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The following is my Eye Weekly Psychogeography<\/a> column first published in last week’s issue. It was an open letter to George Smitherman to start actually displaying some love for Toronto. Yesterday his campaign’s first print ads appeared in the Toronto Star and Globe titled “I Love Toronto<\/a>.” The question is, will his actions in the coming weeks match his ads? People will be watching closely. Photo by Shaun Merritt<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Dear George,<\/p>\n You\u2019re running for mayor! Neat. Why? The job is terrible. People are always yelling at you (maybe you\u2019re into that, though), they\u2019re always looking at what you\u2019re spending on lunch and, worse, you don\u2019t even get a mansion like the mayor of Detroit<\/a> or New York<\/a> does.<\/p>\n But here you are, running to be our leader. You started your campaign by putting on hockey skates<\/a> and taking a few spins around the ice at Nathan Phillips Square. It was like Tie Domi was running for mayor! That was cool. You knew where the heart of Toronto was and you went and did something that was quintessentially Torontonian. Seemed like you were going to shoot for the net and all that, but then pretty soon you started skating in the other direction, hitting the boards and talking like you didn\u2019t like this place at all and behaving downright un-Torontonian. This is why I\u2019m writing.<\/p>\n As your surprise challenger, Rob Ford, started gaining momentum with his angry-man campaign, taking his rhetorical blowtorch to ideas, civics and even hard facts, you went beyond just looking like Domi, getting all tough and grumpy. The election has evolved like the cold war, but instead of matching bomb for bomb in an arms race, you\u2019re trying to out-anger Rob Ford \u2014 only you\u2019re no match. He\u2019s the enforcer in this municipal league, but the enforcer is never the team captain. You want to be the captain, yes? Like Wendel Clark or something? He was all tough, but also the leader. (Sorry I\u2019m not using any current hockey references, but this is Toronto<\/a>.) The enforcer doesn\u2019t make decisions; he just punches things, breaks noses and scores the odd goal along the way almost by accident. It\u2019s probably fun to do that for a bit, and some people might cheer, but it must hurt to be angry all the time.<\/p>\n So George, why are you running the same campaign as Ford? It\u2019s a bit early to count the other guys out, but with Rocco Rossi running a campaign of wedges and divisions and Joe Pantalone saying everything is alright and not getting much attention doing so, there is this huge, gaping void in this election waiting to be filled with ideas and, lest I sound like a hippy, love. So why go angry-man? You seem like the only guy in a position to go big and positive in this slate of candidates. The way things are now, given the chance, many Torontonians would check \u201cnone of the above.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m scared, George, like a lot of people are, of Rob Ford\u2019s weird lead because, even in this city of newcomers, he\u2019s the most foreign thing we could imagine representing us. We\u2019re on the lookout for hope.<\/p>\n Elections are funny and reality can get short-circuited. It\u2019s been said that Canadians are radical centrists, and by extension, that applies to Torontonians, downtowner or suburbanite. But because there is a void in the middle (of ideas and love), that loud- talking \u2014 and, yes, charismatic in his own way \u2014 Rob Ford is able to get all kinds of attention. The good part is that it\u2019s easy to fill the centrist void, if you really want to, and the divisions between Torontonians are smaller than we\u2019ve been led to think. Some of us ride bikes, some drive cars (some do both, lots have neither), but all of us want to live in a good city that works.<\/p>\n Why is your default always so grumpy and gruff, George? Maybe when you were a minister in the provincial government, you were used to yelling and snorting about. Ontario is a big province; you likely had to speak up. The thing is, Toronto is a city and cities are different. Municipal politics and the mayor are very close to the people \u2014 you don\u2019t have to yell so much. Unlike a provincial minister, who was one cog in a big machine of government, the mayor is much more of a paternal\/maternal figure once elected. The mayor sets the tone. When hurricanes come or when big propane tanks blow up, the mayor gets on the TV and tells everybody what\u2019s happening, and why it\u2019ll be OK. There\u2019s no smashing or anger. There\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n Maclean\u2019s<\/em> magazine\u2019s political columnist, Paul Wells, has four rules of Canadian politics and the third is \u201cThe candidate in the best mood wins.\u201d Let\u2019s think back to Mel Lastman (I know you remember him, because you worked in Barbara Hall\u2019s office, and he kind of defeated her). He was always in a great mood (well, mostly) and he was elected twice in post-amalgamation Toronto. It\u2019s unfair when people today are calling Rob Ford the new Mel Lastman. Mel wasn\u2019t angry and, while right-of-centre, he wasn\u2019t big on talking about cutting and chopping and destroying the way Ford does. So be a little like Mel Lastman. You like to say off-the-cuff things that get you in trouble too, so you\u2019re already on your way.<\/p>\n But don\u2019t be like him too much. Don\u2019t be dumb. You\u2019re smart. In debates you seem to know the most about how government actually works, more than most of us would ever want to know. That\u2019s good, but it\u2019s hard to talk about that, so it\u2019s easier to be like angry Ford. But Toronto isn\u2019t a dumb city when given a smart option. You need to work hard on the charm. Make us like you. You have moments when you stop acting like you\u2019re running for mayor of Rob Ford\u2019s city and you talk smart, in your regular-guy kind of way, and you actually sound like you really like Toronto.<\/p>\n You really have to stop running against David Miller. If he were running for a third term, he wouldn\u2019t be coasting; he\u2019d be talking about what\u2019s next, filling the election with ideas. Cities are forever works-in-progress because, if they weren\u2019t, they\u2019d be boring urban morgues. They are imperfect machines that always need tuning and new parts. We know Toronto isn\u2019t perfect, but we also know it isn\u2019t falling apart and people keep moving here and there are many construction cranes on the horizon, so when you play the Rob Ford game, which you\u2019re not too good at, it seems like you\u2019re talking about a make-believe city. Inherently, we know you know better.<\/p>\n I know you\u2019ve got ideas, George; you keep publishing these statements on things, but until you decide to really embrace Toronto and show us that you are deeply in love with it, most of us aren\u2019t going to notice. If you can do that, it\u2019ll be infectious. Love Toronto deeply and tell us how you\u2019re going make it even better. Pretend the Leafs won the cup. If you do that, maybe a few more people might notice and that stuff Rob Ford is saying suddenly won\u2019t make any sense.<\/p>\n Follow @shawnmicallef<\/a> on Twitter.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"http:\/\/spacingmedia.com\/uploads\/images\/line-grey-1pixel-600wide.jpg\" "\\"line\\""){kind=tracking}
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