Buckle your electoral seatbelts
With just 54 days to go until the mayoral election, every day will make a difference to the outcome on Oct. 27.
Who says what to whom, how they say it and where they say it will start to matter more from here on in.
There are 40 public debates set to showcase the candidates. Some of the debates will be televised (they are the ones that will really matter), while others are smaller and less significant to the big picture, which maybe why Mayor Rob Ford has decided to skip two of them this week.
Ford’s campaign sent an email to Greenwood Community Association and to Film Ontario over the weekend to let them know that he would not be taking part in their debates because “something had come up in his schedule.” His absence will be newsworthy though, in fact, it may trump what ever possible “newsmaking” content of the debates.
Olivia Chow will make news later today though, with what her camp describes as a “significant policy announcement” as she tries to revive a campaign, which measured by at least one set of polling numbers has been on the slide.
John Tory will take part in both debates this week, and is rolling out more of his well-funded ad campaign designed to strengthen the perception that he is the only one who can beat Ford and is the one who can best take “good care” of Toronto for the next four years.
Social media traffic will congest your smartphone if you’re following the election on Twitter or Facebook. And if you are, you are no doubt aware of the difference between war room tactics and nonsense designed to diminish the opposition when, and wherever possible, as opposed to useful tweets and news links that you can use to form your own opinion and choice for mayor.