There’s an election soon in Toronto! A publication I like has some detailed profiles on the candidates but I bet others do too. Seems like it’d be best to start a thread and collect links to that kind of coverage in top level comments.
The Local has been doing a series of long form articles on candidates:
- Where Has Olivia Chow Been?
- The Chief Concern with Mark Saunders
- The Transformation of Josh Matlow
- Who is Ana Bailão? Depends Who You Ask
They also have a collection of short bios on a broader list of candidates.
Thanks for these links. I skimmed through them and realized I’m pretty lucky to have the time and energy to read articles this lengthy. The article on Chow mentions her idealistic vision of community-based-everything, and how it really relies on civic engagement. I just don’t think people can afford to take time to read or reflect at depth on many of the issues this election, or on community issues in general. And the trend is likely to worsen, or at least push more people to single issue voting.
Hm. I guess it’s kind of like Lemmy vs. Reddit but rather than social media it’s the government. We can either pitch in and work together as a community to build something that actually represents our interests or we can passively accept whatever a corporation figures will pay off.
I’m starting to understand this good fortune as a responsibility. We who have the time need to step up and represent those we care about who don’t. The worsening situation we have now (especially access to food, housing, and healthcare) is what we get without engagement. An entrenched elite that own businesses that only do what’s profitable and leave an underfunded public sector to pick up the pieces are happy to run things to their benefit. If those of us who have the luxury of being able to articulate or at least contemplate an alternative don’t work together, that’s going to just keep happening by default.
If she’s elected mayor she won’t have much direct power; Doug Ford (elected by less than half of the less than half of eligible people who bothered to vote) has demonstrated he’ll overrule Toronto on a whim. So I don’t think it’s the worst idea that she sees the office as a platform to push for greater civic engagement as that can extend to other levels of government.
She has vowed to open up the budget process to the people of Toronto; if there are fights to be had with the province and the feds over a new deal for the city, she wants to marshall the support of citizens, not just councillors.
Policies enacted with the support of a population, eg. popular policies, are harder to undermine than ones pushed through by fiat.