Last night, Olivia Chow unveiled two new radio ads in her campaign to win the job of Mayor of Toronto. The two ads are “attack ads” and they go after the incumbent, Rob Ford. As far as attack ads go, they’re pretty slick and may make you chuckle. Listen to them here: Continue reading Fair to launch attack ads at an opponent who's in re-hab? Chow thinks so
Nathan Rotman, pictured above at last year’s Toronto Centre NDP nomination meeting, announced this morning he is leaving his job as executive director of the federal NDP to return to Toronto and join the team trying to help make Olivia Chow the mayor of Toronto. Continue reading NDP loses top party boss to Chow campaign
Chow represented the downtown Toronto riding of Trinity-Spadina, a riding which Chow won by 20,000 votes in 2011. But that race had been much closer in 2008, when she won by 3,500 and in 2006 when she won by 3,000. In 2004, Chow ran and lost Trinity-Spadina to Liberal Tony Ianno, who would be a junior minister in Paul Martin’s cabinet. Ianno had held the riding for the Liberals since 1993.
Now the Liberals want it back. Standing in their way (aside from some potential Liberal infighting) will likely be Joe Cressy, Continue reading From Fort Mac to Fort York: The ripples of Chow's resignation on federal politics
Following up on this post, here’s attendance scorecard for the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities.
For the the second session of the current Parliament — this session having begun with last October’s Speech from the Throne in October — there have been 16 meetings of the committee, during which it has considered the spending plans for both the departments of Transport and Infrastructure; reviewed Bill C-3, studies the cessation of home mail delivery by Canada Post, and reviewed the safety of Canada’s transport system, particularly with a view to the transport of oil by rail. Continue reading The attendance scorecard at Transport
In the 2011 federal election, the haymaker that put Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff on the mat was thrown by NDP Leader Jack Layton in the English-language debate.
Turning to Ignatieff, Layton reminded Ignatieff that he’d failed to show up for 70 per cent of the votes in the House of Commons while he was leader. “Canadians who don’t show up for work don’t expect to get promoted,” Layton said.
At that point, it was all over for Iggy.
Now, Layton’s widow, Olivia Chow may also have to explain why she expects to be promoted from opposition MP to mayor of Canada’s biggest city when she, too, failed to show up for much of her key parliamentary assignment as vice-chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure, and Communities. Continue reading Chow skipped plenty of work in her final Parliamentary assignment
The day before Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair all but confirmed that, yes, it was Toronto Mayor Rob Ford in that video, pollster Forum Research was in the field polling Torontonians about their choice for mayor. At that time, there were only three declared candidates in the race: the incumbent (who told reporters he thought the race would be a “bloodbath”), Toronto Transit Commission chair Karen Stintz and former city councillor David Soknacki.
Forum found that, at the time the poll was taken, if that was the race, then Stintz is mayor with 37% of the vote compared to Ford at 33% and Soknacki at 9%.
Of course, the actual vote is not for another year and there’s lots of speculation that there will certainly be more than just those three candidates in the race.
Toronto NDP MP Olivia Chow, for example, is seen as a likely entrant. Forum threw here name into the mix for its poll and found that if it’s Chow vs Ford vs Stintz vs Soknacki, then it’s a toss-up between Chow and Ford, who each took about 33% in Forum’s poll. Stintz, in this matchup, takes 20% and Soknacki gets 5%.
Now, Ford’s support has apparently risen slightly since the video revelations though, in the wake of revelations of more self-destructive behaviour , even close former associates such as Toronto Sun comment editor Adrienne Batra — she was Ford’s press secretary before joining the Sun – is arguing in the paper today that, for all his accomplishments, “it has become more obvious, day after day, that it’s time for [Ford] to take a break from the madness that now surrounds [him].”
So Forum put a ballot in front of its survey respondents without Ford on it. Results? Chow 38%, Stintz 21%, Soknacki 10% and 31% unsure. Stintz is trying to position herself as the “conservative” (and sober) alternative to Ford but this poll suggests that, if that’s the case, she has some work to do.
What about radio show host John Tory, the former Ontario PC leader? Could he be the “conservative” alternative to Ford? Forum put together a ballot of Chow, Tory, Stintz, and Soknacki. The results? Chow 33%, Tory, 29%, Stintz 12% and Soknacki 6%. So Tory is still not capturing all of Ford Nation’s love but he comes to closer to matching Chow.
And finally, just to get a sense of what a brawl of heavyweights would look like, Forum asked those polled who they liked in a race with Ford, Chow, and Tory as well as Stintz and Soknacki. Answer: Chow 29%, Tory 25%, Ford 24%, Stintz 11% and Soknacki 3%.
Detail on poll methodology and tables are at Forum’s site. [PDF]
