Toronto's New Mayor

 

Toronto has just elected a left-wing mayor, Olivia Chow. This confirms the wisdom of my plan to leave for New Brunswick. Cities tend to the left generally. And are generally falling into decay.

Not all Toronto mayors, however, have been left-wing. This is the home of Rob Ford and Mel Lastman. John Tory was a former leader of the Progressive Conservatives.

So does Chow’s election suggest a swing to the left?

I don’t think so. The field was fractured—over a hundred candidates. Chow stood out on the left, with big name recognition, and therefore was able to coalesce the left-wing vote behind her. The right was splintered among several candidates of relatively equal prominence: Mark Saunders, the former police chief, endorsed by Premier Ford; Anthony Furey, endorsed by Jordan Peterson; Ana Bailao, endorsed by ex-mayor Tory; Brad Bradford, a longtime city councillor; Chris Sky, whom Las Vegas was giving good odds. Vote was split; first-past-the-post system. Common story. The same reason Trudeau stays in power in Ottawa, despite being reviled by most Canadians.

As it was, Chow’s win was unexpectedly tight. Chow won by about 34,000 votes. If second-place Bailao had combined her right-wing vote with that of third-place right-wing Saunders, she would have beaten Chow by about the same margin. Add in fourth-place Anthony Furey, also on the right, and Bailao would have doubled Chow’s margin of victory. 

If anything, this election showed the Toronto right wing vote to be stronger than the left-wing vote.

This being so, I am hopeful Chow’s agenda will be hog-tied in City Council.

And I begin to favour ending the first-past-the-post system. I’d like an Irish or Australian ballot, where you rank choices in order. Bottom candidate drops off and his vote is redistributed until one candidate or another reaches 50%.

Toronto Mayoral Election

Faith Goldy.

The Toronto municipal elections are tomorrow. The mayoral race looks dull: incumbent John Tory is way ahead of his closest challenger, Jennifer Keesmaat.

The only source of interest is Faith Goldy, a challenger who registers way down in the polls; because she is being shut out of debates, her campaign ads being refused by local media, and her lawn signs being torn down. This is because, everyone says, she is a “white supremacist.”

There are several issues here. This first is that you cannot have a democracy if you do not allow everyone to be heard. Simply on this basis, if I were in Toronto, I would vote for Faith Goldy. It is of overriding importance for the health of our democracy, so long as she is being denied a platform. And given that the result is a foregone conclusion anyway.

Not being allowed to hear her positions, we cannot judge whether she really is a “white supremacist.” The term is currently thrown around unjustifiably: anyone you disagree with can be called a “racist” or “white supremacist” now. If she is, I would oppose her on those grounds; discriminating on the basis of race is immoral and nonsensical. There is no such thing as a “white race” in the first place.

But there is a third consideration. One cannot oppose “white supremacy,” and at the same time endorse “black supremacy,” or “aboriginal supremacy.” Otherwise, it is you who are the racist. If Goldy is saying nothing that would be objected to if “white” were replaced by “black,” or “aboriginal,” and it were said by some indigenous rights group or by Black Lives Matter, then she is the one being discriminated against.

I suspect that is the case here.