{"id":8832,"date":"2010-01-18T09:30:25","date_gmt":"2010-01-18T14:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=8832"},"modified":"2013-01-21T13:11:49","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:11:49","slug":"john-lorinc-five-white-guys-in-suits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/01\/18\/john-lorinc-five-white-guys-in-suits\/","title":{"rendered":"JOHN LORINC: Five white guys in suits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The all-male city council of Toronto, 1952<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Except for Mel Lastman’s essentially uncontested re-election in 2000 (with all due respect to Tooker Gomberg, RIP), it’s been almost a generation since Torontonians have witnessed a mayoral race that involved no competitive female candidates.<\/p>\n

Which is just one of several reasons why Shelley Carroll’s decision not to run is such a let-down. Without her, the field of major contenders will likely settle out with five white males, all but one of whom are middle-aged.<\/p>\n

Yes, we should celebrate the fact that an out gay man may become the mayor of Canada’s largest city. And the presence of several very different candidates of Italian ancestry attests to the distance Toronto has come from the 1950s, when the police would harass Italian immigrants for the crime of conversing on the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

But the absence of mainstream women and\/or visible minority candidates from the ballot is troubling, and underscores a trend identified by Dave Meslin at betterballots.to<\/a>. I’d say this slate deserves at best a C+ for diversity.<\/p>\n

There are all the usual ironies \u2014 Toronto’s ethnic composition, David Miller’s campaign to win the vote for immigrants and refugees \u2014 as well as some lesser ones, including a fairly determined recent campaign by the city and council’s women’s caucus to mentor young women interested in leadership and public life.<\/p>\n


\nThere are very specific reasons why Carroll and Karen Stintz aren’t on the ballot. Carroll would be just another Liberal in a Liberal-heavy race. Stintz, who was clearly interested in the job, put her own aspirations on pause when John Tory began hinting at a re-run last fall, and now is in no position to make up for lost time.<\/p>\n

Yet apart from the particulars, is 2010 just a gender glitch or is there something else lurking in the City of Toronto’s political culture that seems to be militating against women who have their eyes on the top job?<\/p>\n

It’s an interesting question to ponder, given that women have tended to be relatively more successful at the leadership level in local politics for various reasons, not least of which is that municipal councils don’t have anything like Question Period, which has always been fundamentally a boys’ game.<\/p>\n

At the upper levels, only two women have ever become provincial premiers after a general election, and Kim Campbell’s short-lived tenure in the PMO remains a historical footnote.<\/p>\n

By contrast, 15% of all sitting mayors across Canada were women in 2009. In Greater Toronto, there have been numerous successful women mayors \u2014 not just Hurricane Hazel, but Oshawa’s Nancy Diamond, Brampton’s Susan Fennell and former Halton Region chair Joyce Savoline. The 416, in turn, had June Rowlands (1991-94) and then Barbara Hall (1994-97), as well as Frances Nunziata, elected in the former City of York as a corruption fighter, plus stalwarts like Joyce Trimmer of Scarborough, and True Davidson of East York.<\/p>\n

And while women account for slightly less than a quarter of all elected municipal politicians, an analysis<\/a> [PDF] by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities found that women outnumber men among chief administrative officers.<\/p>\n

So what gives with the megacity? It is the fundraising demands? The media cauldron that is the lot of the mayor of the City of Toronto? Or the prospect of dealing with the dunderheads who’ve been clogging the arteries of council for years? Please post your theories below.<\/p>\n

photo from Toronto Archives<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The all-male city council of Toronto, 1952 Except for Mel Lastman’s essentially uncontested re-election in 2000 (with all due respect to Tooker Gomberg, RIP), it’s been almost a generation since Torontonians have witnessed a mayoral race that involved no competitive female candidates. Which is just one of several reasons why Shelley Carroll’s decision not toContinue reading “JOHN LORINC: Five white guys in suits”<\/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":[94,2268,143,457,14084,688,425,4736,6708,14085,1030,444,14083,14081,1969,14082,593,426,14086,14079,416,89,1276,14080,19,496],"class_list":["post-8832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-2010-election","tag-barbara-hall","tag-brampton","tag-canada","tag-chair-region","tag-dave-meslin","tag-david-miller","tag-federation-of-canadian-municipalities","tag-frances-nunziata","tag-halton-region-chair","tag-john-lorinc","tag-john-tory","tag-joyce-savoline","tag-joyce-trimmer","tag-karen-stintz","tag-kim-campbell","tag-location","tag-mayor","tag-media-cauldron","tag-nancy-diamond","tag-pdf","tag-scarborough","tag-shelley-carroll","tag-susan-fennell","tag-toronto","tag-york"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJOHN LORINC: Five white guys in suits - 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\/01\/18\/john-lorinc-five-white-guys-in-suits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"JOHN LORINC: Five white guys in suits - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The all-male city council of Toronto, 1952 Except for Mel Lastman’s essentially uncontested re-election in 2000 (with all due respect to Tooker Gomberg, RIP), it’s been almost a generation since Torontonians have witnessed a mayoral race that involved no competitive female candidates. 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