Warren — Musings —06.23.2010 06:39 AM
But one adviser within the Smitherman camp, and several political observers without, say Smitherman’s lack of resonance with voters is real trouble that, left uncorrected, will doom his dream of succeeding Mayor David Miller.
“Of course you want to stay the front-runner,” said the adviser, speaking on background.
“It’s not ‘The sky is falling,’ but when you look at where (Smitherman) started and where is now, he’s bled a s—load of votes. It’s got to get fixed, and get fixed smartly. Should we all be slitting our wrists? No. Should we all be saying, ‘Why isn’t our message getting out?’ Yes.”
And:
“How much do I want it? I want it enough that I gave up one of the most powerful perches in the whole friggin’ country to take it on,” [Smitherman] says. “I want it enough that I’ve sacrificed . . . a $170,000 a year job. I want it so bad because I’m so motivated to end the mediocrity which has become the entrenched culture at the city of Toronto.
“I’m working my ass off here.”
Perhaps you should lend them Roger.
So Smitherman is running to “end mediocrity” at Toronto City Hall. What glorious irony.
I don’t think the problem is that the Smitherman message is not getting out. The issue is that the Smitherman message is not resonating with the people it gets to. This is a dangerous place for political staff to be in; they cannot see the forest for the trees, they are true believers who can’t accept that it’s not that their message isn’t getting out, rather it’s that once people actually hear George’s message, they simply disagree with him and look for another candidate to support.
If George really wanted to resonate, he would stop stating the obvious “entrenched culture at the City of Toronto” stuff (we all know, George), and would get into specifics about what he is going to do to make Toronto work again. I tire of the candidates (I think Rossi and Mammoliti are really the worst at it) saying “I’m going to be intolerant of the current culture at City Hall” and expect that people will give them their vote. I need specifics, something to hold the candidate to, not a blurry “I’ll fix the culture!” platform. I want to hear exactly how the candidates are going to raise the money Toronto needs (road tolls? I’m all for ’em) to re-build. I want to know exactly how the candidates are going to address real issues like daycare, infrastructure, accessibility, environment, tenants’ issues, disability issues, etc. Ending the “mediocrity which has become the entrenched culture at the City of Toronto” is not even close to a good enough answer. It’s time these candidates had more respect for the electorate; at least, enough respect to take a shot at giving real answers to real questions.
Despite being a McGuinty Liberal, I am not a Smitherman supporter – I have even pleaded with John Tory to run. Toronto works best when there is a Mayor who has a working relationship with Queen’s Park and with Ottawa that has a bit of touchiness to it. There’s a fine balance to be struck, and George is just too… well, GEORGE to strike it.
40% undecided?
Could this be the election where 30% of the electorate show up?
Could be Ford if that’s the case. Toronto, you get what you deserve.