Post-Tory stress disorder: Toronto’s media finds post-Tory mayoral race confusing
He never announced his mayoral bid, never campaigned and never did any fundraising, but Toronto sure spent a magical summer mooning over John Tory. Of course, any great summer fling eventually ends in heartbreak, but typically they make it to Labour Day. It would be easy to stick with the breakup metaphors, but the reality is that Toronto’s press and politicos seem less heartbroken and more confused—it’s as if everyone had assumed Tory would jump into the race, despite having said he wouldn’t.
The Globe and Mail sums up the state of the race, now that Tory’s out. There’s not a lot of agreement anywhere:
On fundraising: “John Tory is a formidable fundraiser,” says John Matheson, who is working on Rocco Rossi’s campaign. “That money now, by definition, is free.”…
Fundraisers for the two leading candidates, George Smitherman and Rob Ford, took pains to play down any financial upside of Mr. Tory’s departure.
On voters: “The broad middle is up for grabs,” [former premier David] Peterson said. “John and George would have been in the same space, overlapping into Rocco. The Ford supporters tend to be of a different type. The middle is much broader than the extremes and that’s where John would have been.”…
[Councillor] Gloria Lindsay Luby … says, she’s hearing a lot of “none of the above. People you meet on the street, that you talk to casually, say, ‘I’ve always voted, and this time I’m not going to.’”
So, either there’s a lot of free money lying around, or there’s not. Either there’s a bunch of voters who are now looking for their next champion, or they’re so disenchanted that they’re checking out of the race entirely. How’s that for clarity?
The Globe isn’t alone—Toronto’s other papers are trying to size up the race anew. The Sun is begging candidates to get serious about issues the way Tory is, and the Star direly considers what it will mean if a certain somebody (Rob Ford) wins the election with as little as one third of the vote—a real possibility now that there’s no centrist candidate as broadly respected running for mayor.
Given the ink and pixels being spilled, you’d think something more important than “Man Reiterates 8-Month-Old Position” was the headline, but apparently even when he’s walking away, we just don’t know what to do without John Tory. Maybe the city’s chattering classes shouldn’t have pinned their hopes on a guy who said months ago that he wasn’t running.
• How John Tory’s non-presence affects Toronto’s mayoral race [Globe and Mail]
• Mayoral race, post John Tory [Toronto Star]
• John Tory’s out, who is ready to step up? [Toronto Sun]
• LORINC: John Tory exits stage left [Spacing]
The Lindsay Luby quote is quite telling.
It’s exactly the same thing that brought Stephen
Harper to power–voter apathy.
Voter apathy in this election would hurt the city
greatly particularly if Rob Ford gets elected.
The prospect of Rocco Rossi is also frightening.
He’s a backroom boy and doesn’t know the first thing
about the front lines of city politics. Every time
he speaks, he demonstrates his ignorance of city
life and issues.
We used to be able to say that it is early in the race and once the summer starts to draw to a close, we will find that Torontonians will start taking a serious look at the candidates and the “none of the above” will start to settle on those candidates that they feel are best for the future of our city. Well, here we are – and I can understand that the “none of the above” would have been saved the challenge of sorting our among the candidates by selecting John Tory.
I would argue that we do have a few serious, knowledgeable candidates to choose from. Those that have yet to select a candidate have the task of choosing the one that best suites their vision for the future of our City. Smitherman is a formidable powerhouse that can get things done; the challenge is that some of things things he may get done fly in the face of polite, caring and considerate Torontonians (you can’t argue with this – he is Furious George!). Pantalone is a softspoken friend of the City. He perhaps lacks a connection to the urgency in which we have to turn our affairs around, but he loves Toronto in the same way John Tory does and while he is a continuation of the past, there is not doubt he is capable. Just that he is capable of continuing the past. Ford is fiscally attractive to so many who are just sick and tired of seeing crazy trips to foreign lands for knowledge (hey doesn’t City Hall have this thing called “internet”? and no money for kids pools. Ford also has a foul mouth and an abrasive if almost abusive manner that likely can never be included in a “come visit Toronto” commercial. But he is a serious candidate.
Rocco Rossi – in my humble opinion – is getting some hits because he is so formidable. A Globe and Mail comment piece said he had “no public experience” which is a funny thing to say about somebody who has had more public experience that most Torontonians. Long before he became a candidate for Mayor, he was a sought after speaker on building a better Toronto, being a better person, his initiatives with some of the greatest City Builders in Toronto (his former boss David Pecaut), and his commitment to public service. The former campaign manager of David Tory’s run for Mayor of Tory is a taller balder version of Tory – and is an excellent candidate for the “none of the above” who were hoping Tory would jump in. They may not realize that they have an option, among a number of good candidates, that is exactly who they are looking for.
So, Toronto media – don’t be so distressed about the slate of serious candidates; they are good. They have plans. They get things done. The fringe and less serious candidates always make things more fun, especially at debates, but perhaps cloud those I have mentioned above who can run this City with our other elected representatives.
And of course, if it wasn’t clear already, my support is for the candidate who represents so many of the things we love about John Tory – Rocco Rossi.
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