Municipal elections are welcome diversions

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/09/2010 (5500 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The cure for a growing charisma deficit in federal party leadership can be found in Canada’s political kindergarten.

Relief from the cerebral stuffiness of Stephen Harper or Michael Ignatieff as they feign a common connection with the Tim Hortons crowd is only a street corner away as municipal election campaigns fire up across the country.

There’s an 89-year-old civic institution running for the 12th time. The national capital’s combative incumbent is seeking vindication from criminal charges which didn’t stick. A red-faced Winnipeg veteran is fighting a soccer-game video showing him accidentally kicking a kid in the head. Ralph Klein’s unique route to city hall is being retested in Calgary. And how to begin describing that columnist’s dream candidate now leading the Toronto mayoral race?

In an Ottawa where excitement is defined as a two-way tie in the polls, a Liberal bus tour of beer-and-burger pit stops and Economic Action Plan sign counts, the oddball lineup of civic hopefuls, none of them expected to act like old grey mayors if elected, is pure entertainment.

With six weeks to go until voting day, these are my picks as the top five civic mud-wrestling contests out there.

Ottawa: A year or so ago, incumbent Larry O’Brien told me he wasn’t sure Ottawa voters would re-elect someone who’d endured the legal spectacle of his dismissed bribery charges. Surprisingly, he’s out to trash his own hypothesis with a strong re-election bid, despite failing to deliver on his zero-means-zero property tax increase pledge in 2006. Colourful and at times confrontational, O’Brien launched his campaign with an odd interview talking about his great personal wealth and generosity, but his tight-fisted list of civic promises already sounds appealing. To declare main rival Jim Watson, a former mayor and Ontario cabinet minister, the runaway favourite is premature in what could yet become a coin toss of a contest.

Toronto: How bombastic blurter Rob Ford remains the front-runner for the mayor’s chair in Canada’s largest city is a head-scratcher, particularly given he has some decent rivals. This councillor has a chronic history of shooting from the lip before his brain is loaded. He’s blurted out politically toxic views on AIDS and immigrants, has a drunk-driving conviction in the United States and was evicted from a hockey game for boorish spectator behaviour. “If Ford got elected, he would make Mel Lastman (the Bad Boy mayor who called in troops to help shovel away a snowstorm) look like an outstanding statesman,” University of Toronto Prof. Nelson Wiseman told the Toronto Star. Ford’s suburban faithful care not, including one devoted truck driver who is brother to chief rival “Furious” George Smitherman.

Winnipeg: It’s a showdown between right and left at Canada’s crossroads. Two-term mayor Sam Katz is up against former NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis. The fun is being played out over the YouTube. One commercial derides Katz after he accidentally hoofed a kid in the head during a soccer game, allegedly paid for by FOPATKITFOC (Friends of People Against the Kicking in the Face of Children). Not to be outdone, someone from his camp has posted a realistic CrimeStoppers spoof offering a reward for the missing Wasylycia-Leis ideas book. It has obvious signs of a nasty campaign — laced with a wicked sense of humour.

Calgary: This sounds familiar. A local CTV force of personality surprises everyone by seeking the mayoralty. The campaign is quarterbacked by a shrewd strategist named Rod Love. That guy was with Ralph Klein, who went on to become Alberta premier. Now CTV anchor Barb Higgins, aided by Love and other Klein alumni, is attempting a Ralph repeat, albeit not in long-shot anti-establishment style. But while she’s a far cry from the rumbled streetwise Klein, who used to hide in utility corridors to eavesdrop on private council meetings as a journalist, Higgins is already flirting with poll-topping popularity and a lot of women see her as the long-awaited gender breakthrough at Calgary city hall.

Mississauga: First elected mayor of Canada’s sixth-largest city in 1978, long before music CDs were invented or the Internet was operational, Hazel McCallion wants at least a dozen consecutive terms in office. Despite allegations of conflicted interests with her son’s business, she’s certain to get it. Any promise of a decent showdown ended when a councillor named Carolyn Parrish ran for cover from Hurricane Hazel. Parrish? Liberal MP? Does stomping on a George W. Bush doll while denouncing “damn Americans” ring any bells? Yup, the same. If she covets this political job, Parrish better hope 13 is Hazel’s unlucky number for mayoral mandates because only a coffin will keep McCallion from entering the next race.

Don Martin is the political columnist for the Calgary Herald.