Ontario municipal elections (Oct 24)

[toaster]

To be fair, no one is pushing the idea that Sutcliffe is a visible minority, I just wanted to point out he was a quarter Chinese, and that would make him the city's first mayor with a VM background.

I forgot to mention that Mainstreet did a poll in Vaughan showing Del Duca winning over Yeung Racco 22-7. 63% undecided lol. Of course, all summer polling is useless, and is only about name recognition.

Yeah, I wouldn't extrapolate too much municipal doom and gloom from Del Duca's provincial run--in part because, sitting or not, his opponents aren't necessarily more appetizing.  It could well be that the mayoralty's more his speed, much as it was for John Tory...

Also speaking of Del Duca, he's done a total 180 from the provincial campaign. He went from opposing the 413 as Liberal leader to making "anti-gridlock" his #1 campaign priority as mayor. I guess he realized opposing the building of the 413 was not actually that popular after all?

Ok, so he is really just an opportunistic politician who will do or say whatever he thinks people want to hear.  Be a leader, have conviction in your ideas.  I really hope he loses.

[toaster]

I have no idea who this is, but what has gone wrong? 

[toaster]

Not sure what our definition of "major city" is, but Andrea in Hamilton might also be a contender for that title if she wins.  In her last term as opposition leader in Ontario's Legislature she made a sharp left turn from labour/union fighter to left-wing progressive. Although not sure she would govern that way as Mayor.

[toaster]

Not sure what our definition of "major city" is, but Andrea in Hamilton might also be a contender for that title if she wins.  In her last term as opposition leader in Ontario's Legislature she made a sharp left turn from labour/union fighter to left-wing progressive. Although not sure she would govern that way as Mayor.

How did that work? I've read about how NDP circa 2011/2014 did very well in smaller postindustrial cities and poorly in Toronto because of Horwath's campaign style, but it doesn't seem like there's that much difference in today's Canada between union-oriented and progressive-oriented social democracy. Were there any actual policies she changed her mind on?

A lot of it was "vibes" to be honest. Horwath in 2014 tried to brand herself as a more "common sense" oriented kind of progressive, in contrast to Wynne's natural wonkiness. It was a bit like Mulcair in the sense that her policies were broadly centre-left, but her branding almost seemed centre-right. I'd say the NDP did shift to the left in 2018 in the sense of making bigger, bolder promises, but the ideology has always more or less been the same.

Yes, it also could be that the caucus grew with some more 'woke' personalities in 2018, and Andrea followed the party.  But the campaign this year felt like it took on more of that 'woke' ideology, perhaps because the party wanted to win/keep the urban ridings they gained. I also just think the climate shift as well. But Andrea shifted along with it. What I've seen in her mayoral campaign has been pretty moderate.

I stand corrected then, McKenney would be similar to Plante and therefore not uniquely left-wing among "big city" mayors (when I say big city, I'm mainly talking about Toronto, Mtl, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton - not even the top six in population per se, but just the most "influential" municipalities). Kennedy Stewart in Vancouver is pretty left-wing himself and could be re-elected tonight.

It's still worth watching what happens in Ottawa though, it's a city of a million, and strong mayor powers will change the relationship between council, mayor and the province. Ottawa city limits span into rural areas, and I can't imagine McKenney's priorities will sit well with the voters of deep Poilievre country. At the same time, Sutcliffe seems to be running on a platform that's at the very least John Tory-esque if not more to the right, and I can't imagine his priorities will sit well with the voters of deep Joel Harden territory. So it could be a good test case for how strong mayor powers will work at a practical level.

This is an odd and not measurable criteria?  "This person would be the most left-leaning out of a random unmeasurable criteria list I've created".  Odd.  It's a weird thing, I lived in Ottawa for about 6-7 years, and people in Ottawa were so obsessed with being over 1 million population, yet in the same breath would be upset with the province for having amalgamated Orleans, Kanata, (etc) into their City - the only reason the city was able to get over that 1 million.  Anyway, Mississauga would come ahead of Vancouver (and the former City of Ottawa without the suburbs) in population as a major city, with Brampton and Hamiton not far behind.

