The No-Politics-Allowed Candidate Questionnaire: Spadina-Fort York
| October 2, 2015
A handful of Toronto ridings are way too close to call. For those who can’t make up their minds on the basis of the issues, we present the ultimate tie-breaker: a questionnaire in which the front-runners answer questions on just about every topic other than politics—the theory being that if their policies haven’t won you over, perhaps their personalities will.
Adam Vaughan
(Liberal, current vote projection*: 36.2 per cent)
Olivia Chow
(NDP, current vote projection*: 46.1 per cent)
What’s your most impressive trait?
Vaughan: Modesty. With sincerity a close second! On a more serious note, I like to think I recognize great ideas when I hear them and then engage the people who think those new thoughts to work with me and others bringing those ideas to life.
Chow: I collaborate with other people.
Your worst?
Vaughan: Cheeky. I’m way too good at heckling. It is why I avoided Twitter for so long.
Chow: I’m impatient.
How much do you usually tip?
Vaughan: Way more than the people I’m running against! I’ve been a bartender and a waiter. I respect how hard folks work giving good service.
Chow: 15 to 20 per cent.
When was the last time you experienced joy?
Vaughan: Watching my son who is in grade six speak up for students at his school as they committed to sponsoring a refugee family from Syria. You hope you transmit values. When you see it happen like that it is joy.
Chow: Five minutes ago as I was looking at the flowers on my deck.
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
Vaughan: A journalist.
Chow: Artist.
If you could live in any decade, which one and why?
Vaughan: I was born in the sixties. I think I would have liked to be a little older during that decade.
Chow: Now, because I believe in living every moment to the fullest.
What Friends character are you?
Vaughan: Isn’t there a website quiz for this? Thank goodness you didn’t ask what character on The Wire!
Chow: Rachel.
What’s your favourite vice?
Vaughan: Jouvert in Trinidad! (Opening night of carnival is vice alive.)
Chow: Pistachio nuts and red wine.
If you had to survive on one fast food item for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Vaughan: Wine! (You have to order quick.)
Chow: Yam fries.
Who’s your role model?
Vaughan: Eduardo Galeano (great writer and political thinker from Uruguay). My favourite quote: “Utopia is on the horizon. I move two steps closer; it moves two steps further away. I walk another ten steps and the horizon runs ten steps further away. As much as I may walk, I’ll never reach it. So what’s the point of utopia? The point is this: to keep walking.”
Chow: Tommy Douglas.
Name a word you’re not sure how to pronounce.
Vaughan: Specificity.
Chow: Partisan.
What’s the last book you read?
Vaughan: Fiction: Tar Baby, by Toni Morrison. A friend gave it to me. Non Fiction: Party of One, by Michael Harris.
Chow: This is Happy, by Camilla Gibb.
What’s a slightly embarrassing fact about you no one knew until right now?
Vaughan: While I love cricket, I can’t bat worth a damn. Best score ever 26. (I got 19 not out this year as a top score in a five over match.)
Chow: I sing out of tune.
What’s a bad day like for you?
Vaughan: I was a cartoonist. Even bad days make me laugh.
Chow: When you lose someone you love.
What smartphone app do you use the most?
Vaughan: I’m an MP. BBM still rules.
Chow: Twitter.
What’s your favourite curse word?
Vaughan: Harper.
Chow: You can’t print it.
What’s your favourite possession?
Vaughan: My espresso machine.
Chow: None.
What do you want your tombstone to say?
Vaughan: He was late for his funeral too!
Chow: I just want my name to be spelled correctly.
Car, bike, or TTC?
Vaughan: Bike (but walking is even better).
Chow: Bike.
Dog or cat?
Vaughan: Blue Jay.
Chow: Cat.
White or whole wheat?
Vaughan: Whole wheat.
Chow: Whole wheat.
Ketchup or sriracha?
Vaughan: Sriracha.
Chow: Neither.
Drake or Meek Mill?
Vaughan: K’naan.
Chow: Drake.
*(Vote projections from threehundredeight.com)
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