How We May Be Helping Re-Elect the Mayor We Want Gone
Olivia Chow in an interview with TVA Nouvelles. Photo by TVA Nouvelles, CC BY 3.0, Wikipedia
Yesterday evening I attended a mayoral forum hosted by the Jewish Lawyers of Canada, intended to address issues of concern to all Torontonians and, more specifically, to Jewish Torontonians.
The first thing I learned was that Olivia Chow, the current mayor, would not be attending.
My immediate reaction:
“What’s the point?”
Without the incumbent mayor—the person whose record we should be questioning, challenging and judging—the whole purpose of a mayoral debate was immediately diminished.
This was especially frustrating because some of the issues most important to Toronto’s Jewish community—antisemitism, public safety, demonstrations that have disrupted our streets and neighbourhoods, and confidence in our civic leadership—are precisely the issues on which the current mayor should have been challenged.
But she wasn’t there.
Nevertheless, in their wisdom, the Jewish Lawyers of Canada proceeded with Brad Bradford, Chow’s principal challenger, and Chris Alexander.
That’s when the evening went from disappointing to, in my opinion, politically stupid.
LOOK AT THE NUMBERS
Current polling has Chow at roughly 49–50%, Bradford at 38–39%, and Alexander at 8–11% among decided and leaning voters.
Let’s say what everyone in that room should have understood:
As things stand today, Chris Alexander is not going to be the next mayor of Toronto.
This is essentially a Chow-Bradford race.
That may change. Polls are snapshots, not election results. But political strategy has to be based on the facts that exist today—not on what we might wish the facts to be tomorrow.
So what is Alexander accomplishing?
I have my suspicions, but no evidence, about what political opportunity he may ultimately be looking for. What I do know is much simpler:
Alexander doesn’t have to win to determine who does.
He only has to take enough votes from Bradford to help re-elect Chow.
And what did we do?
We gave him a platform.
Worse, we sat there applauding him.
Perhaps Alexander said things people agreed with. Perhaps he was articulate. Perhaps he deserved applause for individual answers.
But politics is not an academic debating society. Elections have consequences.
If your objective is to replace Olivia Chow, what exactly are you applauding?
HAVE JEWS LEARNED NOTHING?
Everyone tells us how smart Jews are.
I often have my doubts.
We have an extraordinary number of Jewish organizations, associations, committees, councils and advocacy groups. So many, in fact, that I suspect most Jewish Torontonians couldn’t tell you what half of them actually do.
Everyone has a president.
Everyone has a board.
Everyone has a mission statement.
Everyone holds another dinner, another panel, another forum, another meeting.
But where is the strategy?
Where is the coordination?
Where is the political common sense?
At some point, organization has to produce something more than more organizations.
Other communities understand that political influence comes from organization and, when necessary, unity. Muslim voters certainly don’t all think or vote alike, but Muslim organizations have demonstrated an ability to mobilize around issues important to their community.
Jews?
We organize ourselves into another organization.
Then we debate.
We dissect.
We disagree.
We form another committee to study why we disagreed.
And apparently, when we’re finished, we split the vote.
There is nothing wrong with independent thinking. In fact, it is one of our great strengths. Nobody should tell Jewish voters how they must vote.
But there is a difference between independent thinking and failing to recognize political reality.
Independent thinking is admirable.
Political stupidity isn’t.
Last night we gave a candidate polling at 8–11% a platform that may help him take votes from the only candidate presently within striking distance of Olivia Chow.
And we applauded.
STOP SHOOTING OURSELVES IN THE FOOT
This really isn’t complicated.
If you think Olivia Chow deserves another four years, vote for her.
If you genuinely believe Chris Alexander can become mayor, vote for him.
But if your objective is to defeat Chow, there is only one relevant question:
Who can actually beat her?
Today, according to the polling, that person is Brad Bradford.
Not Chris Alexander.
That isn’t an endorsement of every position Bradford has ever taken. It isn’t a declaration that he is perfect. And it certainly isn’t an argument against democracy or against Alexander’s right to run.
It is simply arithmetic.
Politics ultimately comes down to votes.
If Alexander remains at 8%, 9%, 10% or 11%, and Chow ultimately defeats Bradford by a few percentage points, please don’t ask the morning after the election:
“How did this happen?”
We’ll know.
We watched it happen.
We applauded while it was happening.
And perhaps worst of all:
We helped make it happen.
For a community that spends so much time worrying about its declining political influence, perhaps we should occasionally examine whether some of the problem is self-inflicted.
We don’t need another organization.
We don’t need another committee.
We don’t need another panel explaining the problem after the election.
We need some political common sense before it.
Everyone says Jews are smart.
Maybe it’s time we started acting like it.
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