[toaster]

This is an odd and not measurable criteria?  "This person would be the most left-leaning out of a random unmeasurable criteria list I've created".  Odd.  It's a weird thing, I lived in Ottawa for about 6-7 years, and people in Ottawa were so obsessed with being over 1 million population, yet in the same breath would be upset with the province for having amalgamated Orleans, Kanata, (etc) into their City - the only reason the city was able to get over that 1 million.  Anyway, Mississauga would come ahead of Vancouver (and the former City of Ottawa without the suburbs) in population as a major city, with Brampton and Hamiton not far behind.

No, I'd say "Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa" makes sense. Looking at municipal population alone isn't very helpful. Sure, Mississauga has a larger population than Vancouver, but big cities are defined by more than just their population, you have to consider their economic and cultural power too. Vancouver is the primary economic engine and cultural powerhouse of the lower mainland in particular and BC more broadly, and has a metropolitan area centred around it. Whereas Mississauga is firmly in the Toronto circle of influence - same goes for Brampton, and to a lesser extent, Hamilton. Vancouver is certainly more of a "big city" in terms of its characteristics and overall influence than Mississauga or even Winnipeg, I would argue even Ottawa.

I would not include Ottawa in that list, then. You referred to the fact that Ottawa was over 1 million in your original post as a reason for including it

It's still worth watching what happens in Ottawa though, it's a city of a million, and strong mayor powers will change the relationship between council, mayor and the province.

So let's use the population of a city when it means it gets Ottawa over a million (again, not the urban/dense portions of Ottawa, only because of the huge amalgamated city), but not use population if it means Mississauga or Brampton get to be included on the list.  If you take the geographic area of a regular sized city and place it onto Ottawa, you get a population more similar to Winnipeg, Mississauga, Brampton, KW, than the other big cities you listed.

[toaster]

In Toronto, the Viamonde (French Public board in Southern Ontario) trustee race in Ward 3 (Viamonde's Ward 3 - no the city's, represents much of the downtown area) has been cancelled as neither candidate spoke French, and don't meet the requirements outlined in the Education act.

[toaster]

Scarborough Councillor Cynthia Lai has died.  Not sure what happens on Monday in this case.

[toaster]

Scarborough Councillor Cynthia Lai has died.  Not sure what happens on Monday in this case.

The election goes ahead and her votes are discarded and the only other serious candidate is a leftwing activist named Jamaal Myers and he will likely win replacing LI who was a rightwing conservative

Fairly undemocratic decision by the city clerk. The proper thing to do is cancel the election and hold a by-election OR indicate that a Lai win prompts a council vacancy.

As much as I disagreed with her politics (she was more right of centre), I don't think this is an appropriate decision by the clerk. If the Lai name wins, a by-election should be held.  You are forcing the 2nd place candidate (in what was essentially a 2 person race - so the precise person the community was not going to choose) onto the community - this is not how you engage or appropriately represent community. I wonder if (god forbid) Tory died, would they do the same thing - let the person with less than 30% support of the people be the mayor? This is a dangerous decision, the way to power in Toronto in the future could be to just literally have your leading challenger eliminated (read killed).  Insane.

[toaster]

It was predictable given the people who live in the suburbs and the boonies, but f- this useless city. Just garbage.

The election in Toronto was a complete snooze-fest, yet I'm still disappointed that the few people that voted, voted to continue the status quo. Meanwhile, garbage bins are stinking, the subway is always facing delays, parks are always closed for repairs, and drug addicts are still sleeping in doorways.

Actually, it's not quite the snooze-fest one'd expect; it looks like Toronto Council shifted left--Grimes defeated, Nunziata endangered, the anticipated slam-dunk of Bravo replacing Bailao, the asterisked matter of Jamaal Myers...

So happy Morley won in Ward 3 against Grimes!  Nunziata -> too close too call. Dianne Saxe is leading now, despite CP24 calling it for Norm earlier in the night.

Also, it's very close in Vaughan right now, and Hamilton.  Both leaders might lose again.