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Elections to the right of me, elections to the left of me…
I’ve been writing about elections a lot lately.
First we had the Quebec election where my old friend Eric Duhaime’s conservatives won big and will try to bring some sanity back to that province. Then we had the B.C. election where Lorne Doerkson and the B.C. Conservatives won bigger than even their own team thought.
Sadly, last night, here in Toronto, things did not go my way and Olivia Chow was re-elected in Toronto.
Election season isn’t done yet and we have the Israeli elections happening right now and it looks tight. Next Tuesday we will also have the U.S. midterms so the whole world will have their eyes focused stateside on November 3.
What to expect in terms of interviews…
Before I get into my thoughts on all these elections, let me tell you what I’m trying to set up and ask who you want to hear from.
I’ve got a request in for an on camera interview with Lorne Doerkson. Hoping that can happen within the next week but they are in the middle of a transition from a campaign to government so I may need to be patient.
In the meantime, I might try and get a few of the people I know who worked on the campaign to join me for a roundtable that takes a behind the scenes look at how they pulled it off.
Would that be of interest to y’all?
I’m trying to put together an episode of the Full Comment Podcast for next Monday that focuses on the midterms. Also trying to set up some on camera interviews with various people on the American right, people like Glenn Beck, Alex Marlow at Breitbart, Steve Bannon and others so we will see who answers and who has times.
As for the Israeli elections, I spoke to Eylon Levy last week ahead of the vote and hope to speak to Canada’s former Ambassador to Israel Vivian Bercovici. If you are interested in Israeli politics, she run her own podcast State of Tel Aviv and Eylon Levy has been interviewing all the major players.
As for Brad Bradford, I had been hoping to bring you a full in-depth interview with him. Instead I’ll just meet up with him for a beer.
Toronto agrees to four more years of decline…
Olivia Chow did have an impressive win on Monday even if I am disappointed in the outcome.
As I explained in my column and in the video below, Bradford’s performance was also impressive. Yes, he lost, but he brought in fore than 404,000 votes, a feat few politicians in Canada can claim.
Only three people, including Chow, have ever achieved that in a Toronto mayor’s race.
From the column:
Voters choose more of the same
They opted for more antisemitism running through our streets. They opted for millions more to be spent handing out City of Toronto-branded crack and meth pipes. They opted for a transit system that doesn’t deliver and doesn’t leave many people feeling safe. They opted for putting the renaming of city infrastructure ahead of making sure that infrastructure works.
Most of all, they opted to continue allowing this once-great city to head further down the wrong path, following the ill-advised progressive road of Portland or San Francisco.
I hope Chow proves me wrong, I doubt she will.
The American midterms…
Will there be a blue wave?
I don’t think so and I haven’t thought so for some time.
For some time, I’ve thought that the Democrats would take the House, the Republicans will likely scrape through on the Senate.
The problem is that things are so fluid, there are so many variables that none of us know what will happen. There is a world where the Democrats take both houses, and while it is less likely, the Republicans could do the same.
I think my prediction is the most likely.
All the big names are out there though and they are talking about what matter most, the decor at the Cheesecake Factory. Obama started it with a quip about Trump’s decorations in White House, Trump responded by saying the White House was directly under Obama.
Here’s one more prediction - I promise a more in-depth rundown on this before Tuesday - but let me say that come Tuesday both parties will lose seats that will be a surprise.
Brian, I share your sense of frustration.
In another post, I commented that I hope the BC-Cs can lay the groundwork and set the pathway forward for many more conservative victories in Canada.
Obviously, Toronto is a lost cause.
It is a city that doesn’t work, and it appears that 54 per cent of the electorate likes it like that.
Like an aging, decrepit, and cognitively impaired couple that refuse to fix the problem plumbing at the cottage- “it’s just fine; it’s just a cottage”- so too have Torontonians abandoned any sense of repair or maintenance to the things that matter.
I do wish that I could share this ?