Why my vote for Rob Ford would be an anti-Ford vote
For those not in Toronto: In the latest Toronto mayoralty-election news, Rocco Rossi dropped out last night, October 13th, leaving it (as the papers would have it) a contest between Rob Ford and George Smitherman. Rob Ford is considered to be an oaf, and George Smitherman was once deputy-premier of the province. Neglected from this assessment is the presence of Joe Pantalone, who quipped in a recent debate, to Smitherman, “the mayoralty is not a consolation prize for failing to become premier”
Officially, there are 40 people running for Mayor with two officially withdrawn. With the exception of the above named, the remaining 35 are considered unserious novelty candidates. Joe Pantalone has been deputy mayor under departing David Miller, and is running on his legacy.
My Facebook feed is representatives of his fan base: numerous calls stating Toronto needs pants and the like. Pants pants pants. Along with William Gibson’s latest novel, ‘tis the season for pants.
Pantalone has become the traditional NDP third party candidate who won’t and can’t win. He’s polling (Oct 13 Globe & Mail) at 11%, which is traditional NDP territory. He’ll drain votes away from the anti-Ford Smitherman and Ford will be Mayor.
However, according to the same poll, Smitherman is up 1% against Ford at 31% to 30%. Pantalone supporters – this is a given – would never vote for Ford, thus if their vote went to Smitherman, he’d win by a hefty margin: 42% against 30%.
Needless to say, our democracy is a sham, sense these numbers don’t even cross over 50%.
It’s interesting how this vote is being framed by the media as a contest between Smitherman and Ford, continually neglecting Pantalone. By keeping that narrative alive, the illusion of a contest between S&F can be maintained. The media is itself a type of conservative, conserving the narratives it has on hand; their familiarity with Smitherman as an Ontario cabinet minister means he is given favorable attention despite his admitted past-addiction to “party drugs” (coke?) and his inept handling of the eHealth portfolio, in which $1,000,000,000 dollars went missing.
I’ve only voted Conservative once in my life, during my first Federal election in 1993. At that time, I was naive enough to vote C merely because I liked the fact that we had a female Prime Minister in Kim Campbell. She famously lost to Jean Chretien, and Chretien went on to govern for ten years. In those interim elections, I began to vote for the NDP, a trend which continued right up to the last election.
Given that I have never voted for the party or candidate who ends up winning, I’m considering using this juju against Rob Ford by voting for him. My vote for Ford would thus be an anti-Ford vote.
If I voted my conscience and for the candidate who mostly represents my views, I’d join my Facebook peers and vote for Joe Pantalone, thus guaranteeing he won’t win.