Monday 6am Guest - Karen Stintz

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1:00Payday bars have a bone to pick with the other candy bars, enough with the toppings and layers and stuff. K, payday bars are just salty, crunchy peanuts and sweet caramel. Delicious! Payday, peanut caramel bar. This is the Toronto Today podcast. I'm your host, Greg Brady. Nah, there wasn't much movement over the weekend regarding the menace pole election. I didn't see much that was really intriguing to me. There's always rumors and speculation about things going on and maybe races that are deemed tighter. There was some polling going out in the various awards across the city. There was a poll that was probably quite discouraging to the Brad Bradford team early in the week. And then there was a poll that shows Bradford's leading with people above 55. That poll came out on Friday and I'm like, whoa. And so that's a really, and those are the people that vote almost universally. The issue is getting younger people out to vote for sure. One person that I'm really curious to get a feel for for where it's all at three weeks from

2:00tonight is election night. She also got tremendous, tremendous praise in the national post or rather the financial post about her book. And we're going to talk about her book actually in person to more a night. The book is called Beyond Good Enough and it's former City Council and Chair of the TTC Karen Stinson Karen tomorrow you and I will take over the old stone cottage pub at 37 50 Kingston Road at 6.45 pm and until we decide otherwise, basically. I know I'm so excited. I really appreciate you coming out to to support book and also really more importantly to support discussions about our city because you know, you and I both I think believe that you know the city can do better the country can do better and you know, we put our name on the ballot because we believe in that. And so part of me writing this book was really about talking, you know, highly issues that we can do things about, we can fix, we can change and being intentional about how we want our city to function and it's ambition. And so I'm really excited and thank you again for agreeing to join me in this discussion because

3:03I think it's going to be great. Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it. You've had a couple good stops already. It's the six Toronto's tour. We're in Scarborough tomorrow night. Karen and myself tomorrow night 6.45, the old stone cottage pub 37 50 Kingston Road. I don't know if I'll leave tomorrow night being more inspired to write a book or not because it sounds like it's hard work and sometimes a little payoff. But I think you're paying this off because so many people are talking about it. Well, I feel really good about that aspect of it and that it is sparking dialogues and people are coming out because they do care about the city. And that's the first thing that we need to remember is that we do have a choice and that the city is made up of those who live here. And so if we're engaged and we want to make change, then the change will happen. So I'm referencing a Main Street poll. It came out Friday afternoon after we wrapped up our week of shows. But the Main Street poll shows Olivia Chao. Of course, still lead. It's tough to be in a common six points up with 38.1%. But it has Bradford in second with 32.2% support. And I did find it significant that Bradford now

4:08leads in adults over 55. I thought that was quite fascinating given those people loved to vote. Advanced voting even starts tomorrow. They'll be lined up tomorrow to go the 55 and overs. Absolutely. And you know, that's my go. I think it's fantastic. I think this is just the right momentum that Brad needs to really to pull ahead and and be taken seriously as a contender, which I believe he has been since the start. But it's hard because people were getting to know him. And as they're starting to hear what he's saying and talking about and his ambition for the city, I think people are really more energized about turning it going out to vote. And I think this is just this is just great. I think it's great news for Brad and his team and it reflects the work he's been doing over the last really since the last by-election. Now, if you were advising going, we're seeing you connecting with 55 and over. You're doing your job there. You're doing the heavy lifting. If you showed him numbers under 35, which shows Chow with a comfortable lead, A, how would you explain that and B? What would you say to Bradford to go? Let's, let's tighten this

5:10group up with 21 days left. And how could he do that, Karen? I think you really should push his land transfer tax exemption for houses that are, you know, the average because what that speaks to, what that policy speaks to is the fact that people don't think they can buy a home in Toronto. And by pushing that message out, I think he demonstrates that he understands that concern for a lot of people. Then he, it matters to him as a young family, and he has a young family himself. And that he's willing to do something about it. And so I think that message will resonate with those that are under 30 that are thinking about leaving the city that don't see a future here for themselves. He can speak to that group by the policies that he has in this platform. I'd ask this as well. The group progress Toronto, back to Olivia Chow and a few other candidates as well. And here's the one thing. I, you know, I think you and I would agree on people who know this group. They are motivated. They are energetic. They are young. They gobble up voter data like Pac-Man, they make sure they get you to the polls on voting day. And they're obviously quite

