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17 Comments

news

All Candidates’ Illness

By Kevin Bracken

2006_10_16Candidates.jpg

Yesterday, Torontoist attended a Ward 20 Trinity-Spadina candidates meeting at the University of Toronto. Present were Adam Vaughan, Desmond Cole, Chris Ouellette, and Doug Lowry.
Helen Kennedy was unable to make the it due to an illness that is apparently affecting every other candidate as well, Trinfluenza.
Topics covered ranged from Chris Ouellette’s “blanket the city with streetcar rights-of-way” to the “…because you’re a conservative, Doug Lowry!” bomb dropped by Adam Vaughan. Desmond Cole’s “lower the voting age to 16″ resonated strongly with the youthful crowd, while Lowry didn’t really say anything at all.
The most common question for the candidates: “I live in Scarborough, eh?”

Comments

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/dstopping David Topping

    I love that nobody bothered to erase the blackboard – and that over the candidates’ heads are (among other terms): “authority,” “miser,” and “don juan.” I wonder who’s who?

  • http://www.publicspace.ca/sidewalksale.htm Jonathan

    I went to the reception afterwards for the specific purpose of demanding from Vaughan an explanation for the “We must not let our streets fester in a mess of drugs and graffiti” video on his website: http://tinyurl.com/yksxuh

  • http://www.benwendt.com Ben Wendt

    Doug Lowry seems like he watches a lot of Fox News and enjoys repeating what they say on it, while not really understanding it.
    I think Adam Vaughan was right in his appraisal.

  • bx

    Adam Vaughn is a misogynistic, self-important blow hard who doesn’t give a damn about the people and causes of his riding but only in furthering his career and connections. Terrible, terrible douche bag.

  • Chris Dart

    bx, why don’t you tell us what you really think?

  • matt wong

    I heard in a couple other website how adam is misogynitic, self-important and etc but the question is how is he doing it? Could somebody please give one example?

  • http://www.torontoist.com Boy Reporter

    BX, just because you say something doesn’t make it true. I’ve had the great pleasure of meeting and getting to know Adam and I have no doubt he’d make a fine councillor in Trinity Spadina. He genuinely cares about that area, he grew up there and doesn’t want to see it ruined by incompetency at City Hall.
    If he was a mysoginist my friend Yvonne, one of his campaign staff, would have resigned months ago.
    Actually if you live in Trinity Spadina you’ve got an embarassment of riches and there are tons of great candidates. So the way I see it the only douche bag BX is the one who types anonymous comments on a website. Get a spine.

  • Paul

    What’s your definition of incompetency? Vaughan, who has no experience in the real work of politics, chose to run against a progressive who has 7 years of experience working effectively on Trinity-Spadina issues at City Hall, instead of against a dumbass like Rob Ford or Mammoliti. Much like his ally John Sewell, I think he’s a demagogue who is more interested in his own image than with doing good things for the city. You want to see incompetent? Elect Vaughan, and watch how well he manages his first few years. I don’t want my ward to be the venue for his on-the-job training.
    And if Torontoist doesn’t like anonymous comments, they have the power to disallow them. Surely you don’t mean to call the vast majority of your commenters douchbags, mr. “boy reporter”?

  • andrew

    Parachuting into a riding you have little connection to, no history in common, and that you probably don’t live in, is ridiculous. Had Vaughan chosen to go after Ford or Mammolitti I’d applaud his decision not to force a choice between progressive candidates but nothing else. How would it be any better for Vaughan to be running in Mammolitti’s ward, given that he has “no experience in the real work of politics”? How is he supposed to automatically understand issues that require some complex awareness of nuance and history? And are we only to draw upon candidates who have risen up through the ranks of either being staff for a councillor or a municipal employee? I assume you’re talking about Kennedy, Paul, when you mention a candidate who has 7 years at City Hall. You’re wrong; being a staffer is not being a councillor. The level of accountability is very distinct and very different. You may see it as effective training – hey, you’re doing practically everything the councillor does ‘cos you tag along everywhere, schedule all the meetings, read all the briefing notes, probably write a bunchof the speeches, and most likely work even longer hours – but you aren’t the face of the ward. You aren’t the one that will get button-holed and screamed at blind by a store-owner [well, actually, smart store-owners target constituency staff]. You aren’t getting fired questions at by the press. You don’t have to make the decision between money for the TTC and money for schools. That’s the elected politician’s job. Constituency staff work really hard, exec ass’t's even harder, but it isn’t the same job and you can’t say that it automatically prepares one for the job. Sure, you will have more contacts at City Hall than yr standard folk, but I’d say Vaughan’s been kicking around long enough in the press galleries on the hill, at the pink palace, and in the rotunda that he can make do.
    That said, I’m completely at a loss as to where my vote will go come ballot day…Ward 14 has an embarassment of riches when it comes to candidates also.

  • Paul

    Um, Helen Kennedy was also a city councillor pre-amalgamation.

  • andrew

    really? i stand corrected. but you’re still wrong about parachuting into another ward.
    p.s. it is really more effective to scream at constituency assistants than the councillor.

  • http://www.spacing.ca/wire Shawn Micallef

    “..is a mysogynist” “…is a demagogue”.
    How? You’ve got to explain this stuff, or else you look like….what people think the internet is full of.
    I’ve never seen so many huffy-puffy (semi-anonymous or not, but use your name if you feel confident enough to say it outloud!) name-calling and unsubstantiated accusational blog posts, on all the blogs, as in the last few weeks of this election. I want it to be over just so the woodwork will be full again.

  • julia

    I’ve heard of some rather offensive stories about Mr. Vaughn in relation to members of Equal Voice members ( org. getting more women into politics –I sit on the youth board). Some rather unforgivable comments along the lines of “don’t you know who I am?”. I have spoken to him before and, I have to admit, he does strike me as pompous. If I lived in Trin/Spadina, my vote would go to Helen Kennedy. Not only because she’s female but because, well, I agree with her platform. But I don’t live there! I guess I’ll just watch what happens.

  • julia

    Sorry, I meant not just because she’s female

  • http://www.spacing.ca/wire Shawn Micallef

    That’s just it Julia, you’ve “heard some stories”. Has anybody heard any stories about you, that you found out weren’t true, and you wondered how those stories got around? Hearsay is junk.
    The part about voting for Kennedy because of the platform sounds reasonable though.

  • julia

    I hear what you’re saying Shawn and that is a very good point. I suppose I should have specified that , while I’m not to take a lot of stock in ” I know a guy who knows a guy”, this story happened to a personal colleague of mine whom I trust implicitly. I certainly wouldn’t base such serious opinions on flaky rumours! But you are right Shawn, it can be a tempting trp.

  • J Charles

    I have heard more rumours about Vaughan – from the right, the partisans, and the mis-informed. These folks seem to forget that it was Vaughan who has since amalgamation consistently done the duty of making sure that citizens knew what was going on at City Hall, the pink palace and the hill.
    Over the years he has given space and time to folks like the public space committee and even the city idol folks, who now seem to have forgotten why they had some success, and who their allies are. They have started to believe their own rhetoric and have not undertaken any deep analysis about civics.
    Mr. Vaughan, in my opinion, is one of the best candidates running and he has my full support.
    Ms. Kennedy may have some skills, but my neighbours and I have had so many bad experiences with her and the Chow regime that we cannot countenance another 4 years of mediocrity.
    Hasten Mr. Vaughan’s victory.