With less than one week to go, our message of changing the way we treat the tax payer, and changing the way we run the TTC is being heard loud and clear at the doors, with virtually everyone agreeing with our support of a one year tax freeze while we get our financial house in order and decide where we are taking Toronto over the next decade. This is not a notion that is supported by all of my fellow candidates, namely Mike Layton, who believes that we need to raise taxes to preserve city services. The simple fact is that, if we are smart with the way we spend tax payer money, we can not only preserve the services we enjoy, but we will be able to improve on city services for years to come.

As our six month door-to-door canvass of all 24,000 households in Ward 19 nears an end, a couple of key questions are been asked that I would like to share on this blog in the event you were not home when we were through your neighbourhood.

Q: Who are you supporting for mayor?

A: I am not supporting any of the mayoral candidates. This is primarily because none of the three frontrunners have publicly stated their plans for Ward 19. Supporting a candidate who has not shared plans that will directly affect the people who I will be serving is not a responsible move. As your city councillor, my responsibility is to represent your best interests at City Hall, and I am prepared to work with whichever candidate emerges as the winner, and immediately begin to forge a relationship with that mayor to get the best results for you in Ward 19.

Another reason is that it can often be dangerous to endorse or support a political candidate without first hand knowledge of his/her campaign practices. For example, Mr. Layton is endorsing public school trustee Chris Bolton. Earlier this month it was revealed in the Toronto Star that Ward 19 Public School Trustee incumbent Chris Bolton is under investigation for illegally campaigning after concerns were raised by parents who received his literature from their children who were sent home with material promoting his campaign by their school principal.

Q: Which political party do you represent?

A: I am not a member of any political party, but the McCormick Campaign is supported by the Liberal Party of Canada, as well as the Conservative Party of Canada.

Q: What are your plans for the TTC?

A: I believe we need to keep the TTC public. However, this is a business that is in serious need of repair dogged by unreliability and inefficiencies that run to the core of the operation. The business model is fatally flawed, and we need to examine ways to improve the decision making process at the highest level. This starts at the top of the food chain – at the TTC board of directors. Currently, the TTC board of directors consists of 9 positions, all of which are held by city councillors. This needs to change. We need to create a board built on resumes, not appointments. We need decision makers with resumes thick with transit experience – individuals with extensive backgrounds in transportation. The road to respectability at the TTC must begin at the top where good decisions can funnel down to the street level where patience is wearing dangerously thin.

This is a pivotal time in the history of our great city, and a pivotal election on October 25th. As your city councillor, I will be committed to changing the way we run Toronto. You have a say, and you can help change the way we run Toronto with a single vote. From all of us at the McCormick Campaign, thank you for your support.

Since 2003, spending at City Hall has increased of 50%. But services have, at best, remained stagnant. This is unfair to you, the tax payer, and we believe the tax payers of ward 19 deserve a break. This is why we are in full support of a one year tax freeze while the City of Toronto gets it’s finances in order and decides on the best direction to take Torontonians into the new decade.

I was shocked to hear in a televised debate last week that my opponent, Mike Layton, does NOT support this initiative – which can mean only one thing – Mike Layton wants to raise taxes. He suggests that unless we raise taxes, we must cut services. It is precisely this type of short-sighted mindset, brought on by the current leadership at City Hall, that has propelled our city into a downward spiral of tax-and-spend recklessness. In the process, forcing Toronto tax payers to their knees, and pushing our great city to the verge of bankruptcy.

As we dig ourselves out of this financial mess, we need to focus on the tax payer. We need to be smarter with how we spend tax dollars. Every dollar we save in doing this is a dollar we can spend on social programs and infrastructure, or guarding against unfair tax increases again in the future.

Mike Layton talks a lot about investing in communities, but Toronto needs money to do this. Mike would like to continue to hold the taxpayer ransom to invest in his Layton-style agenda, but the reality is that there is a better way. If we are smarter with the way we spend your money, we will have more money to invest in you. Smarter spending of your tax dollars will ensure that our valuable communities are viable not just today, but tomorrow, next year, and for generations to come.

We can do this in Toronto by exploring our options. A recent study estimated that Torontonians could save $50 Million per year by contracting out garbage collection. People at the doors of ward 19 have been telling me that they don’t care who picks up their garbage. They want it collected on time, and they want it done in the most efficient way possible. We need to at least look at this option. If not, we are ignoring the needs of Torontonians. Just think of the investment in our communities with a $500,000,000 savings over 10 years.

It has been said that the definition of insanity is repeating the same action and expecting a different result. That would be a vote for the status quo on October 25th.

A vote for Sean McCormick is a vote for change.

