Posts Tagged ‘George Smitherman’
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 OffToronto Star: “Murray will succeed George Smitherman as the MPP for Toronto Centre.” Huh?
I am going to start by saying I don’t dislike Glen Murray. I heard him speak for the first time in 2003 about infrastructure and municipal governance in Canada and he made a lot of genuinely good points and appeared to ‘get it’. When he ran for the Federal Liberals in Winnipeg in 2004, I was hopeful he would win, because he seemed like the kind of guy you’d want in the House of Commons.
When he was feeling out a bid for Mayor – I was at least interested to see what kind of issues he would take on, and the approach he would offer.
But my piece isn’t really about Glen Murray, just how his candidacy is being developed and covered by the media.
The headline announcing he is running for the Ontario Liberals reads ‘Ex-Winnipeg mayor a cabinet shoo-in?’
In the same article there is a photo of Glen Murray with the following caption ‘Winnipeg Mayor Glen Murray, smiles alongside Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion in this January 2004 file photo. Murray will succeed George Smitherman as the MPP for Toronto Centre.‘
The timeline for this is long and drawn out a bit. George Smitherman isn’t going to resign until February or March 2010 when he will officially announce his candidacy for Mayor. Once Smitherman resigns, the Premier has quite a bit of leeway in determining when exactly a by-election would happen. The earliest would be April or May 2010 – but could be June, July or August.
The ‘Cabinet shoo-in’ bit bothers me because it’s essentially saying to Toronto Centre voters – elect this guy to get closer to the action. The ‘Murray will succeed George Smitherman as the MPP’ bit is beyond presumptuous and again unfairly tries to influence voters in Toronto Centre to just accept the outcome being suggested.
Perhaps the most abhorrent part of this whole thing is the following ‘While he is not officially being handed the nomination on a silver platter, sources said at least one potential candidate was “being strong-armed and getting lots of pressure not to run.” Classy.
If a candidate is being set up as a Cabinet Minister in the making, a guy who has already won, and someone who can’t be challenged for the nomination – at what point are Toronto Centre voters involved in this process at all? So far, I count two Toronto Centre voters opinions being heard – Glen Murray’s and George Smitherman’s.
Rigourous nominations, hard fought elections and MPPs serving their local communities are all good things, and should be the focus of any provincial local election campaign. Nominations bring communities into the process and create an active, local organization of neighbours working to elect a candidate that was democratically chosen to represent their party on the ballot. Hard fought elections drive voter turnout, engage the public and require MPPs to work hard to stay elected. Engaged constituents expect results.
The Ontario Liberals and the Toronto Star should let the process play out in Toronto Centre and stop trying to influence unfairly.
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