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Vaughan’s Mayor Knows a Good Pollish joke
It was probably the nastiest mayoral race the GTA has ever seen and it ain’t over yet up in Vaughan.
Incumbent mayor (and Toronto Star whipping boy) Michael DiBiase and challenger Linda Jackson engaged in all sorts of soap opera-style mudslinging during the campaign. We won’t repeat it since you know the deal – sex, stolen email, graffiti, blah blah blah…
In the end, 56,000-odd votes were cast and Jackson beat DiBiase by a mere 90 votes.
Today DiBiase’s lawyers filed an injunction asking the clerk to hold off on certifying the results (as far as we know they were certified today) since there were 14 electronic counting machines that came in late. Though the results were see-sawing all night, DiBiase’s lawyers are saying he was up by 790 votes and so it’s statistically unlikely he lost.
Taking a page out of the George W. Bush/Karl Rove playbook, they want to establish the burden of proof as best they can no matter what the reality may be. They don’t want to doublecheck the numbers – they want to prove that their boy won.
We can’t blame DiBiase for wanting a recount in such a tight race (even if it might cost $400K) but there’s a different between wanting to be sure and being a sore loser.
During the campaign DiBiase got everyone and their mother to publically endorse him, including the entirety of Vaughan council who now have to work with Mayor Jackson. What this means to you, the 416 resident, is that you can continue to expect better-than-Coronation-Street entertainment from the City Above Toronto for years to come.
We also should also note – through no fault of his own – that we can’t hear the ex-mayor’s name without thinking of The Million Dollar Man (and, to a lesser extent, his manservant, Virgil).
Sorry.