The release of the ArtsVote 2010 Councillor Report Card couldn't come a minute too soon. Although not specifically focused on the mayoral candidates - that report is due on September 29 at the Mayoral Arts Debate - it's about time that the arts became a more central issue in this race (particularly given who's leading in the polls).

The Report Card is broken down into Toronto's 44 wards and features two different ranking systems - one for incumbents and one for challengers. Doing each group differently only makes sense, given that "it's difficult to compare incumbent councillors to their challengers, because incumbents can be graded on both their survey and their voting record on arts issues, but challenger candidates are only providing answers to a survey."

Ranging from outstanding (A) to dangerous and oppositional (F) on the one spectrum or potential champion (four stars) to arts negative (one star) on the other, the ranking system is easy to understand and remember when going to the polls.

What's also easy to remember - and what should really take the designation of zero stars or "just doesn't care" - is that fact that loads of councillors apparently did not bother to fill out the ArtsVote survey sent to them. The number of "not applicables" on the report is an embarrassment. While the arts often gets pushed aside, how much effort is it to fill out a short survey?

Stay tuned for coverage of ArtsVote on the mayoral candidates next week.