Today Wed Thu
It is forcast to be Partly Cloudy at 10:00 PM EST on February 07, 2012
Partly Cloudy
2°/-3°		 It is forcast to be Partly Cloudy at 10:00 PM EST on February 08, 2012
Partly Cloudy
3°/-1°		 It is forcast to be Clear at 10:00 PM EST on February 09, 2012
Clear
3°/-11°

40 Comments

news

Adam Giambrone and Our Need for Political Wives

By Hamutal Dotan

20100209giambrone_backstage.jpg
Adam Giambrone, off-stage before delivering his speech at his mayoral campaign launch on February 1. Photo by David Topping/Torontoist.


Most of us woke up this morning to the news that TTC chair and mayoral candidate Adam Giambrone (Ward 18, Davenport) was apologizing for an “inappropriate relationship” he had been having for the past year or so with a young woman who was not his live-in partner. Reaction has covered all the usual talking points, with competing choruses of Who cares about politicians’ personal lives? and How can someone who’d betray his partner be trusted to run the city? playing out in newspaper comment sections and coffee shops across the city.


If history is any guide, there is little correlation between a politician’s personal life and his or her ability to lead. There have been bad faithful politicians and great adulterous ones, just as there have been politicians who have been both successful and faithful and others who have failed on both counts at once. We all would prefer our leaders to be unimpeachable in every respect, but not a single one ever has been and not a single one ever will be. Nor should it be the media’s job to hunt down and publish every last vagary of a public figure’s personal life.
It is reasonable for voters to rely on all available information in assessing a candidate’s worthiness for office, and to debate what of that information is relevant to making the assessment. It will be up to Torontonians to decide, over the course of this election cycle, who has on balance the strengths they most want and the weaknesses they are most willing to live with.
What is, however, quite striking about this situation is what it reveals about our political culture. Specifically, it highlights that we seem somehow still attached to the notion of the political spouse. Right or wrongly, it appears that Giambrone felt his candidacy would benefit from him having a partner by his side. He is young, he is contemporary, he represents a generational shift in the political life of our city. And yet…
We have no interest in speculating on the particulars of Giambrone’s personal relationships, we do not yet know how much of the report published today will stand, and we have no idea what further details might emerge. We are seeking neither to exculpate nor to condemn Giambrone—the most any of us can and should do is decide whether or not to vote for him. But we need to move, as a society, past the antiquated and entirely misguided notion that there is one right model of a life, much less a family life, that befits a candidate for public office. If, as the Star reported, Giambrone really did describe his relationship with his live-in partner as “important for the campaign,” that is a tragic reflection of a political culture that is mired in a hidebound and exclusionary conception of what our leaders ought to be. Whatever else may or may not be true, it is deeply unfortunate that our political culture still exerts such pressures, and deeply unfortunate that Giambrone fell prey to them.

Comments

  • http://undefined Jeremy Sale

    I think the real crime is a TTC chair texting and driving, (or driving at all, for that matter).

  • http://dandmb50.tumblr.com/ dandmb50


    It’s amazing the Toronto Star story about Adam G. had over 200 comments about this and then I posted a comment asking if the Star is backing another member in the mayoral race and then all of a sudden the comments were closed? I have never seen the comments section go over 200 comments before. Is the Star supporting another candidate and they want to put down Adam so they left the comments open to “get him”? I don’t think I will vote for him and doubt he will win but the Star should let the public speak like you do here.
    Daniel ……… Toronto – A resident and voter
    http://dandmb50.tumblr.com/

  • http://undefined paigesix

    disagree. it shows that HE felt that he needed a political spouse. there otherwise appears to be a void of mentions about other candidate’s spouses (or lack thereof)…

  • http://undefined Josca

    Except Smitherman’s partner. And do we really care about the lives of the other candidates?

  • http://undefined laureltubman

    This whole scandal is not about the personal life Adam Giambrone, it’s the fact that he has lied to his potential voters. He’s lied a lot.
    With every new piece of information revealed to the press, his story seems to keep changing. Shouldn’t he have told us what the deal was as soon as it looked like his relationship with Ms. Lucas was going to come up in the media?
    Giambrone, I was with you until now… now I’m not sure where you stand! Can’t you just tell us the truth? The WHOLE truth?

