Husband, father, lawyer & business owner. RH Library Director, Past RH Rotary Pres, former Chair RH Board of Trade & past Ont. Lib. candidate in A-OR-RH
Richmond Hill, Ontario
Joined September 2008
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What a night in Ontario! We mostly have stability from Toronto north to Sudbury, significant change west of that line, and a mixed bag from Durham east and in the north of the province. I am not sure whether this is a sign of a broader trend, or just a coincidence that many municipalities were ready for change for local reasons. My instinct, though, is that voters are feeling uncertain about the future and, in many parts of the province, more open to change.
York Region remained stable other than Georgina and East Gwillimbury. With one or two exceptions, I think the stability is a good thing. We have strong leadership at Regional Council and we may need it if Doug Ford surprises us with the person he appoints as the first chair with “strong chair” powers. It might be a sign that our communities are managed well, but I think it is also fair to say that only one of the re-elected mayors had a challenger who was well known in the community. I’m disappointed that Brian Johns lost, but there are some notable positive results. Naomi Davison was re-elected despite what seems to be a push by Conservatives to beat her, Jack Heath for Markham Regional Councillor is returning to Markham Council and Nikki Alber will be a great addition to Aurora Council.
As an aside, I also want to congratulate Michael Erskine for his re-election in Manitoulin.
It is hard to talk about the race for Mississauga mayor. Bonnie Crombie has been a friend for a long time and I am sorry that she was not successful. However, I am glad to see what must be the end of Carolyn Parrish’s career and I think Alvin Tedjo has a lot to offer. Alvin offered a fresh face, a modern social media campaign and diversity. He also proved that persistence and risk can pay off in politics against long odds. I’m glad to see Joe Horneck, Natalie Hart and Jill Promoli re-elected.
Mississauga might have been the biggest story, but the changes across the province were broad. In Hamilton, Oakville and Milton, well-known politicians lost locally for the first time in decades. There is also Halton Hills, St. Thomas, Kingston, Timmins, Windsor, and several municipalities in each of Niagara Region, Waterloo Region, Simcoe County and Essex County. I’m not going to find every losing mayor, but this seems like a lot for a province where leaders normally hold on for years. There were also many municipalities without incumbents, like Ajax, Oshawa, Thunder Bay, Orillia, Caledon, Peterborough and Kawartha Lakes. Voters did not need to choose change in those areas, but the number of long-serving mayors who stepped aside is worth noting.
Overall, my sense is that voters outside Toronto and York Region were looking for fresh faces. In some areas, like Peel and Halton, it seems to be generational. Another potential cause could be the rise of social media. Perhaps some longer-serving mayors are still running traditional municipal campaigns and did not understand how to use social media effectively. It is difficult to read too much into this after only one night of sleep, but my instinct is that this is a sign Ontarians are more open to political change than usual. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for Doug Ford. #onpoli
Jason Cherniak retweeted
Black and Jewish voters are more Democratic than any other groups. We are waving a giant red flag that says El Sayed is not the direction for our party.
Jason Cherniak retweeted
Just to state the obvious:
It’s entirely possible to oppose aid to Israel— whether on moral, foreign policy, or financial grounds — without promoting the fiction that such aid, or Israel itself, is responsible for what Americans pay for their groceries.
In other election news, I wish we got fun ads like this in Canada.
Eisenkot's closing ad with English captions ... I'm manifesting Israel electing their first person of color (Moroccan, Mizrahi) leader tomorrow. maybe he can lean on Arab parties' support to form a minority government without the ultra-orthodox parties so that they can force the ultra-orthodox to pay their taxes and serve in the military
High quality, classy speeches from Chow and Bradford. What a great example for everybody in politics!
Congratulations @DavidWestRH - one of the two best mayors in Ontario. With only 83%, he is behind the other, @_JohnTaylor, who was acclaimed. Some of us in York Region are very lucky!
Bonnie was gracious in her concession speech. Parrish is calling the voters stupid and showing who she really is. #MississaugaVotes
I appreciate this statement from Bonnie and wish her all the best. #onpoli
BREAKING: Bonnie Crombie is apologizing for suggesting to @readpolicorner that the Liberal label “wasn’t a good fit” for her.
“My wording was imprecise, and I’m so sorry for the confusion I caused” she says in a statement, with half an hour left to vote.
Full statement:
As somebody who always liked and supported Bonnie, I'm very disappointed in what she said. I understand that she was hurt, but 58% of OLP convention delegates put their confidence in her at the leadership review and we deserve better. I gather she thought she needed to say this to win in Mississauga, but it goes too far. Win or lose, I hope she withdraws this comment after the results are announced. #onpoli
Fortunately, Bonnie has clarified what she meant.
BREAKING: Bonnie Crombie is apologizing for suggesting to @readpolicorner that the Liberal label “wasn’t a good fit” for her.
“My wording was imprecise, and I’m so sorry for the confusion I caused” she says in a statement, with half an hour left to vote.
Full statement:
Stop trying to convince me that El Sayed is not an antisemite. Yes, Israel gets a lot of money from the US, but Jordan, Ethiopia, and the Congo get the same amount when added together. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why he’s only talking about Israel.
This is one of the most comical ads this election cycle. Yes, Americans are chatting at the grocery store about how they can’t buy groceries because their tax dollars “go to Israel” 🙄 😂 nevermind the fact that Israel has invested 100% of military aid in the U.S. economy since Oct 7, and has also purchased over $1 billion *additional* in arms, according to DoD. Federal military aid is also prohibited from being spent on anything other than U.S. arms, so the line about healthcare is even more comical. El Sayed and his Islamist fans like Cenk Uygur want and expect American voters to be so stupid they never check.
Not only is this ad insane, conspiratorial, and antisemitic — it is also flat out false. El Sayed isn’t for the people of Michigan, he isn’t even for America. He is for the Muslim Brotherhood.
This caught on in ways that I did not expect. To be clear, I'm Canadian! I am not suggesting that anybody should vote for this guy's Republican opponent. As a Jew, I'm commenting on the communications because we have similar arguments in our country. I'm glad I don't need to vote in this race, because I wouldn't like any of the options.
Contrary to the ad, in the last three years Israel has spent over $15 billion on US missile defense products while it received under $11 billion. Overall, Israel spends up to $10 billion a year on US military products. If anything, that money is a subsidy to US military suppliers.
New theory about BC turnout that haven’t seen. Last election, many centrist Liberal types were willing to vote for the NDP to stop the Conservatives. This time, they were not. #cdnpoli