City
Giambrone Running for Mayor
Adam Giambrone will announce next week he's running for Mayor of Toronto. In a note sent to supporters earlier today, the current City Councilor for Ward 18 and Chair of the TTC outlined next Monday February 1st as the date he will throw his hat into the ring during a celebration at Revival. Although the invitation (pictured below) asks recipients merely to "Celebrate Toronto," Giambrone has all but confirmed that such a celebration will serve as the kick-off to his campaign.
When he officially files his papers (earlier that day), it'll end considerable speculation as to his intentions.
Although critics of the TTC have scoffed at the idea of Giambrone running for mayor, after John Tory revealed he would not enter the race, an Angus Reid-Toronto Star poll put him in second place among the candidates at 17 per cent. He trailed George Smitherman at 44 per cent and was narrowly ahead of former Liberal strategist Rocco Rossi at 15 per cent.
Want to get to know our soon-to-be latest Mayoral candidate a little better? Check out the Toronto Through the Eyes Of interview with him that was posted back in late October.
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Free nap time :D Oh, and I'll promise to look really miserable at work too despite making lots of moolah.
That said, he is the last person Toronto needs as mayor at this moment. We need fiscal restraint, that isn't a feature of his record.
And WTF? He's forced all these changes on the TTC and he's not even going to see them through. That guy has no backbone.
See Adam run. Run Adam, run. See Adam fail. Fail Adam, fail. Poor job, Adam. Poor, poor, poor. See Adam rationalize. Rationalize Adam, rationalize. If you want to go to sleep now, you can become a ticket man.
NO WAY He's getting my vote!
And now you want to give him executive ownership of a 9-billion dollar budget for one of the world's largest cities?!
I suppose all his career expertise - including being past president of the federal NDP party - will serve him well. He was credited for organizing 5 bake sales that raised $1,200 for NDP candidates. By that alone, I want him to run a $9 billion city budget.
When the shit hits the fan at city hall, Giambrone has demonstrated through past actions that his greatest ability to lead is to sum up all his abilities and delegate the issues to a committee of paid consultants (brilliant leadership by the way... NOT!!).
The only thing I respect Adam for is his rat-like ability to flee the ship just prior to its cataclysmic sinking.... although his rat-like prowess and lack of qualified opponents should not amount to a viable bid for the mayoral seat.
My 2 cents... which by the way is being rate hiked to 3.5 cents next week, so I have stopped the issue of 2 cent tokens to prevent hoarding and issued non-customer friendly alternatives just to watch the masses writhe in agony [**from this day hence forward to be referred to as a Giam-boner**].
Really?
At least Rocco Rossi has ears in Queen's Park he can bend (i.e. $$$ for the City - specifically for public transportation).
Does any candidate so far have a platform other than "I love my City so I want to be Mayor!"?
Smitherman and Rossi want to sell Toronto Hydro. Pantalone wants to sell Enbridge. Mammoliti wants to open a casino. I don't know a single good thing about the other candidates, but I do know that Giambrone will champion what I care about -- transit and good urban planning.
The ward now has art galleries, coffee shops and other small businesses despite him, not because of him.
In the meantime these events have provided me with a Number One reason riding a bike! (CAUTION: Contains Union-Bashing !)
http://thumbshift.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/1st-reason-to-ride/
..
Jo
So, rest assured, we are paying for his weak-ass campaigning same as we paid for his weak-ass performance on council.
Rossi
Mammoliti
Pantalone
...is this the mayoral race for Toronto or Milano?
I understand that a lot of the problems with the TTC pre-date him by decades, and that the system is chronically and massively underfunded. But since he's been in charge, there has been no sense of a plan, or vision, or concrete measures to at least try and improve things. And if he has actually been doing anything, then he's not been very good at communicating that to the public, which should also disqualify him for the job of mayor.
He's still young, and has a lot of time to gain some experience, before attempting to bite off far more than he can chew. But the reaction that his announcement has garnered is not the result of "cynicism". It's merely recognition of the fact that this young man's ambitions, at least for the time being, far outstrip his abilities.
I agree with one of the comments, -from Jack, "is he using his personal time or during work hours to run the election?"
That alone says it all. A true reflection how the TTC is operating these days. He's an insult.
The TTC is atrociously run, he has no fresh ideas for it, and only recently is he even trying given that he wants to run for mayor. I wrote complaining that Union Stn ran out of Metropasses two days in a row at month end, and that people weren't informed until they waited 10 mins and got to the booth. He replied by telling me about the renovation plans of the GO stn portion.
This city is going to hell.
You are an abject failure in public service. As recently as Christmas, you expressed complete obliviousness to the palpable anger of TTC riders over the token 'shortage'. As far as I am concerned, that makes you either: A.) Completely oblivious and likewise a really bad PR rep - as contrary to many people's thinking you are not, of course, the TTC general operations manager (nevertheless the buck still stops with you) or B.) Stupid and/or a liar. We're to believe you’ve suddenly had an epiphany and now kinda' think you MIGHT know how to do your job?
On behalf of the City of Toronto, I reject you, Maybe if you hurry and leave right away you can practice running some other city into the ground first.
Pass this on and spread the word!
This guy represents all that is wrong in this city government; and then some - no real world experience, and yet put in by Miller and his "soon to be a memory" band of incompetents to chair the TTC. "An Embarassment" does not begin to describe what this guy is to our city.
Do I dislike this guy - yes I do - I actually moved out of the ward neighbourhood because he had done ZERO to clean it up; when all others around are booming. Twice we gave him the chance to affect change, and twice he screwed us.
Someday I may post some of the emails he had sent out on his great accomplishments for the ward - his biggest contributions include "going to a park", and once in a while, 'walking around'.
If anything, this should help to get out the vote - ABG - ANYONE BUT GIAMBRONE! ABG