Toronto election today (Monday Nov 10)

[Minstrel Boy]

It's looking to be a very tight race, with the electorate polarizing between two candidates: the NDP's David Miller and the BIG business candidate John Tory.

Miller's leading in the polls, but it's tightening, though he can count on a large, dedicated core, particularly in the urban centre. Tory will draw mostly from the rim of the city, which only amalgamated with Toronto (against the people's will) in the mid-90s.

Big election here, after the nightmare years of Mel Lastman. Turnout's said to be heavy.

Go, Miller (http://www.millerformayor.ca/)! And fingers-crossed for the progressive candidates for council.

Polls close at 8pm. Results should appear here:

http://www.pulse24.com/cityVoteTO/index.asp

[Screaming Lord Byron]

1. Isn't a Tory a Tory?

Excuse my non-Torontian ignorance of your affairs.

[Minstrel Boy]

4. Yup, Tory sure is a Tory,

Also President and CEO of the pernicious Rogers Cable. Before that a partner at the law firm of Tory Tory DesLauriers & Binnington.

Reminds me: since the NDP lost official party status in the last Ontario election, its members cannot be identified by party in the legislature. To subvert that rule, my member, Marilyn Churley, is legally changing her name to "Marilyn Churley NDP." :-)

[Spazito]

5. LOL I saw that on the news!

I loved it when she said she now has to be called "Churley NDP" when it is her turn to speak thereby circumventing the ridiculous label they have now as being listed as independent.

[iverglas]

9. Tory, Tory, Tory

My favourite eponymous law firm ... with Smart & Biggar, Barristers, Solicitors and Patent Agents, a close second. ;)

.

[Spazito]

2. Thanks for the reminder!

(I'm in B.C. but am always interested in what's happening elsewhere)

[Maple]

3. It's election day

for municipalities all over Ontario.

Mayors and councils everywhere in the province.

John Tory...as distinct from the Tory (Progressive Conservative) party.

[ShaneGR]

6. Liberals don't have a candidate?

How come, they just won Ontario Province right?

[iverglas]

7. party politics in municipal elections in Ontario!?

Tsk, what an idea. FYI, it is severely frowned upon ... by the right wing.

Way back in 1970 I did a study for a political science class of voting patterns on city council in the toriest of Ontario towns, London. (Although at the time, bizarrely, the mayor was NDP.) Interviewed all the councillors, all of whose political affiliation I was quite familiar with, as was anyone who paid attention; I mean, they weren't exactly un-prominent in their parties. And they (esp. the right-wingers) fell all over themselves urging me to believe that there was no party politics on council. Sheesh.

Outside of Toronto, party politics just hasn't caught on. And in other provinces' big cities, like Montreal and Vancouver, there are parties, but they disguise themselves by making up different names so nobody will know who they really are. Again, sheesh.

Generally, Liberals and Conservatives lump themselves into a right-wing municipal party (again putting the lie to this notion that Liberals are "liberal"), and the NDP (and maybe some fringe Liberals) constitute the other, left-wing one.


The business about the Ontario legislature, and denial of party status to the NDP, is extraordinarily offensive. Particularly in view of how the NDP granted it to the Liberals a decade ago when *they* weren't entitled to it, as I recall. And also particularly in view of the number of NDP supporters and members (yours truly included) who held our noses and voted Liberal in the recent election, in ridings where the NDP was not a contender and we would have done almost anything to evict the Conservatives ... in fact, a Liberal vote being evidence of just how far we were prepared to go. (Same thing happened in Saskatchewan the other day, when some Liberals voted the NDP back in because of the horror of the prospect of a Saskatchewan Party (Alliance) victory.) That's *my* vote the Liberals are throwing around, and they can be pretty sure that, never having had it before, they're not ever going to get it again.

.

[SidDithers]

13. NDP did not "grant" party status to t he Liberals in 1990,

Provincial election results were:

NDP 74 seats
LIberals 36 seats
PC 20 seats

Check historical information at electionsontario.on.ca for confirmation.

Sid

[Minstrel Boy]

8. Barbara Hall's a Liberal

though apart from the NDP, the major parties don't officially endorse municipal candidates.

[Lisa]

10. Toronto is bigger than most provinces!

Latest demographic data show that 60% of Canadians live in 4 large urban centers (Toronto being the largest). So this is basically like how California is to the US, in terms of national importance. It used to be that people laughed off the idea of being in city government as adequate prep for national politics ... but now we have a former TO councillor leading the national NDP. This will likely continue. Yep, it's a major election, all right.

What Iverglas said earlier about the right frowning on "partisan politics" at the local level -- how true. Same thing noted for BC, where the Vancouver right-wingers called themselves the "Non-Partisan Association" in an effort to keep the leftist CCF out of the city, early in the 20th century. Even the NDP farm team in Victoria, the Victoria Civic Electors, didn't make such a blatant name choice!

[Minstrel Boy]

11. Miller leading (8:15pm)

but it's close:

Miller
123,654
41.8%

Tory
113,339
38.3%

http://www.pulse24.com/cityVoteTO/index.asp#

[Minstrel Boy]

12. whoo hoo!

Miller declared elected!

First NDP mayor of Toronto.

[Spazito]

14. Congrats!

and thanks for the link. Being able to watch the returns as they came in was great!

[spooky3]

15. happy for you!

Toronto's a great city.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

16. Great News.

Definitely a good omen for our party.

[Lisa]

17. CBC report here

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/10/torontovotes031110