Smitherman kicks off campaign walk across city
admin | Monday, July 19th, 2010 | No Comments »
Mayoral candidate shares ideas for Etobicoke, rest of city
Mayoral candidate George Smitherman chose a familiar place to kick off his campaign walk across the city on Monday.
Smitherman led a group of supporters and journalists on a campaign walk starting from Etobicoke’s Centennial Park, heading along Eglinton Avenue West, sharing tidbits from his earlier years during the long journey to Weston Road.“This stretch today that we cover is very important in covering off at least the first 20 years of my life,” he said. “I trace my roots to this part of our great city.”
The former Hollycrest Middle School student recalled “Cloverdale Mall when it was an outdoor mall” and Eglinton Avenue West when it was Richview Sideroad. Centennial Park, a familiar spot for him, is “a remarkable asset for the people of Toronto, and an example of one of those parks that we would like to elevate to be a signature park,” he said. Stopping abruptly near a Hydro tower corridor near Martin Grove Road, he spoke of his vision for a “bicycle super highway right down to Kipling station.”
But while he shared some of his thoughts specific to Etobicoke, he stressed, “Toronto is a city of neighbourhoods … municipal government has the responsibility to find the way to properly acknowledge and nurture those neighbourhoods.”
Pushing urban farming is one way to help some neighbourhoods across the city, he added. “It’s an opportunity for Toronto to be more self-sufficient,” he said, noting there is a “correlation” with low income and diabetes due to diet.
He also said as mayor he wouldn’t spend all his time at city hall. “The mayor needs to have office days in the other parts of the city,” he said. “I would plan to spend a certain number of days in Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke.
“I think we should make community councils real again by allowing them greater discretion.”
Touching on the ‘green’ issues, he noted he planned to sign a “green train pledge” focusing on using cleaner forms of transport for added transportation infrastructure in the corridor from Union Station to Pearson airport.
But he said a “core issue” is projecting Toronto as “a more powerful entity.”
“Toronto can live within its means and can eliminate this constant circumstance where Toronto projects itself as broke or bankrupt.”
While there weren’t many residences to visit along the first stretch of the journey, Smitherman stopped to greet those he passed by on the sidewalk. “Good for you,” said one man when Smitherman informed him he was walking across the city.
Smitherman and his team plan to continue their campaign walk along Eglinton Avenue and then tackle Yonge Street next week.
