With more than seven months left in the race to become Toronto's mayor, two of the highest-profile candidates have been trying to position themselves as the most managerial and pro-business.
Another is trying to gain traction by touting subways instead of surface light-rail transit -- at a cost of at least an additional $2 billion, to be paid for with road tolls.
There's also talk by some of pushing bicycle lanes off major thoroughfares and selling off city assets.
One might feel that Mayor David Miller's legacy is under some assault.
Miller used a March 10 news conference to announce the city had found another $100 million to add to a predicted surplus of $250 million from its 2009 budget. But he also made a plea for the vision of Toronto that he has championed since 2003.
"When I introduced the city budget in February, I said that you can't have a great city for free. … Anyone who tells you that they can freeze or cut your taxes and provide the vital services we all rely on … is simply not telling you the whole story."
Miller announced in late September he won't be seeking a third term as mayor when voters go to the polls on Oct. 25.
Mayoral candidate and Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti (Ward 7, York West) said Miller had criticized other people's platforms, thus injecting himself into the race. As a result, he called for Miller to resign -- a call that went unheeded.
"I think it's time to get real with this $9-billion corporation," former provincial Liberal heavyweight George Smitherman, the presumed frontrunner, told reporters.
"What we saw was the best performance of someone impersonating a fiscal manager," former federal Liberal backroomer Rocco Rossi said. He is running very much as a pro-car, pro-business, pro-privatization candidate.
Publisher Sarah Thomson is also running from the right, although she's taken the risky move of proposing a road toll to pay for subway expansion.
Opening on the left?
Miller became a two-term mayor by running as a centre-left candidate. In 2003, he defeated John Tory, a strong right-of-centre candidate, and former councillor Jane Pitfield in 2006.
Veteran political pro John Laschinger helped run both of Miller's two successful campaigns.
“I’m not sure that the voters want this city to be run like a business. I’m not sure that they want it to make a profit," he told ctvtoronto.ca in a recent interview.
"I think more of the citizens are on the centre/centre-left side of the spectrum. They want services. They … want the garbage picked up, they want the holes in the road fixed, they want people on the street taken care of. They want affordable housing for those who require it. They want neighbourhood programs for kids in high-risk neighbourhoods.
“None of that suggests they want a line-by-line accounting of the budget for the city of Toronto.”
In his view, that left a massive opening for someone who has a progressive vision for Toronto.
Laschinger had signed on to be campaign manager for Coun. Adam Giambrone, the TTC chair and heir-apparent to the Miller legacy.
However, nine days after an energetic Feb. 1 launch party at the Revival nightclub, Giambrone withdrew from the race after confessing to affairs with numerous women.
Laschinger dodged the question of who might yet run to continue the Miller vision of the city.
However, on March 18, Laschinger was back in the mayoral game. He announced he would be campaign manager for veteran Coun. Joe Pantalone. Others who had previously worked for Miller are also throwing support to Pantalone (Ward 19, Trinity Spadina), who has been deputy mayor for the past six years.
"There's people from the cultural industries, there's people from the labour movement, there's people who previously supported Adam Giambrone," Pantalone told The Globe and Mail. "They figure that with my experience and given my belief in a progressive city, that I'm the candidate to support."
Pantalone's pluses and minuses
A million-dollar question for Pantalone, who is holding a fundraising dinner and official campaign launch on March 24, is whether he can effectively rally the city's centre-left voters and benefit from four candidates fighting for votes on the right.
But Mitch Kosny, chair of the urban planning department at Ryerson University, told ctvtoronto.ca that an even bigger question is whether voters are sick of the Miller era and want to move on.
"I don't think it matters whether Laschinger or anybody is there or not," Kosny said, adding he's not sure Miller could be re-elected a third time.
Pantalone would be a comfortable, stable choice for some, and Kosny said he personally likes the man.
"But I think we want some kind of leadership. (Joe) has been there a long time. Being there a long time isn't always an asset," he said.
This election could hinge as much on un-electing the old as electing the new, Kosny said. If that's the case, it won't matter who represents the continuation of the Miller vision, he said.
A colleague of Kosny's begs to differ.
"I said right from the beginning that people, especially in the mainstream media, were way too hasty in writing off Pantalone," said Neil Thomlinson, chair of Ryerson's political science department.
One advantage that a pro like Pantalone has is a deep understanding of how things work and the ability to explain it to citizens, he said.
"People can say all they want about new faces, but there's also a saying that old and sneaky beats young and ambitious every time," Thomlinson said.
When the race heats up, and if the local politics neophytes start putting their foot in it, a steady pro could look good to voters, he said.
