Readers of this blog know that here in Toronto, we have municipal elections coming up in October. The campaign will really start ramping up in September, although some candidates have been campaigning for some time. For mayor, I have no idea who I will vote for at this time. In fact, I’m not convinced we’re settled yet as to who all the candidates are. I really would not be surprised to see a couple new high profile faces enter the race in the next couple weeks. Why? No single candidate has emerged so far as someone with the vision, profile and character I want to see in our mayor. As U. Utah Phillips used to say, “If God wanted us to vote, he’d have given us candidates.”

We only hear about a small number of candidates on the news. The full list is published on the Toronto Elections website, and I’ll publish it here as well:

Achampong, Rocco
Andrews, Don
Babula, George
Ball, Christopher
Barton, Andrew
Campbell, Douglas
Castillo, Jaime
Clarke, Kevin
Cole, Keith
Cottle, Charlene
Di Fiore, James
Firth, Selwyn
Flie, Michael
Ford, Rob
Ghazi, Abdullah-Baquie
Gomberg, Howard
Goodhead, Barry
Hossain, Monowar
Lee, Dewitt
Letonja, John
Magee, Colin
McMillan, Jim
Pampena, Joseph
Pantalone, Joe
Rossi, Rocco
Smitherman, George
State, Mark
Steinberger, Tibor
Syed, Himy
Taylor, Phil
Thomson, Sarah
Vallance, David
Wadhwa, Ratan
Walker, Daniel
Yeung, Sonny

I have no idea who most of these folks are.
The people who seem to be taken seriously by the media are:
George Smitherman
Sarah Thomson
Rob Ford
Joe Pantalone
Rocco Rossi

Going in, I thought perhaps Mr. Smitherman would make a good mayor, but he seems to be far more interested in discrediting Rob Ford than in laying out a vision for the city. In my opinion, Mr. Ford is simply not a suitable candidate, and Mr. Smitherman would be wise to step back and let Ford’s campaign self-destruct without involvement of volunteers in chicken suits and antics like that. Instead, I wish he’d tell us about the Toronto he wants to see in the coming years.

I think Sarah Thomson will get quite a bit of support from the business community, and she may be a second choice for those who were trying to draft John Tory to take a run at the job. I don’t know much about her or about Rocco Rossi yet, and what I’ve heard on the news hasn’t caused me to think, eureka, we’ve found our next mayor.

I think Joe Pantalone has been an honest hard-working councillor. Many years ago, when I was in his ward, I went to him with a problem and he took time to meet with me and he was very helpful. I think he would be a solid administrator who would more or less carry out David Miller’s vision. I don’t think that’s quite what the doctor ordered for mayor, though.

So, who’s it going to be?

Right now, I am undecided.

I’m undecided in the Councillor’s race in my ward too. I asked the three registered candidates for responses to 10 questions, and received responses from two of the three. I haven’t talked to any of them yet. Hopefully I’ll see them out campaigning around the neighbourhood in the next couple weeks.