By Greg Burrell, The General Ledger
Back near the beginning of the election campaign in Toronto, I wrote a post blasting the leading candidates for their lack of progressive ideas and unwillingness to fight for the people of Toronto (Toronto’s progressive political void, 17 June 2010). I commented that the race for mayor of Toronto had been disappointing for all progressives, especially because of media skewing the issues that matter, and the long campaign certainly has been nothing but disappointing. Adam Giambrone’s campaign self-destructed long before we were able to hear his …

By John Michael McGrath, Toronto Life
One of the much talked-about aspects of Calgary’s recent election has been how Naheed Nenshi successfully transformed social media, Twitter especially, into a campaign tool. Compare that innovation with how Toronto’s candidates have been using social media, and our mayoral hopefuls do not come out looking great. Yes, all of the major candidates—and most of the minor ones—have been using Twitter and Facebook. But no, it hasn’t mattered a lot. If Web smarts had been a major force in this campaign, we’d all be asking ourselves if prolific …

By Steve Kupferman, Torontoist
Today was Toronto’s tenth annual iteration of World Car Free Day. This year, for the first time, the event was held in Queen’s Park North, where roads were blockaded to car traffic from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Few people turned out for the event, making it less a celebration of pedestrians and cyclists than a massive, desolate mid-day auto traffic obstruction.

Dan McDermott, director of Sierra Club Canada’s Ontario chapter, which orchestrated the event in partnership with the City, told …

By Katie Daubs, Toronto Star
Ken Wood can’t afford glitzy t-shirts. His campaign office is his basement apartment and his best asset is his colour printer.
“I’m the poor people’s candidate,” Wood told a group of would-be councillors, adding that he lives off a disability allowance.
Mayoral candidate HiMY SYeD, (who spells his name with lower-case vowels in homage to a former teacher) held a gathering for “unincumbent” candidates like Wood at the Dovercourt Baptist Church on Monday. Since nine councillors are retiring or running for mayor this year, …

By Corey Mintz, Toronto Star
Proposing to my dinner guests that there are three major reasons to seek elected office — altruism, ego or delusion — I ask each of them why they are running for mayor.
Keith Cole takes one minute to express his desire that arts and culture be as necessary to any political platform, as positions on the environment or transit.
Rocco Achampong says that what Toronto needs to balance its budget is to challenge collective bargaining agreements, if necessary, at the highest judicial level. “There’s no principle of law …

By Laura Grande, The Toronto Observer
Small business owners mixed with various other protesters Monday to demonstrate against Toronto city councillor Adam Giambrone’s run for mayor.
Giambrone, who is also chairman of the Toronto Transit Commission, officially announced his candidacy for the top job Monday night at Revival nightclub on College Street.
Filled beyond capacity and resembling the crowds on the oft-ridiculed TTC subway system, hundreds of supporters turned up to hear the 32-year-old Giambrone toss his hat into the ring.
However, outside the club, the volume was even louder as chants of “Adam …

By MARCUS BOWMAN, Spacing Toronto
Adam Giambrone took some time this afternoon to address the fast escalating criticism of customer service on the TTC. His message was one of commitment to a new focus at the commission. Acknowledging the ‘perfect storm’ of bad press that started with the botched fare hike and culminated last week with a slew of pictures of sleeping employees; the Chair stated that this is was an opportunity the commission could seize upon to refocus itself on the issue of customer service.
“Focus” was indeed the word of day, …

By Joe T., BikingToronto
The first photos I’ve seen of the Toronto Bike Awards (that took place last night) are from HiMY Syed via twitter and twitpic:

By M. Monastyrsky, CampbellPark.ca, CELOS
On Thursday evening residents who live near Campbell Park protested against the City’s decision to use the site as a temporary garbage dump. It was a bit of a circus.
When I got there at 5:15 pm, police and media were already on the scene. There were TV trucks with high antennas parked on the grass next to the wading pool. There were handmade protest signs attached to the fence. There were also two wreaths by a sign that said McGuinty and Miller ‘have blood on your …

“The TTC is the canary in the coal mine, the coal mine is the City of Toronto,” concerned resident Himy Syed said at the meeting. “So if you don’t solve this problem, you’re not going to solve the other problem.”

By Marc Weisblott, The Globe and Mail
The cast and crew of the City Idol competition watched the Toronto municipal election results come in at Paupers Pub in the Annex, even if the television coverage hardly had the suspense of a World Cup match.
Citytv proclaimed David Miller’s re-election as soon as they signed on-air, and went to rival Jane Pitfield for an instantly incredulous reaction: “They’ve already decided on the winner?”
The effort to make no-contests like Kyle Rae’s inevitable victory in Toronto-Centre Rosedale sound suspenseful was a pretty fruitless allocation of CityNews resources, especially when …

By Ramanan Sivaranjan, A Funkaoshi Production
I thought this wasn’t a political debate.
Shima and I attended a talk last night at the Theatre Centre — it’s part of that gorgeous building at the corner Dovercourt and Queen. In attendance were 2 candidates from our ward, Adam Giambrone and Simon Wookey. Shima informed me that the remaining guests were also worth paying attention to: they were John Sewell, who is apparently a bit of a planning superstar, but is better known for being a former mayor of Toronto (before my time), and Adam Vaughan, who …

By KAREN MACKENZIE, Spacing Votes

The addictive potential of last week’s Nuit Blanche now leaves me in withdrawal. I polled candidates in wards 18, 19, 20, and 21, in hopes I could live vicariously through their tales of the all-night art party’s witching hour.
Everyone who responded vowed to support the event for another year.
Himy Syed, a candidate running in Ward 19 Trinity-Spadina, had the most enthusiastic response by far (editor’s disclaimer: Syed contributes to Spacing Photos regularly). At the witching hour, Syed was atop the CN Tower with a photoblogger crew. He posted a …

By Jennifer Lewington, The Globe and Mail, page A13
Some fresh political faces with ambitions to pack off a few city hall lifers this Nov. 13 election day dropped by the clamshell this week.
With a Toronto protocol official as guide, candidates in the City Idol talent contest — the non-profit grassroots group formed to liven up local politics — got the cook’s tour.
On Thursday, about 15 of the 43 political wannabes dropped by the mayor’s office, checked in with election services and sat in briefly on a live session of council. …