Sarah Thomson releases another subway-themed music video, and it is glorious and awkward
Mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson, perhaps worried about voters confusing her with the bad guys from The Matrix Reloaded, has hit upon a way of building her public profile that is both brilliant and awful: she makes music videos.
Today’s release is a parody of Pitbull and Ke$ha‘s “Timber,” with all the lyrics changed to make the song about Thomson’s promise to expand Toronto’s subway network using road tolls. Thomson sings the vocals, and the rap sections are done by someone identified in her campaign’s official press release as “White Kanye.” The video is embedded below.
Give that a minute to sink in. Wow, right?
In a race full of candidates who seem almost pathologically afraid to offend voters, it’s a little refreshing to encounter one who will do things apparently without giving the slightest thought to how they might be perceived. (This is the same woman who arrived at city hall to file her nomination papers in a horse and carriage, and who launched her campaign with a barrage of subway-themed poetry and a video of her being interviewed by her grade-school-aged son.) Also, pulling stunts is a good way for Thomson to circumvent the media’s indifference to her campaign—a state of affairs she has to find galling, considering how seriously she was taken in 2010, when she waged a more conventional campaign against a field made up of fewer big-name candidates.
On the other hand, the song is awful, and it does nothing to reassure voters that the person behind it is serious about leading the city. If Thomson wants to be invited to some debates, she may have to dig out a few of those business suits she was wearing four years ago.
In the spirit of constructive criticism, though: this music video is way better than Thomson’s previous one.
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