6:13influential. I think we've seen a little bit in the States, to be honest with Mamdani getting elected in New York. So as scary as this sort of democratic socialism is to some, I think there are people coming right out of our university system and our college system ready to vote. And they're like, this is where they lean. This is where they swing. What's the counterbalance to that? I know. You're right. Like they are. They've had four years. If they're coming out of college or university of this view of social justice and how the world should work as opposed to how it does. And it's alarming. But I do think that there is a consciousness that's being raised about this. I'm going to call it threat because admittedly it was happening in plain sight and I didn't take it. I didn't take, I didn't pay attention to it. Now I think people realize what's at stake here. And we're seeing more motivation. We're, you know, again, the over 55, the people that really understand what's happening. They're paying attention in a way that they may not have before. And I think that if there's any reason this book is getting any traction, it's because people are

7:15starting to become aware that they need to be engaged and that they can't take for granted that things are going to continue the way they have in the past. Karen Stinson's our guest on Toronto today. What's your feel 21 days out for where Chris Alexander's campaign is at? I should mention in that poll that Main Street poll I mentioned, he's sitting in around 7%. But that's a vitally important 7%. It never works this way. Not all the votes would go to Bradford. But I think we'd agree more than would go to Bradford than to Chau. What's your feel for where he's at and the impact he's having on the race? Well, I think that he's got his 7% and he's stuck there. And I think that if we can just shake three or four percent from Chris and have a go to Brad, then I think that's going to again be another momentum poll. And for those that are undecided that they will see Brad as a winner and a contender. And then the undecided will will will fall to Brad. So I think that it's it's really important that you know that he be questioned about what is his motivation in this race because he's not going to win. And and so why is he doing this? And we've got a hammer that home. I say we like

8:19the collective hammer home. Chris, what are you doing? What's in this for you, Chris? Because it's not the mayor and you're not you're not going to wear the chain. So why are you doing this? And and I think we deserve an answer to that. I had a conversation with somebody Friday after the show as well. So it was a little too late to get on to the air regarding John Tory and the and the premise seem to be Brad Bradford at a certain point in time would have loved to have if there's peace to make made peace with John Tory and had Tory endorse him. I'm told that's really, really, really unlikely now to happen. And Tory will sort of stay on the sidelines. Well, still obviously he's in the media. He'll still give commentary on the race with this candidate. And he's similar to our conversation. But I would go he is endorsing other. In fact, he kind of picked a couple candidates with I would call checkered pass with Michael Thompson and Han Dong and endorse both of them various for various reasons. They their their pass are a little checkered. And I would go that's an oddity to get involved in specific council races, but not have an opinion about who should be mayor.

9:22Well, I agree with you on that one. And also the fact that he contemplated running for mayor because he clearly thought the city was not headed in the right direction. So it wasn't like he's not been involved in this race. He was actually going to be quite involved in this race until he decided that he didn't want to be. And so to suggest that he can sit on the sidelines now is I think a bit questionable because he you know, he does have a voice in the city and he recognizes that he's influential. And that's why he did endorse some of those candidates like even Mike Cole. Like my close been around for I don't know eight generations. And you know, is that 240 years? I don't even know how long it may be. I don't know that he's 161. It's a great story of he is. He's older than that Tom Cruise character in the movie. It's not like he's staying out of it. And it's not like he wasn't bastard because he was going to actually run himself. And so I think it does but who of him to really make a statement about what he sees for the city and stand behind it. Now he was really late coming around to endorse

10:22Anna Bilow in the Merrill by election. But you watch that from afar. If I if I did the numbers right, he endorsed her on June 21st. Advanced voting was already done and the election day was June 26. It didn't give a lot of time. I just feel like if he's doing it it's this week, but again, I think it's now a long shot that he does. But clearly, it would have helped Bradford to get an endorsement and get that and get that public acknowledgement of a couple weeks ago. There's no question. For so many reasons, one is that he's picking his horse too that there's a sense of the city needs to have a new direction and that he has confidence in Brad. And you know, there's also that sense that if Brad were the mayor, then he would listen to John and John would still be the older states person, a reliable person there to give him wisdom about the city. And all of those things would have been to the good. And I think Toronto would have welcomed that type of leadership. And you know, quite frankly, I don't understand why he didn't take that opportunity because I think that would have served him quite well. Karen Stins and myself in Scarborough tomorrow night at the Old Stone Cottage pub 3750 Kingston Road. Everything we

11:25couldn't squeeze into this segment may be more rumor and speculation. You'll have to come by to find out and find out about her book as well. Karen, thanks for this this morning. Thanks, Greg, looking forward to seeing you tomorrow. All right. We'll we'll do it up nice at the Old Stone Cottage pub 3750 Kingston Road. Hopefully you can come and see both of those. Thanks for listening to the Toronto Today podcast. We drop the highlights of the daily show every weekday morning. Don't forget you can hear the entire show on the radio at home on your smart speaker, ask Alexa or say, hey, Google, play 640 Toronto or Toronto today. You can hear us on between 530 and nine weekdays on 640 Toronto. Have a great day.