Cynthia Cheng

Habitat for Humanity’s CEO, Neil Hetherington (far left) with the candidates

The mayoralty debates, hosted by Habitat for Humanity, occured at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) on May 11.  The featured topic this evening was affordable housing.  In Toronto, there are many families who are on waiting lists to get into public housing, yet there are not enough homes available for them.  Candidates this evening debated solutions, which ranged from subsidizing rents so that people can get homes more easily to collaborations with non-profits to create homes for people.  The debate was very interesting, and though the politicians were mostly civilized, the audience members were not necessarily so. There were quite a few people at the back who were heckling at certain candidates.  Not a good thing. 

In terms of candidates, there is a reason why George Smitherman is ahead.  He’s an eloquent speaker and has good ideas, ones which involve colaboration between public and private sectors.  However, why Rob Ford is second is beyond me.  While it’s good that someone with a more conservative platform is competitive, the his lack of sophistication is stunning.  He was by far, the worst speaker over the course of the debate, sometimes, to the point that I felt he needed elocution lessons.  Sure, he may appeal to the Joe the Plumber type, but this means that the man is also the Sarah Palin of Toronto 2010….without the nice wardrobe and (hopefully) without the need to write notes on his hand.  He has also said one too many things which required apologies.  However, he does seem to have a personal touch to him as he visits people in his ward and helps them when needed (some people even have his home number).

I really do not understand why Rocco Rossi isn’t further ahead.  Though he may not have as good a chance as George Smitherman in left-of-centre Toronto (Mr. Rossi is pretty centre in his politics), he is definitely much more polished and sophisticated than Mr. Ford.  While his privitization ideas were strongly attacked, not only from the left winged candidates, but from rude audience members, his belief that there is as need to look at an entire picture when it comes to helping those in need was seen as positive.  After all, “quick fixes” as he puts it aren’t good enough.  Perhaps the only negativity in his part is his lack of experience in politics, something which also pitfalled John Tory in 2003. 

Other candidates this evening included Giorgio Mammoliti, Joe Pantalone and Sarah Thomson.  Ms. Thomson, the only major female candidate in this election, struggled a bit at first in the debate.  Though people generally like sob stories and relate to people who have had the “experience” (Ms. Thomson was, at one point, homeless and stayed in a variety of shelters across the city), she did not seem to win the hearts of the audience this time around.  Her pro-subway ideas, which should be well-founded, drew heckles from some rude individuals.  However, we are still early in the campaign, and perhaps things will change over the course of summer.

Election day is October 25.