{"id":46125,"date":"2013-10-28T08:30:11","date_gmt":"2013-10-28T12:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=46125"},"modified":"2013-10-28T08:32:53","modified_gmt":"2013-10-28T12:32:53","slug":"lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: The challenges Stintz faces in her mayoral bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"feature-lorinc\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To absolutely no one\u2019s surprise, Eglinton-Lawrence councilor Karen Stintz announced on the weekend that she would be challenging Rob Ford in next year\u2019s mayoral elections, bringing to three the declared candidates (the third is former Scarborough councilor David Soknacki).<\/p>\n

Stintz, arguably the most high profile member of the current council after the brothers Ford, is clearly aiming for the political equivalent of the Goldlilocks voter: not too left and not too right. Progressive enough to be legible south of Eglinton, but conservative enough to speak the lingua franca of inner ring politics in Toronto.<\/p>\n

Setting aside for a moment her shape-shifting views on transit investment, the two dominant electoral questions about Stintz\u2019s candidacy are these:<\/p>\n

One, will she split the right or will she split the left?<\/p>\n

And two, does she track as a unifying candidate or a polarizing one?<\/p>\n

Stintz, who has spent a lot of time around Liberals in her time as TTC chair, clearly wants to be a big tent pol, someone who can appeal both to thinking conservatives disgusted with Ford\u2019s idiocy and antics, but also pragmatic progressives who may feel the city doesn\u2019t need a big ideological swing back to the left, which is what Olivia Chow will be accused of.<\/p>\n

From a strictly ideological point of view, Stintz currently situates herself somewhere slightly to the right of centre, and certainly to the left of where she was when David Miller was mayor. On paper, therefore, she is relatively well positioned to appeal to a middle-of-the-road, middle-class voter. She can tell Scarberians she gave them what they deserved \u2013 a subway \u2013 and she can tell downtowners that her next priority is the [insert euphemism here] relief line.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019d say Stintz, despite her positioning, remains a polarizing figure. The hard-core conservatives will paint her as a Judas. And the hard core transit activists, to the extent that they vote as a block and in meaningful numbers, will point to her flip-flop on the LRT file as evidence of opportunistic betrayal.<\/p>\n

Soknacki, her challenger for this vast mushy tract of middle ground, is not a polarizing figure, mostly because most people don\u2019t know him, don\u2019t remember him, don\u2019t have opinions on how he looks and speaks, and can\u2019t really identify him with a specific position. The two of them can be a study in certain contrasts \u2013 he\u2019s for the LRT, she\u2019s for the subway; he\u2019s a bit of a nerd; she plays the fashion card\u00a0 \u2013 but they are both gunning for the same theoretical voter.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s instructive to remember that the last candidate who sought to claim this piece of transcendent political real estate \u2013 Rocco Rossi \u2013 got smushed in a fairly ugly fashion. Like both Stintz and Soknacki, he announced very early, and then ran out of policy ammunition in a contest that requires a lot of staying power.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d say Soknacki runs a greater risk of meeting Rossi\u2019s fate than Stintz, who has the benefit of a formal office and therefore many more organic opportunities to get herself in the media. But Stintz\u2019s relatively early move hints at a serious weakness: with John Tory\u2019s name still on everyone\u2019s short-short list, she\u2019s going to have to spend a lot of time persuading well-heeled backers that they shouldn\u2019t sit on their wallets until Tory takes off his headphones and throws his hat into the ring. Given her positioning and his indecisiveness, that may be a tough challenge.<\/p>\n

(Municipal politics aficianados will remember that Mel Lastman, when he was mayor of North York, routinely waffled about his re-election prospects, and waited until the last moment before registering, thus ensuring his opponents could never fundraise.)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely that Chow will get drawn into a sprint this early. And my guess is that when she does announce, she\u2019ll continue to be as vague on some of the contentious policy issues \u2013 transit priorities, revenue tools, etc. \u2013 as she\u2019s been in the past several months. Chow will attack Stintz for being Ford-like in her voting record. What she\u2019ll do with Soknacki is less clear. But suffice it to say that both Chow and Ford will be heavily invested in the prospect of a binary choice next fall.<\/p>\n

