What Do We Learn From The Rob Ford Situation Toronto has spent the last two weeks getting talked about: CNN, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, MSNBC, every news outlet in Canada. Even family members of mine from the West Coast are calling me to ask what’s going on in Toronto, usually accompanied by a joke about crack cocaine. I know a lot of people who hate this attention. I know a lot of people who would rather that we got attention for great leadership, innovation, creativity, really anything other than a story about a mayor who may or may not use drugs and whose family may or may not have sold drugs in large quantities a long time ago. I have friends who only feel sympathy for Ford, thinking that the media is out to get him and that he’s being treated unfairly. I’ve done a lot of knocking on doors and making phone calls and the main reason I hear for people not voting is they didn’t know enough about the candidates, didn’t like them or feel that politicians in general are scum and we shouldn’t support their lifestyles by casting a ballot. Unfortunately, this creates a situation where a well-financed or very charismatic individual can motivate just enough people to get out and vote and we all end up with leaders who don’t necessarily represent what we want. The answer to all of this is pretty straightforward and once again based in Math. Here are some established facts: • • •

There were 1.546 Million possible voters in Toronto in 2010. 383,501 people voted for Mayor Ford. 813,984 people voted total

So: 52.6% of people voted in Toronto. Ford was elected with 24.8% of people living in Toronto voting for him. You want to elect people to be our community leaders that don’t run in to this kind of problem? Vote. You think I’m only giving Toronto numbers and Guelph doesn’t have this problem? Wrong. 82,794 were eligible to vote in Guelph in 2010, 34% of them did – way less than Toronto! We probably have two elections coming up in the next 12-18 months. Three in the next 2.5 years. In 2010 I didn’t know either of the mayoral candidates very well or the council candidates in my ward and I was paying attention! I was so uninspired by their campaigns that when I went to vote I just handed in a blank sheet,