Posts Tagged ‘Adam Giambrone’
Adam Giambrone Launch Video Demonstrates Power of Social Media
I’m not supporting any candidate for Mayor, but am watching the race with great interest as I am sure many others are as well.
Love him or hate him, or even his video for that matter, Giambrone’s campaign in my opinion has demonstrated the best understanding of social media of all major campaigns in the race so far. Sure the video content is doesn’t necessarily paint Giambrone looking mayoral but it has been seen by over 30,000 people in just over a day. Compare with George Smitherman’s official launch video on his youtube page with closer to 500 people, or Rocco Rossi’s Empire Club speech with around 400 viewers over a considerably longer period of time.
A lot of folks are debating the content, whether Giambrone struck the right cord or not, but this early in the game the ’say anything you want about me, but spell my name right’ approach to public relations applies. For a Mayor’s race getting out there and getting noticed is a good first start.
Even if you’re Rocco Rossi and you’re suggesting it is a stunt unworthy of a campaign that should be about policy, the cold hard reality that Giambrone’s team was able to make a video go viral and get their unedited message (regardless of content or quality) to a group that big that quickly AND get traditional media coverage of the whole thing should have you taking him more seriously than you did before.
If you’re George Smitherman – you need to be worried Giambrone will be able to excite the 30,000 or so folks who tuned in in the first 24 hours, because they are an audience you surely need to be able to reach out and win over as well if you’re to maintain a commanding lead.
Finally if you’re Joe Pantalone, your ability to be the main candidate for progressives and those on the left of the spectrum could prove to be a lot more difficult as the new media types that have tuned into watch are a constituency you need to reach if you’re to compete.
Giambrone’s video is certainly not a game changer and likely doesn’t put him any closer to sealing the deal, but it surely will create a good turn out for his launch, and allow him to connect better with individuals early, making it easier to get his message out, unfiltered to a larger audience than the other big name candidates in the race.
At the very least it makes the case for an exciting race to come.
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1 Comment »A Good Race For Mayor Important For Toronto
Having solid candidates vying for Mayor, presenting differing visions for the City is an important step for Toronto to take every two or three terms. This is absolutely an open an election that sees many candidates no one would have guessed would run two years ago, and few if any candidates that could have been assumed to run.
Being Mayor of Toronto is a difficult job, and one that with years of sidestepping serious structural challenges by Council becomes that much harder with each passing day. I was hoping we’d have a race between David Miller, John Tory and George Smitherman. I felt a race like that would give the City the opportunity for a proper ‘battle of titans’ and clear choices on what kind of person and leader the City wanted.
With Smitherman, Giambrone, Rossi and Pantalone in the race, this does seem to have a lot of the characteristics of the 2003 election that saw the emergence of David Miller – the question now is simply, who is the candidate that has the staying power and ability to rise above the pack and convince enough Torontonians that they are the one to lead.
I know in my community there is one candidate who is out for many voters, but even of the other remaining options, it still isn’t clear who would be the champion of people, someone who gets it and is prepared to govern responsibly and with respect for voters. Those are the qualities I will seek in a candidate for Mayor.
Comments OffSome Toronto Councillors Use of 'My' Irritates Me
This post was sparked by Councillor Giambrone’s email to Councillor Palacio, who represents the other half of the Federal and Provincial Davenport riding, but speaks to an issue far greater than a silly turf war between two men.
Ok – Here is a brief rundown of what happened.
Adam Giambrone is the Councillor for Ward 18, which is the southern portion of the riding of Davenport just west of the downtown core. The area has a very large Portuguese community. The President of the Regional Government of the Azores (a small autonomous archipelago that is part of Portugal) was coming to Toronto and the Portuguese community wanted to hold an event in recognition of this. They also wanted an liquor license for the event. So far, it sounds pretty reasonable right?
So members of the Portuguese community contacted Councillor Palacio, himself Portuguese, and the Councillor neighbouring the ward where the event would be held for his help.
That seems to have upset Councillor Giambrone who sent the following email to Councillor Palacio
“Stop messing in my ward or there will be problems. I generally ignore your actions, but I am going to start looking for ways to cause trouble for you and when I start you’re not going to appreciate it.”