And how does Stintz stack up against the other two prospective candidates \u2013 Denzil Minnan-Wong and Shelley Carroll? Minnan-Wong has been cautiously distancing himself from Ford, but he doesn\u2019t have much room to grow in terms of attracting voters in the political centre. Carroll\u2019s problem is almost the mirror image of Minnan-Wong\u2019s \u2013 she carries Miller\u2019s flag, but is more of a centrist than Chow, and thus has little room to grow on the right. And unlike Minnan-Wong and Stintz, she can\u2019t point to a portfolio and a track record during the current administration.<\/p>\n

Lastly, I\u2019d be remiss in not asking (though not answering) which candidate would fare the best if Ford is charged at some point during the campaign with a serious criminal offense relating to the alleged crack incident and its aftermath.<\/p>\n

Stintz, for all her positional shifts, is trying to fight a war that will have two front lines. What remains to be seen is whether there are enough voters out there in no-man\u2019s land, genuinely waiting to be rescued.<\/p>\n

\u00a0photo by Mike Beltzner<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To absolutely no one\u2019s surprise, Eglinton-Lawrence councilor Karen Stintz announced on the weekend that she would be challenging Rob Ford in next year\u2019s mayoral elections, bringing to three the declared candidates (the third is former Scarborough councilor David Soknacki). Stintz, arguably the most high profile member of the current council after the brothers Ford, isContinue reading “LORINC: The challenges Stintz faces in her mayoral bid”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":46129,"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":[],"class_list":["post-46125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLORINC: The challenges Stintz faces in her mayoral bid - 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\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LORINC: The challenges Stintz faces in her mayoral bid - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To absolutely no one\u2019s surprise, Eglinton-Lawrence councilor Karen Stintz announced on the weekend that she would be challenging Rob Ford in next year\u2019s mayoral elections, bringing to three the declared candidates (the third is former Scarborough councilor David Soknacki). Stintz, arguably the most high profile member of the current council after the brothers Ford, isContinue reading "LORINC: The challenges Stintz faces in her mayoral bid"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-28T12:30:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-10-28T12:32:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Stintz-TTC.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"684\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Lorinc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Lorinc\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/\",\"name\":\"LORINC: The challenges Stintz faces in her mayoral bid - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Stintz-TTC.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-28T12:30:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-10-28T12:32:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Stintz-TTC.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Stintz-TTC.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":684},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"LORINC: The challenges Stintz faces in her mayoral bid\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e\",\"name\":\"John Lorinc\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Lorinc\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/john\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"LORINC: The challenges Stintz faces in her mayoral bid - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"LORINC: The challenges Stintz faces in her mayoral bid - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"To absolutely no one\u2019s surprise, Eglinton-Lawrence councilor Karen Stintz announced on the weekend that she would be challenging Rob Ford in next year\u2019s mayoral elections, bringing to three the declared candidates (the third is former Scarborough councilor David Soknacki). Stintz, arguably the most high profile member of the current council after the brothers Ford, isContinue reading \"LORINC: The challenges Stintz faces in her mayoral bid\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2013-10-28T12:30:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-10-28T12:32:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":684,"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Stintz-TTC.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Lorinc","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Lorinc","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/","name":"LORINC: The challenges Stintz faces in her mayoral bid - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Stintz-TTC.jpg","datePublished":"2013-10-28T12:30:11+00:00","dateModified":"2013-10-28T12:32:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Stintz-TTC.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2013\/10\/Stintz-TTC.jpg","width":1024,"height":684},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2013\/10\/28\/lorinc-challenges-stintz-faces-mayoral-bid\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"LORINC: The challenges Stintz faces in her mayoral bid"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/faff9da0e20b8f5223099d707e940d8e","name":"John Lorinc","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/73e05cb61860b63be76ffccf72a4d736?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"John Lorinc"},"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/john\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46125"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46135,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46125\/revisions\/46135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}