{"id":11015,"date":"2010-05-10T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2010-05-10T13:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=11015"},"modified":"2013-01-21T13:12:39","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:12:39","slug":"lorinc-smitherman-begins-to-unveil-george-2-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/05\/10\/lorinc-smitherman-begins-to-unveil-george-2-0\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: Smitherman begins to unveil George 2.0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2501\/3786142084_00fe5cb21a_b.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/spacingmedia.com\/uploads\/toronto\/feature-lorinc.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"85\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Pop quiz: What did we learn about the new-and-improved George Smitherman this week?<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s one answer: If you don\u2019t have a platform, much less an articulated reason for running, it\u2019s crucial to be making plenty of noise to remind voters you\u2019re in the race.<\/p>\n<p>Smitherman\u2019s plodding march to coronation is still long on sound and short on light, but the show appears to have entered a third act.<\/p>\n<p>In Act I, we had much strategic silence interrupted by the occasional photo-op. Smitherman then threw campaign manager Jeff Bangs overboard in favour of Toronto District school board chair Bruce Davis, a Mel Lastman operative turned development lobbyist who promised Torontonians they\u2019d be seeing more George.<\/p>\n<p>Act II \u2014 a scene really \u2014 was marked by scintillating \u201cpolicy announcements\u201d such as (i) not selling Toronto Hydro; and (ii) pestering Ottawa to designate the Rouge River valley as a national park \u2014 a pointless bit of advocacy that, Smitherman vowed, would be one of his \u201ctop priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Act III, which appears to have begun last week in response to  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/news\/national\/toronto\/where-is-furious-george\/article1553021\/\">media critiques<\/a> of Act II, looks to be about showcasing Smitherman\u2019s pitbull persona, in case you missed the memo.<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday saw him skewering Rocco Rossi\u2019s \u201ccompetence to be mayor\u201d in response to <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/05\/05\/lorinc-more-tunnel-vision-from-candidates\/\">Rossi\u2019s subway building scheme<\/a>. On Wednesday, Smitherman summoned the media hordes to slam a \u201cpreviously secret\u201d plan to develop a \u201cshiny\u201d new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalpost.com\/news\/canada\/toronto\/story.html?id=2996123\">TTC head office<\/a>, darkly warning the commission\u2019s leadership to \u201creflect carefully\u201d before proceeding.<\/p>\n<p>But of course the scene-stealer was his Stentorian j\u2019accuse at Rob Ford <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/news\/gta\/torontomayoralrace\/article\/804945--gloves-off-smitherman-rips-into-ford-over-gay-comments\">over Ford\u2019s public inanities about AIDS<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"More...\" src=\"..\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/plugins\/wordpress\/img\/trans.gif\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou said, on the floor of council, \u2018If you&#8217;re not doing needles and you&#8217;re not gay, you wouldn&#8217;t get AIDS \u2013 that&#8217;s the bottom line,&#8217;\u201d reported the Globe and Mail. \u201cAnd I&#8217;d like you, Mr. Ford, to explain to people how your character, and especially these comments, is justifiable now that you present yourself as someone who wishes to be mayor of the city of Toronto.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smitherman\u2019s camp even managed to squeeze a bit more juice out of that lemon the next day when Ford\u2019s people tweeted an indignant rebuttal.<\/p>\n<p>Feeling good yet?<\/p>\n<p>I certainly don\u2019t question Smitherman\u2019s views on HIV\/AIDS, and god knows there\u2019s no shortage of fodder in Ford\u2019s grab-bag of obnoxious bluster.<\/p>\n<p>But wasn\u2019t there something transparently tactical in Smitherman\u2019s attack?<\/p>\n<p>As he did when he ran Barbara Hall\u2019s team in 2003, Smitherman knows that no campaign is complete without the special ops guys who spend months quietly preparing detailed briefing books on the opponents\u2019 records and their foibles. It\u2019s all about looking well-informed and being able to change the channel when circumstances dictate.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the question to ask about Smitherman\u2019s hit on Ford is, why now? Was it about looking for ways to hoover up some undecided progressive voters as right-of-centre supporters decamp for, um, bluer pastures? Was it about creating an illusion of momentum in a campaign that hasn\u2019t generated any substance? Was it a response to worrisome internal polling? Or perhaps it served as a proactive defensive measure? After all, Smitherman knows he\u2019s going to be facing some heavy shelling over e-health Ontario and may want to get a head start in the mud-slinging that awaits us<\/p>\n<p>The other way of looking at George\u2019s shot across Ford\u2019s bow is to consider all the groups he hasn\u2019t defended with such righteousness. Yes, Ford\u2019s blather about HIV\/AIDS is well worth condemning. But I certainly didn\u2019t hear Smitherman confront Ford on his ceaseless and equally offensive attacks on city workers, public sector unions, homeless people, etc. Why not? Because he\u2019ll lose votes if he does. It\u2019s not about principle.<\/p>\n<p>In any event, the gambit succeeded in shifting the recent media narrative about Ford\u2019s chances, and I\u2019m guessing this won\u2019t be the last time Smitherman\u2019s rivals get spanked. Like any good magician, he knows he needs to divert his audience\u2019s attention so they don\u2019t start thinking about what, if anything, is happening back stage.<\/p>\n<p>photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/yvonnebambrick\/3786142084\/\">Yvonne Bambrick<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pop quiz: What did we learn about the new-and-improved George Smitherman this week? Here\u2019s one answer: If you don\u2019t have a platform, much less an articulated reason for running, it\u2019s crucial to be making plenty of noise to remind voters you\u2019re in the race. Smitherman\u2019s plodding march to coronation is still long on sound and<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/05\/10\/lorinc-smitherman-begins-to-unveil-george-2-0\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;LORINC: Smitherman begins to unveil George 2.0&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[94,14978,3879,14032,1174,6245,313,14975,14979,426,14974,636,14976,346,14973,10726,14977,314,19,10557,8009,1171],"class_list":["post-11015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-2010-election","tag-bruce-davis","tag-campaign-manager","tag-e-health","tag-ford","tag-george-smitherman","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-good-magician","tag-jeff-bangs","tag-mayor","tag-media-critiques","tag-ontario","tag-operative-turned-development-lobbyist","tag-ottawa","tag-recent-media","tag-rocco-rossi","tag-rouge-river-valley","tag-the-globe-and-mail","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-district","tag-toronto-district-school-board","tag-yvonne-bambrick"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>LORINC: Smitherman begins to unveil George 2.0 - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/05\/10\/lorinc-smitherman-begins-to-unveil-george-2-0\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LORINC: Smitherman begins to unveil George 2.0 - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pop quiz: What did we learn about the new-and-improved George Smitherman this week? 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