Toronto City Elections

Although our local municipal elections are possibly our greatest opportunity to make a difference with our little slice of democracy, the Toronto elections draw a woefully small proportion of Torontonians out to vote. Usually there seems to be a fairly high profile mayoral race, but in the ridings the incumbents are shoe-ins, often simply because theirs are the only names voters actually recognize.

Toronto is not a corporation, but if we are too busy and self-absorbed to be active and engaged citizens (voting in elections is a very small part of this responsibility) then we end up with elected officials functioning as business managers. The CEO of Toronto (oops, I mean the Mayor) and the middle managers (er, councillors) need to be accountable for their decisions.

Descisions around issues like transportation, housing, urban planning and development, health and safety are fundamental to the way we live our daily lives. They affect all of us. Involvement in city politics offers one of our best chances at being heard. There are lots of fresh new faces running this year, and some hotly debated issues are at stake.

If you live in Toronto, here's some helpful resources, mostly via Who Runs this Town:

• The City of Toronto's election site
  
• A comprehensive list of candidates
  
• Election blogs at Eye Weekly, Globe & Mail, Spacing Mag, The Toronto Sun
  
• Election coverage at The Star
  
• CBC's town hall debate
  

EDIT: Also check out this elections page from the Ontario Tenants site.
and from the good old TPSC, possibly one of the most informative election sites dealing with public space issues