Ward 18, is essentially Davenport South, Ward 17 (where Palacio is elected) is essentially Davenport North. They are separated by Dupont, meaning based on Giambrone’s logic, Palacio can do whatever he wants on the north side of Dupont, but needs to stay out of all affairs on the south side of the street. It’s a pretty ridiculous and arbitrary logic.
The use of ‘my’ in politics is something that I always kind of watch, because in many ways how one uses ‘my’ as an elected official represents the outlook they bring to both their role and that of members of the community.
Ward 18 is not Adam Giambrone’s ward. In 2010 I expect he’ll have a handful of challengers, and like all who seek public office, even those who win, will have thousands of folks who vote against him. Ward 18 is the ward he represents, he is Ward 18’s Councillor, but Ward 18 isn’t his. The point I’m trying to make is the Councillor belongs to the Ward, not the Ward to the Councillor.
It irks me when a Councillor or any elected official uses the phrase ‘my’ to refer to political boundaries or the people who live within the area. To me it seems like a subtle recognition that the individual who is speaking doesn’t necessary understand the relationship between a community and it’s elected official, at least as I see it, or their broader role as one of 45 people tasked with managing the City of Toronto.
Communities are important, so is the role of the public in decision making. To me at least, it seems like the best elected officials are the ones who recognize that they’ve been hired by members of a community to act as their voice, to use the tools they’ve been granted to work on the issues of concern to members of that community, while those who live in the community provide guidance and perspective on matters that reflect significant departures or change from the status quo. My general view on government is that the representative needs to represent the community to the level of government and not take the ‘trust us, we know best’ approach to governing. Far too often, elected officials find it easier to stand with bureaucrats, political parties, and others against those who elected them, relying on the fact that powerful friends remember good deeds longer and can reward them better than members of the community remember bad representation, which is now so common folks just tend to expect it. Call me cynical, but look at the donors lists and voting records of many elected officials and tell me you don’t see a pattern.
Giambrone’s over reaction to a fellow councillor trying to help out a community he has clear ties to with something that is void of any political agenda to me seems ridiculous. I loathe the kinds of politicians who refuse to help folks or listen to folks because they don’t live in their ward, and what Giambrone has done appears to be to try and convince a member of Council that the ‘focus on your ward and forget about everyone else’ feeds into that. I don’t even have words for the attempt to bully and intimidate a fellow member of Council and think it is great that Councillor Palacio has made this email public. He was also right to file a complaint with the Integrity Commissioner in my view.
Without getting into electoral reform, I would like to point out that under the 1997 election rules when each ward was the size of a federal and provincial riding and had two representatives, Councillor Palacio’s actions would have been completely OK and in general one of the biggest flaws with the single member constituency concept is it leaves residents who are on the opposite side of an issue with their elected officials, without a voice and with politicians who they gave a mandate to represent them, with the power to in effect silence members of the community.
Why Giambrone even cares who gets to help the community get a liquor license to me seems odd. I would be willing to bet no one in Ward 18 will or
will not vote for him would or would not have voted for him based on whether he or another Councillor helped get the license. I doubt the community frankly cared, they just want the license, and figured Palacio, a fellow member of their community, probably would be more motivated to work on it, in effect letting Giambrone off the hook.
What this amounted to is silly ward politics, over a complete non issue. But what it has become probably will hurt Councillor Giambrone’s otherwise shining star and could see a minor backlash against him from folks who see his actions as inappropriate and indicative of a kind of politics they’d rather not support.
At the end of the day constituents who seek out help are after one thing. It’s always very transparent, they’re looking for help with whatever their problem or issue is. They necessarily don’t care about the next election when they initially reach out to an elected official, or the politics of City Hall. They just want help resolving whatever issue they have been unable to. That being said, like all individuals who come away from a situation no better off then they were before, voters have a tendency to look for others options. Like each of us whose changed a service provider over bad service, voters change representatives for the same reason.
If Councillors focused less on the politics of elections to come, and more on the needs of those who’ve hired them, faith in government would be considerably higher, residents in all wards would be better served, and the ‘ward boss’ mentality that is often seen around City Hall would be unnecessary.
Councillors would probably still win re-election at the same rates they currently do; well the good ones at least. The difference would be that they would be winning through with votes from an informed, engaged and well served electorate, not the 30-35% who isn’t so frustrated they’ve given up on municipal politics as even being relevant and opted not to exercise their right and responsibility to vote.
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