  • http://undefined x_the_x

    What a load.
    The author is playing the same game she always seems to play when one of the Miller gang is criticized: the political culture or its take is wrong/shortsighted/unsophisticated/insufficiently charitable to the Miller team, and the person criticized is therefore a victim of the shallowness of the political culture.
    Thus, it is “deeply unfortunate that Giambrone fell prey to [the political culture]“. I know your tolerance for this sort of thing in your role as chief hagiographer for David Miller and friends is stronger than most, but it is tiresome.
    No one knows anything (or cares) about the spouses of his competitors. And the implication that the culture believes that every good politician needs a doting spouse on the sidelines is nonsense in light of the fact that Smitherman holds a commanding lead in the race. What do we know of Smitherman’s spouse, other than the inevitable puff pieces that accompanied his coming out party years back?
    The fact is no one expected AG to have a spouse, and his lack of same would never have made a top 50 list of the reasons he is not fit to be mayor, before or after this mini-scandal. Observers have long noted the artificiality with which the candidate carries himself, and I suspect this story has legs because it confirms and deepens the suspicion that AG is (or, perhaps, was) good at constructing an image for himself, but lousy at pretty much everything else that a politician is expected to do.

  • http://undefined D_Hock

    Giambrone has his “scandal” and somewhat less than stellar record with the TTC (despite the fact that the problem with with the unions/workers, it still looks bad on him as Chair.)
    Smitherman has the eHealth scandal and a whole host of other issues from his time in provincial government.
    Rossi is Rossi. Rob Ford is Rob Ford. That’s enough for both of them.
    Yes, Giambrone screwed up. I don’t think anyone would deny that. I’ve seen plenty of leaders over the course of history who were faithful do terrible jobs, and ones who were not do great jobs, as Dotan said. (Trudeau, Kennedy come to top of mind.) Evaluate ALL of the candidates on their merits as politicians and what they may bring to this city, not on the reports from text messages and e-mails on what their personal life may or may not be. Let’s face it, it’s all hearsay until proven beyond a doubt.
    (I’m not even a Giambrone supporter; but watching the TO public overreact to this is driving me a little nuts…)

  • http://undefined Andrew

    The last paragraph is brilliant, thanks for it.

  • http://undefined CanadianGirl

    my only comment is… why not me god dammit! I would have been a quiet mistress! You could do me any day Adam! ADAM FOR MAYOR! xo

  • http://undefined torontocomments

    Re: author’s comment “If history is any guide, there is little correlation between a politician’s personal life and his or her ability to lead.”
    … sorry but this is nothing but partisan hackery masquerading as a lesson from history. Having an affair may or may not have any co-relation with ones ability to lead. But someone willing to exploit — even manufacture — a personal life for political gain is no longer something that goes down that well. The fact is that that Councillor Giambrone’s campaign team has been using his ‘long-term partner’ in a very deliberate way to craft a certain image for him. Personally, I don’t care who (or what) he sleeps with. But when the image he wants to present of his personal life is so utterly inconsistent with the facts, that is most definitely relevant. Also relevant is the little detail in the Star story that his campaign team tried to forge an email by the scorned woman so as to make the story go away. Whatever people may think of Councillor Giambrone’s ability to lead (personally, I don’t think he has any such ability), this latest episode highlights a willingness to use spin and deceive the public for political gain that I think most people will be unwilling to tolerate.

  • http://paul.kishimoto.name Paul Kishimoto

    You!

  • http://undefined TheRealJohnson

    I think the argument here is a bit flawed. I don’t think there’s any real evidence Giambrone thought he needed a “political spouse.” If he even actually did write that in a text, I think it’s all the more likely he was simply feeding a line to girl to make her think his relationship was less serious than it actually was so that he could get some tail.

  • Pan Von Sol

    Based on that logic, The Star is also backing a major coffee distributor by letting the article about the Timmy’s guy bloat to 200+ comments, and as of this writing, it’s still open.
    In any case, I’ve suspected the star of being a Liberal mouth breather* for some time now. So your theory about them backing a candidate is believable in my mind.
    /while sporting my tinfoil hat

  • http://www.guesswork.ca Patrick Metzger

    Thanks, Johnson. I was going to say the exact same thing.This has nothing to do with Giambrone needing a “poltical spouse”; it’s him trying to defuse the shitstorm with the gf after the media start reporting that he’s married.

  • http://undefined Andrew

    Gah, what did I do?

  • http://undefined W. K. Lis

    Trudeaumania happened when Pierre E. Trudeau was a bachelor. And he ended up as Prime Minister. Having a spouse is not a prerequisite.

  • http://undefined Peter K

    You probably have a great shot. I understand an opening has come up for “Campaign Mistress” (must be legal drinking age- barely).

  • http://undefined misstiny

    Where exactly did Adam Giambrone lie? The allegations were revealed last night and this morning he released a statement that did not change one bit. He apologized for his part in what he considers to be a mistake (and people lets not pretend like people don’t make mistakes daily). Its more important to focus on the platform and ideas instead of Adam Giambrone’s private life. He started off his campaign with some excellent ideas for city building.

  • http://undefined Darren

    Its not the just within the political world. In every industry, outside maybe that of a pop star or a bartender in a chip’n dale, being in a commited relationship is a sign of maturity.
    I’m single, and I’ve seen some really weird commentary come by way and towards other single people in the corporate world. Being married is good for a career, and being married with kids is gold.

