Giambrone greeted by cheers as protesters gather outside
admin | Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 | No Comments »TTC chair ‘very ready’ to become Mayor of Toronto
Buoyed by drums, cheers and his wife Sarah McQuarrie, TTC chair Adam Giambrone stepped into the mayor’s race Monday night.
“My name is Adam Giambrone and I’m running for mayor!” Giambrone told the crowd of supporters at the Revival club on College Street. “As most of you have heard and read this last week – I’m also very ready!”
Giambrone was referring to a YouTube video that went live last week, showing the 32-year-old councillor for Ward 18 training for the mayor’s race before telling the camera, “I’m ready.”
The extent of Giambrone’s readiness coalesced over the weekend. He told his 1,164 friends on Facebook he was running for mayor on Friday; on the weekend, he made it clear in a newspaper interview.
And Monday morning, he walked into City Hall’s election office and paid the $200 fee to file his nomination papers. Monday night, he addressed a room packed with supporters – many of whom have previously backed his longtime ally Mayor David Miller.
Media Profile chairman Patrick Gossage closed the evening urging supporters to fan out and collect small donations and his campaign manager, former Miller campaign head John Laschinger, watched quietly from the sidelines.
The party was also dogged by detractors – notably, about 20 protesters from his Ward 18 home turf, who waved signs outside and accused him of being out of touch with his own constituents.
After a rousing musical introduction from the percussionist group Samba Squad, Giambrone came on stage and laid out his vision.
“My reasons for running for mayor are clear,” he said. “One, I’m a city builder. I want to build a city where people, neighbourhoods and businesses feel connected to each other. Two, I want all Torontonians to feel more engaged with this great city and more passionate about its future. And three, I want to create opportunities for everyone.”
Giambrone spoke about his love for the city – he related an anecdote about he and his wife’s recent visit to the Humber College Lake Shore campus, one of the many places he said they like to explore using the TTC.
And he addressed transit – his own preoccupation over the last three years, and an area his opponents in the mayor’s race are already treating as a soft spot.
Earlier in the day, mayoral candidate George Smitherman had called on Giambrone to resign as chair of the TTC based on the commission’s performance over the past year. Giambrone saw things differently.
“In the last four years we’ve done some amazing things,” said Giambrone. “Ridership reached an all-time high. We broke ground on Transit City – the largest-ever expansion of public transit in Toronto’s history… The studies have been done, the plans are drawn, the money is there and the shovels are in the ground.”
He made it clear the Transit City light rail lines will proceed as planned. “I will not let Transit City be compromised. I will not let Transit City be squandered away,” he said.
He also wants to see the municipal vote extended to permanent residents who do not yet have their Canadian citizenship.
“Newcomers are our colleagues and our employers,” he said. “They pay property taxes, build our communities and make us stronger. It’s time to let them vote for people who set their tax rates and make decisions on their behalf. Extending the municipal vote to permanent residents is both the right thing to do, and it’s the smart thing to do.”
Giambrone also said he’d like to see Internet voting brought into play, noting, “Toronto is the most connected population in the world.”
He attempted to differentiate himself from other candidates such as Smitherman and Rocco Rossi, who have come out sharply critical of the direction the city has taken under David Miller.
“This election should be about hope for the future, not fear of the past,” he said. “Some candidates will tell you we have to give up on building a great city. They will say we have to stop what we’re doing and walk away from ideas like Transit City. I am not that candidate. I believe in the people of this city and our talent for creative city building. I believe in going forward, not backward.”
– David Nickle
