Toronto 2010 Mayoral TV Debate #1 - Here's the Video Link...

The first televised 2010 Toronto Mayoral Debate took place today on CP24, and other than the constant annoying interruptions from the CP24 staff and moderator, it was a pretty good show.

If you didn't get a chance to watch it, CP24 has the full debate video available to be viewed for free on their website at the following link:

Your Vote - Toronto Mayor's Debate - May 18, 2010

Each of the candidates were allowed their moments, though if you ask me, I felt it was a little bit biased towards George Smitherman (specifically the CP24 moderator Stephen LeDrew who conveniently cut the candidates off every time they tried to respond to Smitherman's attacks) -but hey, maybe that's just me...

In my opinion, I thought the #1 loser of the debate was Joe Pantalone. He definitely got destroyed by Smitherman in regards to him doing nothing during the Garbage Strike. When asked about it, Joe gave a list of other things that he had accomplished, but didn't answer the actual question...

There was a lot of that in this debate.

The #2 loser in my opinion was Sarah Thomson, who came off constantly repeating the same 3 sentences as her answer to every question she was asked, regardless of whether it was related or not. She would first talk about her beloved subway plan (conveniently leaving out how it would be funded by $5 tolls on the DVP and Gardiner), next how there's a debt that needs to be addressed (not really saying how), and also that there is a deficit that needs to be addressed (again not saying how). When given the opportunity to ask Smitherman a REAL question, she chose to ask him if he liked her subway plan... Poor poor showing Sarah Thomson... She only confirmed that she would have no chance dealing with the sharks in Toronto politics.

Giorgio Mammoliti again boosted his "housing report" and "10 year plan", which he once again failed to elaborate further on... He did however make some huge promises, like lowering Property Taxes by 5% across the board for both residential and commercial, and also to eliminate entirely Property Taxes for Seniors who make less than $69,000 a year... Both great gestures (especially the 5% reduction across the board), but he left everyone wondering how Toronto could afford to do that... Of course Giorgio never addressed how that could be made possible...

I think Rob Ford did pretty well, though he took shots over his misquote of 40,000 empty rental units in Toronto. Joe Pantalone and Giorgio Mammoliti jumped all over that. But regardless, Ford held his ground, he made a great stand against Rocco Rossi when he claimed that Rob Ford had missed all key votes in council - which by the way is completely false as Rob Ford pointed out - and he again reiterated how he would cut council in half from 44 councillors to 22 (like the 22 MPs and 22 MPPs we have), how he would eliminate the Land Transfer Tax and the Vehicle Registration Tax, how he would save the City of Toronto Millions by privatizing Garbage Collection (which has shown to be a successful practice in his Etobicoke ward, and saves Toronto $2 Million every year - a number that could go up to $20 Million a year, if done across Toronto). And lastly, he said that he has no respect for current Toronto Mayor David Miller as a politician, something that wins extra points with me! ;)

Rocco Rossi did very well in this debate. He really is a great public speaker, and seems to be really good at stealing the spotlight in these debates. Aside from his mistake in trying to discredit Rob Ford, he defended himself very well against Smitherman's attacks, and did really well when he again brought up Smitherman's failure with e-health and how he shamefully threw Kaplan under the bus when he should have taken responsibility.

Which brings me to Smitherman, who again when asked about e-health, instead of responding to the mess he led, he changed the subject and talked about how he created this and that clinic, and yada yada crap. I give credit to Smitherman for at least showing up to this debate as he previously had said that he had other commitments... I would think that the 1st televised Toronto Mayoral debate would be his top priority as a candidate, and it looks like his campaign team convinced him of that eventually. George was his normal self, attacking everyone like only he can, and though he does show that anger that I think is needed to clean up this city, I just can't get over his McGuinty connection, and his e-health Billion Dollar failure which we're all paying for now...

Anyway, overall, I don't think there were any clear winners. I think definitely Rocco Rossi impressed, and some may say that he was the winner. I liked Rob Ford, I thought he did very well, but I may be biased in that respect. Smitherman fans I'm sure got what they were looking for from him, so some may place him as the winner.

If you get a chance to watch the debate, you should definitely do so. It's the first of six planned televised debates, so don't worry if you missed it... There will be many more.

The one final thing that I want to say about this debate is that CP24 really needs to spend less time with their crap, and allow more time for the candidates to answer questions... I mean really, they're asking questions, and then giving candidates 10 seconds to answer?? I mean, just so we can hear some more crap from that idiot Mulroney?.. I wonder if he even knows that there are more than just these 6 candidates in the Mayoral race?? Ahhh, maybe it's just me...

--jackandcokewithalime


(Image:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevenharris/3366988132/sizes/l/ by stevenharris on flickr
)