  • http://undefined Robsonian

    werd – though I’m not sure I’d jump to the conclusion anyone manufactured any emails. There’s no need to.

  • http://undefined friend68

    Wow, is this an unneeded apologist article. No one was calling out for Giambrone to have a spouse — he was doing fine up to now without a public partner. He was the one who decided she needed to be part of his announcement.
    Right or wrong, the public gets to decide what they care about, with this post’s article preaching that it’s our problem that it is reported.

  • http://undefined nitroMiner

    Gee, wonder what it feels like being wallpaper, Sarah?
    What year is this anyways?
    More troubling is that it’s one lie after another from Giambrone to his teenage lover.
    Excuse me? What kind of 30 year old ‘man’ pursues a teenager??
    Giambrone’s crack team [John Laschinger, chairman of Giambrone's campaign] then try to cover it up with this ‘text message’ ‘from the teenager’ —

    “In the email she threatens to track down “ur `girlfriend’ and let her know about the affair we’re having. It doesn’t have to be true … ha! I hope U become mayor so that I could become TTC chair!”

    “Lucas denied sending the email and pointed out her name is spelled incorrectly.”

    This boy isn’t fit for any public service, no matter what his backers think. Shame.
    No morals, no ethics in private life nor public life. Fraud.

  • http://undefined coyoteblue

    The issue is not the political culture but Giambrone’s character. And what’s now clearer than ever before is that he doesn’t have much of one. All surface and no soul.

  • http://undefined Lauriemc

    Torontoist if I didn’t know better I’d think Adam wrote this story himself! A question of spouse has never been an issue in municipal politics – at least not in Toronto.
    In fact the only reason I know the current mayor’s wife’s name is because she responds to his office emails.
    Stop trying to create a “victim” where there is none. The only victims are those foolish enough to see only David Miller while they look at Adam Giambrone.

  • http://paul.kishimoto.name Paul Kishimoto

    Lurk on UofT DC++, many moons ago?
    …on second thought, forget I said anything.

  • http://undefined wchurchill100

    I agree completely. I don’t post often, but I had posted that some of the issues with AG include:
    * he has accomplished nothing before entering the political arena
    * he has the biggest ego at City Hall
    * he wasn’t liked by his peers in school (he was viewed as a pretentious prick by most).
    * he is hated by staff at city hall (but he doesn’t realize it).
    * he has a very bad temper (best example was his infamous e-mail to fellow councillor Cesar Palacio.
    Now we have further evidence of his manuipulative and untrustworthy behaviour.
    I continue to be amazed that so many young liberal minded people think highly of Adam. This is not a man with the character to lead a city. When all he is doing is making grand speeches – he may come across as articulate and easy going. But look beneath the surface and there is no substance. I don’t find him to a very effective speaker, certainly nothing compared to myself in my days as a politician.

  • http://undefined wanderoo

    I don’t give a rat’s ass about “character.” I think that people who care about their political leaders’ character are utterly naive. The only things that matter to me about a politician are his or her policies and whether he or she is good at doing the job.
    I think Adam Giambrone’s policies generally match my worldview, but I don’t think he’s all that good at being a city councillor or TTC chair. The best I can say about him is that he’s a solidly reliable vote on council for the positions that I tend to favour. By itself, that doesn’t win him my vote this fall.

  • http://undefined dowlingm

    It’s not the sex per se – for me it’s primarily this:
    She alleged Giambrone revealed secrets relating to his work – “I knew a long, long time ago about the (TTC) fare hike”
    If this is true and it can be proven beyond “I told my mum”, he has breached his duty of confidentiality to the commission and if Sandra Bussin is claiming “everybody knew, it was in the public domain” maybe she can tell us who knew exactly and who told them – or we can just assume she’s the last person in Toronto who thinks this campaign is going somewhere other than those whose professional reputations/income depend on it.
    Even if you discount the leaking there appear to be two other issues in play beyond “nothing Trudeau wouldn’t have done given half a chance”
    1. Despite shagging someone 12 years younger, doesn’t seem to have played by campsite rules
    2. Seems to have treated Ms McQuarrie abominably not just in the affair but positioning her in the media right after Enzo Di Matteo’s dumb “gay” reference in NOW.

  • Steve Munro

    Being “good at doing the job” includes being trustworthy.
    The attitude about the role of women in Adam’s campaign is very disappointing.
    I could accept a single man who might even have more than one lover (many people, single or married, do), but to decide that one of them should be a campaign prop devalues them both, and by extension half of the electorate.
    George Smitherman and his supporters at the Star must have broken out the champagne today.

