On Saturday, September 20th, a "meet the candidates", event was held in Windward Co-op, organized by the Co-op Housing Federation of Toronto. 

Olivia Chow, the NDP candidate, got there for the first 20 minutes, when there were only about 10 people in the room.  Attendance picked up later.  I asked her about the island airport, cap-and-trade, and co-op housing.  She was her usual excellent self on co-op housing.  She said she envisions a park where the airport is, and she gave a passionate argument for cap-and-trade, which separated her from the Liberals and Greens, who want the carbon tax.  Then she had to leave.

Christine Innis, the Liberal candidate, came in.  She is a lawyer and sophisticated.  She answered the co-op questions unequivocally.   When her husband, Tony Ianno, was our MP, he was lukewarm on co-op housing and told us to be “practical.”  I asked her about the airport, thinking she'd fudge, and she said we could get the airport closed if the city wanted to.  It's up to the community, but the city would have to initiate the process.  There are contracts that go until (2033?).  I gathered she thought the city would have to buy its way out of them, and it would be expensive.  We reminded her that it was the Liberals who saddled Toronto with the port authority that’s cost the city so much.

Then she left, and the Green candidate, Stephen LaFrenie, came in.  He’s sophisticated on issues of policy, and of course, he's sincere and much less of a pol than Christine. The Undecideds sat up in their chairs.  His position on co-ops was good but too nuanced around local self-determination and international development issues to engage the undecided co-op voters.  He and the current Greens also seem socialist.  That’s a change!  So, I said they should work with the NDP and not split the vote.  He quickly segued into proportional representation.  Someone pointed out that the NDP agreed with him on that.  I didn’t ask him about the island airport.  I think the Greens are for fast trains.    

Brenda Roman