The advance polls are open

Ah! the beauty of Democracy and the right to vote. If you're busy and can't make it on the day of the municipal elections --- October 25--- there are the advance polls and they're ready for you.


Since I live in Toronto I could either vote now or wait for election day itself. Or do I need more time to mull my choices over? I used to be a very decisive voter and took pride in that. And do I vote along party lines? It depends whether a candidate's message hits home and will he or she be the right one to run the city or country?

I must confess that I'm big on charisma --- the kind exuded by JFK or Pope John Paul II. That je ne sais quoi as the French call it. Nope! none of the Toronto mayoral candidates have it. So I continue to hem and haw. I may be undecided but that doesn't mean I won't vote.

If push comes to shove, the lobby of my building is transformed into a polling station. So on October 25 --- undecided or not --- I will exercise my civic duty and cast my vote. I'll probably wait until I return from work to do so and I hope to heaven that I make the right choice.

Is she or isn't she?

Sarah Thompson isn't about to wear Hamlet's cloak and deliver a soliloquy --- should I or shouldn't I remain in the Toronto mayoralty races? A dilemma for sure since her poll numbers are weak to say the least. Her campaign office says she's still running for the top City Hall post. There seems to be a slight hesitation that she might throw her support around Rocco Rossi whose odds of winning are iffy at best. In this brew of let's-stop-Rob Ford-at-all costs, is it a game of musical chairs in who'll endorse who as soon as I see the writing on the wall? Ms. Thompson's campaign hasn't caught fire since she threw her hat in the mayoral ring. She calls herself a 'visionary' but her message seems to have all been drowned out by Rob Ford's "I'm going to cut spending"speeches. The latter has scored well with the electorate and is credited for Ford's surge in the polls. With the municipal elections a month away, what is a candidate to do whose numbers are simply not there? Wait, consult, throw her support around another candidate? Not an easy decision. But who said politics was easy?