Toronto’s weekend of entirely unsurprising mayoral endorsements
While the Globe was getting into some trouble Saturday morning with its Ford-is-fat story, the Toronto Sun and Toronto Star both made their official endorsements for mayor of Toronto. Surprising absolutely nobody, the Star endorsed George Smitherman and the Sun endorsed Rob Ford. We haven’t seen an endorsement this predictable since Jack Layton and Olivia Chow endorsed Joe Pantalone.
Meanwhile, Etobicoke councillor Doug Holyday let it be known yesterday evening that he would be officially endorsing Ford after a few months of fence-sitting. Holyday is one of the more conservative voices on council, and no friend to the legacy of David Miller. The only question was whether he would endorse at all, and it looks like as the race got tighter, he decided to throw his official support behind Ford.
Pantalone rolled out a bunch of endorsements this morning at a rally as well, but the only problem as far as news is concerned is that there’s little to nothing new here: Janet Davis, Gord Perks and Mike Layton have all been Pantalone supporters for a while. Still, if anyone didn’t know where these notables stand, the Pantalone campaign has a gentle reminder.
Finally, this morning Smitherman got the endorsement of the Web site Torontocannotafford.com, a group that has been championing the anyone-but-Ford (ABF) movement. Like the rest of the ABF bandwagon, watching this group come around to supporting Smitherman isn’t terribly surprising. They do, however, make a stronger case than the Star’s editorial.
With only seven days to go, is the city officially out of surprises? Is there no hope of seeing such conservatives as Denzil Minnan-Wong and Karen Stinz endorse Pantalone? Any ardent leftists want to support Ford? Or are we as a city doomed to an entirely predictable final week?
• Star’s choice: Smitherman for mayor [Toronto Star]
• Rob Ford for Toronto: Editorial [Toronto Sun]
• Doug Holyday to endorse Ford [Toronto Star]
Images: Ford, toronto.ca; Smitherman, OldTownGuy.
At the Pantalone press conference today, Mike Layton begged Pantalone supporters not to vote strategically for Smitherman. And yet, literally at the same moment, Layton’s people were telling voters in Ward 19 not to vote for Karen Sun or risk splitting the progressive vote … in a ward where 80% of the population votes progressive.
When can we please get ranked ballots so we can do away with all this nonsense?
watch the debates again the “pants” is better aligned with FORD, stick with the “pants” if you want to vote for him, smitherman is a terrible waste of a vote