27 days and counting! Great to see the energy and momentum of the campaign rubbing off on our team. The incredible response to our message at the doors is invigorating! The people we talk to every day are tired of watching their taxes go up and service levels go down. Taxpayers deserve better and they know it. The light at the end of the tunnel is October 25th – the day the power to change lands firmly in the hands of you.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the debate on Monday night at St. Matthias Church, hosted by the Trinity Bellwoods Community Association. It was a great opportunity for residents to hear from all of the candidates. Saw lots of familiar faces from our canvasses.. a vote for McCormick is a vote for change! Some press at http://bit.ly/9FRDgU

Monday night’s debate was our first formal debate, not entirely dissimilar from my old Thursday morning gig on the Fan590, the difference being that we were debating issues of critical importance to the lives of everyday Torontonians, not the ones making $25 million over 5 years in newly minted deals with the Toronto Maple Leafs. And to tell you the truth, I enjoyed this one a lot more. The questions were challenging and relevant, and most of the candidates answered thoughtfully and intelligently. The question voters in ward 19 need to ask themselves on October 25th is: Do they want more of the same? Or do they want change.

The office opening on Saturday was a success! A great big thanks to Wes Williams (Maestro Fresh Wes) for stopping by to let his backbone slide! Fortunately my campaign manager, Pat Harris’ political mind is sharper than the scissors he supplied me with for the ribbon cutting. I’m quite sure I would have had an easier time chewing through the ribbon, which would have made the second best political snapshot of the week, well back of George Smitherman frolicking in the Sugar Beach water fountains. !

Things that made me smile this last week:

Smitherman in the fountains.

The unbelievable response from the small business owners we canvassed along College, Dundas, and Queen.

Happy birthday to my campaign manager Pat Harris!

My debate prep people telling me that I should trim my sideburns. Sorry boys, I’ll trim the waste at city hall, but the chops stay.

Smitherman in the fountains.

It’s into the home stretch now for the McCormick campaign.. 36 days and counting.. things are really taking shape and getting very exciting! It feels like play-off time, except we’re PART of the action! It’s been a long time since I was able to blog about a team with the potential to win it all.. The Leafs and Oilers are a long way away. So from sportsnet.ca to seanmccormick.ca, my blog picks up where it left off, with a slight change in subject matter.

I wish all of my opponents the best of luck in the home stretch. Ran into Karen Sun for the first time this week. She seemed nice, but I’m sure she wanted to scratch my eyeballs out… In the nicest and gentlest way possible, of course. I kid, but honestly, best of luck to Karen. Despite the fact that her policies and priorities are very different from ours, she is running a very tight campaign and will be a formidable opponent on election day.

Vanessa Cybulski (wife of that TSN hack, James Cybulski, who also happens to be a very good friend, and our event coordinator) is our campaign office manager here at 1076 Queen St. West. She spent a full 8 hour shift this week patiently and diligently inputting volunteer information into an excel file on Tuesday, which I accidently deleted from her hard drive as she was leaving the office that night. She wasn’t a happy camper on Wednesday morning. Fortunately I had previously secured her vote.

Our team attended the West Queen West BIA meeting on Monday night. Businesses are very concerned about the a-frame sign bylaw that the city has decided to start enforcing which makes it illegal for stores with less than 20 feet of frontage to display a-frame signs on the sidewalk. This may seem like a small issue, but it is all part of the same zoning bylaw that is threatening the existence of back-of-house patios in Ward 19 that are critical to the culture and vibe of areas like Queen West, College St. and Ossington. 81% of West Queen West businesses do not have 20 feet of frontage. This is a one size fits all policy that does not fit Queen West, and it needs to be re-opened for debate.

Running into a lot of friends living in the Ossington area in our nightly canvasses.. it’s been very enjoyable meeting the people of ward 19 as we continue our effort to knock on every one of the 12,000 doors in the ward, but it’s refreshing to see a familiar face from time to time. Ossington Ave. has come so far in the last five years.. we need to make sure it continues on the right path.

Things that made me smile last week:

1. Lawn signs were delivered on Thursday morning.. Based on the bill I should be running a print shop, not an election campaign! If you’d like one delivered, sign up by clicking here.
2. Discussing the finer points of Perogies and Borscht with Ukrainian seniors on Euclid. Sometimes it’s not all about the smart, efficient spending of your tax dollars, and the TTC!
3. Fundraising seems tedious at times, but the planning of the fundraising events all pays off on the day of the party. Great to see the support of our friends new and old.. next one is October 1st at Grace on College st.
4. Lots of new volunteers.. thanks to all for your time and support!
5. My wife Jennifer’s birthday was on Saturday.. happy birthday, Gorgeous.. you get your husband back in 36 days
   
6. Jose Bautista breaking George Bell’s franchise home run mark!

See you on the campaign trail!

Sean