  • http://undefined Andrew

    Ah, memories~

  • http://undefined Malcolm Tucker

    Adam Giambrone clearly doesn’t respect women; and if people still want to declare this fact irrelevant, than I’m guessing they don’t respect women either.

  • http://undefined dowlingm

    I blame Steve Munro for all this Giambrone stuff.
    Some time back he referred to AG as “Admiral Adam” due to his dopey TTC ferry from Scarborough idea. This plainly led AG to a library where he skimmed a bio of Nelson. The problem is he skipped all the boring stuff about Copenhagen, The Nile and Trafalgar and concentrated on the bits with Lady Hamilton…

  • Darren

    Here’s more from the G&M today. He admits to lieing;
    Adam Giambrone is now admitting he had multiple “intimate” relationships with women other than his long-time partner, and that he initially lied when he said his affair with an aspiring model was limited to illicit text messages and meetings in public places

  • http://undefined omnivore

    He’s gone!!!
    but since you asked: He lied to council and his constituents. He claimed a TTC study supported cutting parking on Dundas: under freedom of information, the report was obtained, and the TTC’s own comments stated clearly that parking was not a cause of delays, and there was no justification for the cuts.
    But, on the basis of that lie, he cost businesses in HIS OWN WARD tens of thousands of dollars — and continues to do so on an ongoing basis — incurred costs in planning and implementation of a terrible replacement parking scheme that puts commercial parking on residential sidestreets. And produces no benefit, apart from a spike in parking tickets.
    And he lied to his constituents, consistently. By saying that major parking changes were not coming for a year, and then implementing them immediately. By misrepresenting the disruption and schedule of TTC track replacement. By switching his position, and denying that he had done so.
    And that is on top of other things. Like not standing up for his ward, as with the Lansdowne fiasco, and allowing the city to spend money – in the area of a quarter million dollars — earmarked for improvements in the Dundas West BIA. When the time came to do the projects, the city simply declared that the money they had promised to match to local funds had simply been spent. Giambrone did nothing, and the BIA was left with projects that had been planned on the basis of a budget that was now halved, and to which the city contributed nothing, after asking them to delay for two years to fit city works schedules. GIambrone was too busy f**king teenagers to cover that.
    The list is far too long, and doesn’t include his incompetence as TTC chair. After the St Clair fiasco, you’d think that as TTC head he’d be doing everything reasonable to prevent a repeat. But I spoke with a member of the Roncesvalles BIA two days ago, who told me that 18 businesses have closed in their area thanks to the ludicrous disruption of the roads and TTC service there.
    The man is a disaster, who appeals to people who think it’s more important to be on Twitter than on top of the issues, and who prefer empty words to substance; people who think that cities are playgrounds for those with disposable income and no accents, if the supporters at his campaign launch (heh) are any indication.

  • http://www.nobodysbusiness.ca Johnnie Walker

    I think this is a great piece, Hamutal. As someone who remains quite undecided about this election, what I found most distressing about this story is the sleazy, tabloid-y way in which it broke. Who wants to read a politician’s sexts? Not me. It’s all moot now, but I really don’t think an affair should be the deciding issue in how anyone votes–he was running for mayor, not Toronto Monogamy Role Model. And isn’t it terribly naive to think that many, if not most, politicians have professional spouses and a bit on the side? Hell, Mel Lastman had a whole secondary secret family, remember that? After that, is this city really shocked by something as mundanely salacious as some naughty text messages and potential office chair sex?

  • http://undefined Darren

    Lastman had the affair WELL before he ran for politics.

  • http://undefined Darren

    Exactly! And what pisses me off are people in the pro-Giambroni camp saying common-law is not the same as marriage. These are the same people who MADE common-law legally equal to marriage over the last 2 decades. Dont swing the issue both ways.
    He had no respect for his common-law life partner
    he had no respect for the person he cheated on her with, as he cheated on that person with other people

  • http://undefined Darren

    Dont forget that without “the A-team” of idelogues behind the scenes he would not have reached where he reached now, nor attempted a run at Mayor. His spokesperson’s actions on Day-1 of this scandal were the lowest “stuff” I have seen in municipal politics for a while now

  • http://undefined CanadianGirl

    yay! and I am definitely drinking age… and then some :)

  • http://www.nobodysbusiness.ca Johnnie Walker

    …So it had expired? If affairs are bad for some, they have to be bad for all. If they are excusable for some, they have to be excusable for all. Mel Lastman was also an unfaithful partner, not that I personally think that’s even slightly relevant to a political career, and he also lied about it. But unlike Giambrone, a recently engaged man who cheated on his fiancee, Lastman was a married man who cheated on his wife to the point that he had a secret family that he treated like garbage and refused to support. And as far as someone’s personal life is relevant to their character and trustworthiness, I think Lastman’s indiscretions are WAY more troubling.