The No-Politics-Allowed Candidate Questionnaire: Spadina-Fort York

The No-Politics-Allowed Candidate Questionnaire: Spadina-Fort York

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.

The No-Politics-Allowed Candidate Questionnaire: Adam Vaughan vs. Olivia Chow

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)