Pity the voters in northeast Scarborough!
On Monday, they will have their third byelection in 13 months.
And they have their work cut out for them, choosing from a record-setting 29 candidates vying for a seat on Toronto council.
“They (residents) are fed up to the point they don’t want to talk about the issues anymore. They have signs, ‘Do not knock on my door! Do not leave a flyer!’ ” says Hratch Aynedjian, a veteran political staffer and one of the 29 candidates running for Ward 42 (Scarborough-Rouge River).
The political manoeuvring behind all this electioneering almost requires a flowchart.
The Liberal party-backed Aynedjian is on the ballot because his former boss, Raymond Cho, stepped down, mid-term, as the long-serving Ward 42 councillor to run in a provincial byelection as a member of the Progressive Conservative party. Cho won and is now at Queen’s Park.
Also in Monday’s crowded field is Toronto District School Board trustee Neethan Shan, elected in January 2016 in a byelection triggered by another early political departure.
Shan’s opponents warn his win could prompt yet another byelection in the area, this time to replace him on the school board.
“Should trustee Shan be elected, the board will have the option of declaring a byelection or appointing a trustee for the remainder of the term,” TDSB chair Robin Pilkey wrote in email. “No decisions have been made at this time.”
Last year, Shan ran as an NDP candidate in the provincial byelection prompting the Liberals to facetiously compare him to John Turmel, a Quebec native who holds the Guinness Book of World Records for contesting 90 elections (and losing 89).
Shan makes no apologies for his interest in politics, admitting he’s run for office so many times he’s “lost count.” According to past Star articles, this is his 11th election campaign in 14 years.
His track record is emblematic of a political system that favours white, well-connected and financed candidates, says the Tamil-Canadian married father of two. Breaking barriers takes hard work and perseverance, he says.
“I don’t have a last name that will take me into power right away. I don’t have the colour . . . and the wealth to get me somewhere,” he said last week during a visit to city hall.
“When opportunities like this come to racialized people, we need to grasp it . . . to be able to represent the communities that are under-serviced, and so it’s not just about my opportunity; it’s about the opportunity for our community to be able to be heard.”
Shan, a former president of the Ontario NDP, has a key endorsement of the Toronto and York Region Labor Council, and is relying on that support to help with his ground campaign and to get out the vote on Monday.
Knia Singh, a recent law school graduate, long-time youth worker and human rights activist, is also on the ballot. He is no stranger to the campaign trail, first running for city council in 1997.
While he is pleased by the diversity of the candidates in the race, Singh worries that voters will make their choice according to ethnic lines. It’s an area where 90 per cent of residents are visible minorities.
“When you vote just based on race, you’re not voting based on what that person has to offer to the community,” he said. “You want a representative who speaks for all people, not one just focused on one community. That’s what I feel I represent.”
At an all-candidates meeting this week at the Malvern Family Resource Centre, the would-councillors shared ideas on transit and how to bring jobs to the area.
Kingsley Kwok, a respiratory therapist, union local president and board member of the grassroots advocacy group TTC Riders, criticized rivals for making unrealistic promises such as to extend the Sheppard subway. He promised a sensible transit plan with new LRT lines and a reversal of service cuts to area bus routes.
He was not among those championing the one-stop Bloor-Danforth subway extension to the Scarborough Town Centre, which is in neighbouring Ward 38, and has already been approved.
Some of the candidates were more ambitious in their campaign pledges. Perennial candidate Kevin Clarke vows to broker world peace and Chai Kalevar’s commits to close the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station.
Several candidates said they would address residents’ distrust of city hall, where Scarborough’s agenda is “pushed aside” and politicians “don’t give a crap about you.”
One referred to city councillors as “downtown wolves.”
Scarborough native Amanda Cain, a long-time community worker, told the gathering of about 100 people she wants to rebrand Malvern, the residential area at the heart of Ward 42, to rid it of its stigma as a high-crime area.
To do this, Cain said she would stage events, such as farmers’ markets and tree-planting, to bring the community together, “so people realize this is a great place to live and play.”
Evening moderator Justin Brown said that, while he appreciated the healthy exchange of ideas, the candidate he votes for Monday will “keep it real” and talk about alternatives to subways and LRTs, such as express bus routes.
“I know subways are not coming right now, and I do not think it’s beneficial for someone to say they’re going to push for something that may not even come here during the four-year term.”
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