07-30-2018, 11:27 AM
(07-28-2018, 05:40 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:(07-27-2018, 01:37 PM)tg63 Wrote: Well this just got really interesting. And since this could only happen in a 4T I thought I'd share it here.
My city - Toronto - has municipal elections going on (the elections themselves are in October). The current mayor is rather well respected, altho somewhat begrudgingly. He's basically a manager, keeping things running. We won't get any transformational ideas from him, but the city will run (we of course had Rob Ford as mayor previously).
Just before the 2pm deadline to file today, a legitimate contender filed to run - the former Chief Planner for the city - and it appears may be running on a platform of secession from the province. This would be equivalent to New York City trying to secede from New York state. For a legitimate candidate to take this position, is, well, unprecedented to say the least.
The backstory is very relevant - the provincial government just got elected into power last month - a right wing government led by former mayor Rob Ford's brother, Doug Ford. Completely out of the blue it was reported last night that he will be passing legislation shortly to cut Toronto's city council from 47 to 25.
Of course this has been front page news up here today, with press conferences from all sides. So when, suddenly, the former chief planner - who just happens to be an attractive, relatively young lady - tweeted this am "secession" and just showed up to file her papers to run for mayor - well, a crazy local news day just got a whole lot crazier.
Everyone's reaction in the first hours seems to be a very sarcastic "yeah, sure ..."; but I'm sitting looking at this from a 4T persective ... this could actually happen.
We just finished a very bizarre provincial election - it seems the next couple of months of our municipal election are going to be even crazier!!!
I hope Ontario can get rid of their Trumpist imposter as provincial leader. How in the world did that happen?
it's another example of the rural-urban divide; in the same way that California's red/blue county map is largely split based on urban / rural centres, our split is similar. Plus, the previous government - liberals - held power for the previous 14 years, so the mood was one of change, regardless of what type of change.
"But there's a difference between error and dishonesty, and it's not a trivial difference." - Ben Greenman
"Relax, it'll be all right, and by that I mean it will first get worse."
"How was I supposed to know that there'd be consequences for my actions?" - Gina Linetti
"Relax, it'll be all right, and by that I mean it will first get worse."
"How was I supposed to know that there'd be consequences for my actions?" - Gina Linetti