Politics

[velvetpage]

Toronto: the vote on the left was split several ways, while the vote on the right was concentrated on one right-wing ideologue who got the ear of the suburbs by promising an end to corruption and a drastic reduction in social services that the suburbs use less anyway. Want to know how it is that a country where most people lean to the left of centre manages to keep electing these clowns? Here's how: there are so many good ideas and decent people on the left that people can't settle on just one, and with a first-past-the-post system, it means the right-wing guy with less than a majority often comes up from beind.

All of which boils down to one thing: it's time for voter reform in this country. A ranked ballot would be an improvement, for example. Rob Ford did not - quite - have a majority of the votes.

Hamilton: Oh, puh-LEASE. Bob Bratina? Really, Hamilton? The a.m. talk radio personality from the eighties with a rep for a short temper and a thin skin during his seven years on council? Don't blame me if City Hall continues to get nothing done, while we continue to miss out on money and services from a provincial government fed up with trying to get us to make decisions. The best thing about Bratina is that his platform boiled down to, "Can't we all just recognize how much we have to offer each other?" I appreciate the "let's all just get along" message - I'd just rather see it coming from someone else.

I didn't really follow any other race closely. How'd it go in Ottawa? I know that race was being closely watched.

Comments

[kisekileia.livejournal.com]

I really don't get why Rob Ford wants to extend the Sheppard subway line. People barely use it, although it's possible it would get more use if it went all the way to Scarborough. The Transit City light rail lines are far more necessary, and getting rid of streetcars is a terrible idea because streetcars have higher capacity and are more enjoyable to ride on than buses. I don't like the rest of Ford's platform either, but that's one of the parts I'm most upset about.

Granted, Smitherman's platform wasn't the greatest either. I really didn't like that he opposes safe injection sites for drug users. I liked a lot of Pantalone's platform, but it had pretty much nothing about fiscal responsibility and the city of Toronto really does need to get its budget situation under control. I voted for Smitherman, but was tentatively planning on voting for Sarah Thomson before she endorsed Smitherman. I do think Toronto could stand to be a little less unfriendly to cars--we should increase transit use by improving transit, not by making driving in the city an even more miserable experience than it already is--but I'm not interested in anything else Ford wants to do.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

My problem with Ford, from the (admittedly half-assed) view of his campaign that I got, is that his good ideas are couched in a political ideology I find repulsive, and that would likely lead to the worst stuff being implemented first and the stuff I might like getting put on a back burner "because we can't afford to do everything at once." I don't trust people who claim to be about cutting spending. It rarely works the way it's supposed to.

[kisekileia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he seems like a pretty repulsive human being (which is reflected in his political rhetoric), and I put significant weight on that. I agree with you.