Thank God I Didn't Win...?

Election day is just one day... there's so much still to come

Election day has come and gone, and the results were equal parts disappointing and encouraging. Let me get the disappointing parts out of the way first. Voter turnout was a record low 29%, and John Tory - who to me represents the status quo way of doing things - won with 62% of the vote. I, with my collaborative, solution oriented and inclusive approach, received a mere 1.22% of the vote, despite months of efforts of myself - and many volunteers - from dawn until far past dusk.

But the good news is, 6700!! of us voted for what I was offering. That’s a lot of people who want positive change, who want to be included in city decisions, and who, best of all, are willing to work together with people with different points of views. I believe that those who voted for me, unlike many of the other candidates, had a wide range of opinions on different city issues. Unlike traditional voting campaigns, where candidates seek to gather a political tribe who has a strong opinion one way or the other, I had supporters from everywhere on the political spectrum. Supporters who loved bicycle lanes, and supporters who thought they should be removed. Supporters who felt very strongly that vaccine mandates were wrong, and supporters who didn’t think removal was a high priority. Supporters who want more police funding, and supporters who want less. I had supporters who are happy to pay more property taxes, and supporters who thought we should freeze or lower them. But what I think my voters had in common was a desire to be included in the political process, and a desire to have their views heard and respected, and I offered both of those in my campaign. I hope the ability of a political candidate to participate in debates, talk to the media, and involve others, all while building bridges across political spectrums, will serve to encourage not just the current mayor and council, but future candidates, to adopt a more constructive approach to politics.

So what’s next? It’s taken me a couple of days to even begin to answer that question - and it’s a very preliminary answer at that - because I needed some time to process my disappointment. I think it’s important when things don’t go our way, to allow ourselves the time to be sad, angry, disappointed, frustrated - the full range of emotional experiences - before moving forward. When I’m sad, what’s next means crawling under the covers. When I’m angry, what’s next means lashing out - something I know from past experience sets me back and harms other people. When I’m disappointed and frustrated, I don’t see possibilities, only roadblocks. So when I’m experiencing those emotions, it’s best for me to just take one step at a time, so I’ve been going for walks, doing the dishes, doing the admin work of closing up the campaign, and sleeping. Now I’m ready to talk a bit about what I think is next - or at least how I want to find out where to go.

What really appealed to me about becoming Toronto’s mayor was all the doors I felt it would open. When I want change in this city - whether it’s longer library hours, more affordable transit, safer streets, or bigger goals like the elimination of waste and suffering - I often see government as the barrier, a kind of dam that’s in the way of the flow of my energy to make change. I feel that if only I could have a hand in how things are done, I could dismantle that dam and allow the flow of not just my, but all of Toronto’s energy free to run through our city, getting rid of what doesn’t work, and replenishing the stores of what we need.

If I’m not in government, that option of taking the dam down is not available to me. But what is available to me? Now that is the beautiful question for us all to answer for ourselves. Let us act like water. Water encounters an obstacle, and it flows around it. Over time it does gently erode at what’s in its way, and if the pressure builds up too much it will smash that dam down of its own accord. Each of us has our own way of acting - do we push against the dam in the hopes that enough people will join us to get it down? Do we work gently from within and try to erode it away, particle by particle? Or do we try to flow around the obstacle?

What I’d like to do is flow around it. Adapting to the reality of the world, and flowing with it, not fighting it, feels the most joyful for me. So it’s in flow that I wish to move on from here.

If I see lack of good media coverage is a problem, can I find ways of spreading my own news stories to others? If I feel we aren’t protecting our trees, what are the trees that I personally can tend to, water and plant? If there are rules I think are wrong, what will I do about them? Will I engage in quiet civil disobedience, legally challenge them, or outright revolt?

As I answer these questions, I will likely reach out to you through a variety of ways. In the meantime I encourage you to contact me too. Comment or send me your ideas of what we can do together - of how we can adapt, wear away at, or push down the obstacles that are in our way. I want to support your efforts, and I will ask you for your support for mine.

