Ward 19

I voted in an advanced poll today in the Toronto municipal election. We will be replacing arguably the world's most infamous mayor in 10-days time. There was a line-up at my polling station and word is that there are record numbers of advanced voters in the city.

I voted for John Tory but I do not believe that he will be anymore than a caretaker mayor. He lacks vision and guts to make tough choices. The city needs new revenue streams to build transit. Tolls, sales taxes, entertainment taxes, hotel surcharges to name a few. Tory's transit plan is weak and lacks a realistic funding formula. He was the best of a bad lot. I did vote for Michael Layton for my local councillor. I checked out the contenders bios and it was a weak field.

I must say that there are about 50 to 60 candidates for mayor on the ballot. More people will vote for the Toronto mayor than any other position in the country. There are enough eligible voters for the equivalent of 27 federal ridings. More than all of the people in the Maritimes and Newfoundland combined.

I did not vote for a school board trustee. Partly because I don't care and mainly because I do not know what the candidates stand for. A parent of a grade-7 girl in the Catholic school system threatened a school principal and janitor after his daughter was cut from the school soccer team. The janitor stepped in to defend the principal. You can imagine what kind of asshole this parent is. The school authorities banned the man from school premises.

The Catholic trustees called a special meeting to overturn the ban. The man was bragging about the incident. One of the gutless trustees explained that the man as remorseful. The same man that was bragging about overturning the ban. Incidentally the school principal has not returned to the school since the threat. The provincial labour ministry stepped in and reinstated the ban. This case illustrates the garbage that runs for trustee.