ETOBICOKE GUARDIAN | Thursday, June 12, 2014 |
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opinion
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Stay politically engaged even after polls close
Write us The Etobicoke Guardian welcomes letters of 400 words or less. All submissions must include name, address and a daytime telephone number for verification purposes. We reserve the right to edit, condense or reject letters. Copyright in letters remains with the author but the publisher and affiliates may freely reproduce them in print, electronic or other forms. Letters can be sent to letters@ insidetoronto.com, or mailed to The Etobicoke Guardian, 175 Gordon Baker Rd. Toronto, ON, M2H 0A2.
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ffordable housing in Toronto Centre. Improving opportunities for youth in Etobicoke North. Hospital mergers in Scarborough-Guildwood. Helping immigrants transition smoothly in Toronto. Accessibility in Parkdale-High Park. Should the city walk away from the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB)? These were just a few of the issues we put to provincial candidates leading up to tonight’s provincial election. So many more issues were raised throughout the campaign with those hoping to fill seats in the Ontario legislature – during debates, at your front door, or on the streets. Regardless of how you voted – our view or how you’re intending to vote – remaining politically engaged the results are tallied is far Affect change after more important. every day with We, the electorate, more often than not engage only during an active voice election campaign – when it’s exciting to do so. Rarely do we continue that engagement between elections. This reality is unfortunate. Change is made every day, when residents across the city (and the province) continue to push what is important to them. Granted, not everything makes it to the top of a growing list of issues, but not demanding better of our politicians certainly doesn’t change a thing. Health care, education, jobs, the economy – these are big ticket items that impact the entire province, but it’s the local issues like decisions at the OMB that impact a community and really makes a difference in the everyday lives of Torontonians. After the dust settles, and another provincial government is elected, it is time for residents to continue to push on those important issues. Send letters to your newly elected or re-minted MPP, attend town halls, join a residents’ association, bring your neighbours together to fight for something important. Do something. That way, when it’s time to head to the polls once again, you know that you’ve at least tried to make a difference.
column
A long municipal campaign is good for voters
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early six months into Toronto’s marathon mayoral race, leading candidate Olivia Chow has presented a novel idea: cut six months off the race, and let things get rolling on Canada Day. It’s nothing that we haven’t heard before. Toronto elects a mayor like nobody else, with a campaign period starting on Jan. 2 and continuing until late October. If there’s high interest in the position that year – whether for a lack of incumbent or, as in the case this year, a polarizing one – voters can be subjected to news clips, debates, op-ed pieces and now clever YouTube videos with a foot in all four seasons. It’s expensive and daunting and sometimes a little boring. Well, maybe not that last. But Chow suggests that it is all a bit much – that there is nothing that
david nickle the city can be said in 10 months that can’t also be said in four. Chow does have a point. But it’s hard to say that a tiresome and lengthy debate about the future of our city is particularly harmful to that future. The fact is that while the campaign period runs a year, in times of complacency – the elections before the second terms of former mayors Mel Lastman and David Miller come to mind – the campaigns don’t really run that long at all. There was certainly some hand-wringing in 2006, when Miller gamely defended his mayoralty against city councillor Jane Pitfield and lawyer Stephen LeDrew, but that race didn’t really get going until the summer. And in 2000, Lastman
barely bothered to run a campaign, as only the late Tooker Gomberg ran against him. But in years where the choice is less clear, our long campaign period offers advantages to voters that might be easy to overlook. First, it allows us to meet the candidates – and the candidates to meet us. A good mayoral candidate will start making the rounds of community groups early and often, both for the purpose of fundraising and for the purpose of building a platform. When not abused, this is exceedingly healthy – it keeps municipal government real, in a way that other more distant governments often aren’t. It also allows candidates who may not have the highest profiles a chance to build those, outside the extraordinary advantages of celebrity and wealth that only a few can bring to the
table. Chow, for instance, entered the race with a well-established profile that included a well-timed book tour for her autobiography. John Tory entered the race a popular talk radio host with a long history in Toronto and Ontario politics. Rob Ford’s an incumbent from a wealthy family. So it’s good to be a Chow or a Tory or even a Ford in a four month campaign: not so much a Karen Stintz or a David Soknacki, who are still, six months in, struggling to build their own profiles. And unless we want to limit our mayoral choices to the rich and famous, it’s not so good to be us either. This is one issue that might be best to let lie. David Nickle is The Guardian’s city hall reporter. His column appears Thursdays. Find him on Twitter: @ DavidNickle
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