And the reason I chose the title of this essay? Well, my personal philosophical explorations over the course of my life, explorations that intensified during these past two and a half years of immense change in how we define choice and freedom, have led me to the conviction that the best way for me to live is through acceptance of what is before all else. Through acceptance, I can find gratitude, and from there I can find the necessary actions to take. The reality is, I was not elected mayor. I can spend as much time as I want arguing about whether the process was fair, blaming others for my loss, mourning my lack of power. I can give up and say there’s no point in trying to change things. But once I’m ready to move past fighting reality into acceptance, the possibilities open up. And the gratitude comes. So I accept that I’m not mayor. And that means that I am free to spend my time however I want again. I don’t have to sacrifice time with my children for ribbon cutting ceremonies. I get to take a vacation longer than a few days. I won’t be the subject of constant scrutiny or vicious criticisms or derision that often accompany political figures. And I can go swimming in the middle of the day if I want! Plus, I can explore all the available options for change, not be limited by constraints that city government puts on itself. So thank you God, or reality, or fate (insert whatever word works for you), for this result, and for opening up a new door - it’s not the one I was aiming to walk through, but it’s one that leads to an ocean of possibilities.

There were some key issues I was hoping to be able to influence right away if I was elected. Before I sign off on this piece, here’s my comment about a few of them and what I think we can start with to act on them.

Transit reliability - I want to have rapid transit lanes throughout this city so buses and streetcars aren’t stuck in gridlock. Dianne Saxe is a newly elected city councillor in University Rosedale. She specified this as a priority of hers in her campaign, and I know she believes in it. She may be someone who can spearhead this in government.

Transit fares - I am a convert to the idea of removing mandatory fares for the TTC. Whether our TTC and city officials will do this remains to be seen, but I will speak up on it when and where I can. If this is an important issue for you, and you don’t want to wait for the city to make it happen, take a look at this and do some research on what’s been done for free transit around the world - it’s a growing movement and I hope it’s headed straight for us.

Housing and zoning by-laws - The laws around easily creating new housing for small scale developers and homeowners seem to be quite a deterrent. Please share with me any ideas you have to get around or remove them. Jamaal Myers, another newly elected city councillor, has been leading the push to make rooming houses safer, starting first with legalizing them, and I’m sure he will appreciate support on that particular issue.

Vaccine mandates - There continue to be labour shortages at the city which removal of vaccine mandates could help reduce. And there continue to be people who feel left out in the cold and discriminated against by these mandates. It is my hope that my messages in the debate will have gotten through to John Tory so he will finally drop these mandates as most other places have done. But if he doesn’t, if you are that former city employee, or someone who wants to work for the city but can’t, I encourage you to remind yourself how valuable you are. Your not working for the city is the city’s loss, not yours. While the city wakes up, along with whatever your legal and advocacy efforts are, put your energies towards where you are wanted - I can assure you there are plenty of people who would be grateful for your services. For those of you who have not been excluded by these mandates, I encourage you to ask yourself if you want that firefighter or lifeguard who could help you in your hour of need locked out because of they aren’t providing proof of two doses of vaccine (which at this stage no one is arguing offers protection against transmission). If you don’t, then please email the current mayor to let him know your views - sadly government listens less to people who are excluded, and more to people who aren’t.

Access to clean water - Late in the campaign I met a group of advocates who combine joy with political action by swimming at Toronto’s cleanest hidden beach - the unofficial but amazing Teach Beach (one of whom took the photo of my election day swim). Join their Facebook group, sign their petition, and most of all, come out for a dip - they go all through the winter - and join with them to protect access and water quality of our amazing Lake Ontario.

I heard so many ideas of how to improve things in Toronto during my campaign. Elections are one day, but we need not be limited to raising our voice once every four years. We also don’t need the government’s permission to act. Remember, government was created to serve us, not suppress us. In many ways, we are the government. So if our government isn’t serving our city’s needs, we don’t need to put up with it. Let’s change it the way water changes the landscape, and let’s enjoy ourselves as we channel our energy towards something wonderful!