Marc Kealey Online

The race for Mayor in the City of Toronto, in my opinion, reached a new low last week.

The shenanigans going on between the two top runners and those vying for a shot are nothing noteworthy.

I guess in order to garner media attention for one’s campaign, the candidate and his or her team must resort to the basest of political smear. Take the incident with a young Rossi campaign worker and George Smitherman. Who knows what really happened – only Smitherman and this person. The media, however, reported it as though Smitherman is a bully looking for a fight and Rossi, a wonderful guy, sure to weigh in as though it was a fact. Well, this kind of politics in the City of Toronto is now the norm.

Anecdotally, people are fed up with this kind of politicking. It’s a horrible economy, people are angry that they are either unemployed, underemployed or soon to be both. They are hungry and searching for political leadership to raise their hopes.

The best line I ever heard about politics is that political leaders don’t have the luxury of despair. So why this vitriol?

I would surmise it’s because of the economy. It’s because we’re at a place right now where decisions in the past by those in charge of government, have impacted citizens – hard!!

Their vitriol is playing out in the actions of campaign teams and the manner in which these actions are being reported.

It’s the same thing across the province of Ontario in many municipal campaigns. This municipal election is a precursor for the vitriol and anger that many Canadians seem to sense (or at least the hundreds that I talk with about this issue) because of the state of the economy.

Buck up politicians!

Pay attention voters and don’t believe everything you read.