Trailing Mayoral Candidates Should Quit, Columnist Says
Posted September 23, 2010 7:58 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Toronto columnist says three of the most prominent – but increasingly hopeless – mayoral candidates should quit and give someone a chance against Rob Ford.
“This race comes down to just two people – Rob Ford, George Smitherman,” said the Toronto Star’s Bob Hepbourn.
“Why not clear the track and let the two of them go at it? They all have this view, the three remaining, that somehow magically they’re going to come from behind at the last minute.”
Comparing the circumstances to the 2000 U.S. Presidential race, Hepbourn said Joe Pantalone, Rocco Rossi and Sarah Thomson could become the “Ralph Naders” of this city’s mayoral race.
Many blame Nader, the Green party candidate, for splitting the vote with Al Gore and allowing George Bush to become president by a narrow margin.
“Here, a trio of candidates with no chance of winning the Oct. 25 mayoral race may contribute heavily to the election of Rob Ford, whom the candidates themselves claim would be ‘scary’ and a disaster for Toronto if he wins,” Hepbourn wrote in his editorial.
Smitherman, campaigning at the waterfront on Thursday, was diplomatic about the idea.
“Obviously it’s for those candidates to make those decisions on their own,” he said.
“I want to make an appeal to the people. No one has voted yet in Toronto. And I want to tell the people of Toronto that not only am I best positioned to stop Rob Ford, but I have the best plan to move our city forward.”
Pantalone, Rossi and Thomson will likely cling to the dwindling hope they will be elected. They’re saying voters should consolidate around them, not Smitherman.
