Recently, on a Star This Matters podcast panel of columnists, I asked my colleague Shawn Micallef to sum up the state of this election in one sentence: “Broken city, gotta fix it,” he said.
We on the panel nodded, and I bet a bunch of you are as well. The list of accumulating problems is well-known and feels sky-high: the rent is too damn high, the roads are jammed and potholed, transit service is being cut, stuff like garbage bins and street bollards are falling apart, fear of crime is way up, homeless people are sleeping in parks because there’s no room in shelters, and the price of food is through the roof. Just for starters. Early park restroom openings aside, the picture hasn’t gotten any rosier since I asked during the fall election campaign “Toronto, can’t we do better?”
If this comes true Toronto is Toast …
Most Torontonians want a progressive mayor, opinion surveys suggest
Torontonians appear eager to elect a progressive mayor after 13 years of rule from the political centre and right, according to multiple opinion polls.
While results from different firms have varied since April, they all show the most left-leaning prominent candidates — former NDP MP Olivia Chow and City Councillor Josh Matlow — with combined support significantly higher than that of rivals on the political right.
