for this to happen. Faced with a much more benign possibility in 2003 when John Tory’s polling numbers [...]
Nickle: Caution In Campaign: Good For Survival, Lousy For Victory
Toronto Community News’ David Nickle thinks that Toronto’s community groups – such as Luminato or the Yee Hong Centre – need to stop being timid in presenting key issues: “There are good organizational reasons for being cautious: Luminato or the Yee Hong Centre want to be able to work with whoever is elected, and the [...]
Nickle: Worrying Policies From Mayoral Race
Toronto Community News City Hall bureau chief David Nickle is worried by what policies he sees from the leading mayoral candidates: “With the exception of Mammoliti, who dropped out in the face of dauntingly bad polling numbers this summer, these are the plans of the contenders in this race: cynically populist, inadequately costed, and often [...]
Nickle: Put Away The White Clothes, And The Equilibrium, After Labour Day
Toronto Community News Bureau Chief David Nickle thinks that the mayoral candidates are in full panic mode with the real race heating up: “Having spent the first eight months of the year covering something that sure looks like a mayoralty race, I’m not sure I’d go that far. But it’s been pretty clear if the [...]
Nickle: The Lesson Of Howard Moscoe: Work Hard, Play Hard, Win
Toronto Community News scribe David Nickle says that outgoing councillor Howard Moscoe may have been a troublemaker, but he could teach others a thing or two: More than any other city politician in his time, Moscoe knew how to use the media to get across his message and use that message to win the day [...]
Nickle: Comparing Miller To His Antithesis – Ford
Toronto Community News scribe David Nickle examines the stark difference a Mayor Rob Ford would be different from a Mayor David Miller: “For instance, when Miller said this about the debate over Toronto’s new zoning bylaw – a giant document that literally shapes the future of the city on a block-by-block level, he replied: “It’s [...]
Nickle: Favourite Candidate For Mayor Not Even Running
Toronto Community News’ David Nickle finds it unsurprising that rumoured candidate John Tory seems like such an attractive alternative: “There is a vacuum in the debate, and right now, Ford is filling it with anger. So it’s no wonder the people who left Tory’s side in January are feeling out in the cold here in [...]
Nickle: Mammoliti’s Withdrawal Sets Stage For Serious Discussion Of Mayoral Issues
Toronto Community News’ David Nickle says that now that Mammoliti has left the race for mayor, it opens the opportunity for a debate on the issues: “[H]is farewell speech – delivered six months to the day after he filed his nomination papers – was something other: a humble and thoughtful reflection on a campaign that [...]
Nickle: What Kind Of City Are Residents Willing To Pay For?
Toronto Community News scribe David Nickle notes that most candidates have picked up on the sour mood of the electorate, but wonders when their expectations will meet reality: “With the exception of Miller’s deputy mayor Joe Pantalone, mayoralty candidates have been about casting out the evils of high taxes, fiscal mismanagement, shoddy customer service, light [...]
Nickle: Never Mind Becoming Mayor, Could Rob Ford Be An Effective One?
Toronto Community News’ David Nickle contemplates a Rob Ford mayoralty and the challenges he would face: “It’s hard to imagine any meaningful detente after a Rob Ford victory in October – at least among the returning councillors. He’ll find allies among some of Toronto Council’s conservative opposition – but not all of them. Gloria Lindsay [...]
Nickle: God Help Us All – Or At Least The Mayoral Candidates
Toronto Community News City Hall honcho David Nickle figures it was only a matter of time that religion made its way into the mayoral contest: “Rocco Rossi, from day one, not shy about admitting his commitment to spirituality, let slip in a Monday morning all-candidates’ debate, that he thought “City Hall had left God.” Understanding [...]
Nickle: Candidates With Least To Lose Have Most To Say
Toronto Community News’ Dave Nickle notes that the ambition of policy platforms seem to be correlated to the electoral prospects of the candidate. The latest example being Sarah Thomson: “[W]hile everybody likes the idea of subways, promising to build them in the current climate is akin to promising to set up a municipal space program. [...]
Nickle: Stockwell Is Out
As heard first in the TEN rumour mill, there was some speculation that former PC MPP and Harris-era Cabinet Minister Chris Stockwell was pondering taking a run at the mayoralty. Or not: “Alas, it appears as though Stockwell’s not up for it. In a telephone interview, he said the idea has no draw for him. [...]
