Strategic voting.

Well, isn't this nice: someone's telling me how to vote.

To this person I say: "Go fuck yourself."

I'll vote for whoever I want to, for the reason I want to. It's my vote. Don't tell me how to use it.

Here's the truth:

I advance-voted yesterday because Monday the 27th looks like it's gonna be a busy one for me. (Actually, in a way, it's going to be pretty free-and-clear; I teach all grade 12 classes, and a shit-ton of 'em are going to be working the election. Why? They get paid $160, they get to put it on their resume and/or university application, and that looks fuckin' goooooood.)

And yes, I voted for John Tory, even though I really want Olivia Chow in charge. I voted this way because Tory is the person who has the best shot at winning who isn't named Ford (in this case, Doug Jr.). This is called "strategic voting," and I feel absolutely no remorse for doing so.

Last election, Drinkin'-Buddy Dave (DBD) and I were hanging out with some mutual friends a few days before the vote where Rob Ford won (handily), George Smitherman placed a shockingly-distant second, and Joe "Joey Pants" Pantalone barely rippled the water by placing third. The polls were all saying this before the election, although they didn't really show how big a lead Ford had on Smitherman; there was actually a glimmer of hope that Smitherman could've won.

"I'm voting for Pantalone," mutual-friend Y declared. "I don't care about the polls. Pantalone's who I want, so that's who I'm voting for." Meanwhile, of course, J, DBD, Y, his wife L, and everyone in the room (and indeed anyone who'd followed city politics for any length of time, even casually) knew that Rob Ford was a fucking idiot; exactly to what astonishing degree we'd only learn later, of course. And no, even if you put Joey Pants' and Smitherman's votes together, they wouldn't have defeated Ford's plurality -- but if the media had framed it a little differently in the last few days, maybe they'd have had a shot. (Water under the bridge, though.)

I felt Y's unilateral declaration, despite (a.) what the polls were saying at the time, and (b.) Rob Ford's obvious lunacy, stubbornly idealistic and naive. I mean, maybe, if Ford was polling at 50%, Smitherman at 20% and Pantalone at 15%, alright then, it's clear who's going to win, protest-vote for Pantalone and go home and have some ice cream. But, despite my own political leanings towards Pantalone, I voted for Smitherman, because the polls were suggesting something like 45-35-15 at the time; a longshot, but still a shot.

In short, George Smitherman was the least-bad shot at a winner.

And we all know how that turned out.

Thus, with a Tory-Ford-Chow poll running at about 40-30-20... it's close, man. Closer than it should be, if Etobicoke/North York/Scarborough knew what was fucking good for them. (Yes yes, downtown elite, sipping a latté with pinky-out, going to the ballet later tonight.) But, y'know, cautiously optimistic that Tory can hold on for a win.

This is, of course, a ludicrous thing for me to say. I've been a teacher and union activist for almost two decades, stretching back to my practice-teaching round of 1997; that fall saw the two-week walkout to protest the PC's Bill 160, which did a lot of fucked-up shit that we're still trying to undo. And who was later the leader of the Ontario PCs, who ran in Don Valley West, and who advocated for public funding of private, religious schools, and who green-lit an ad during Kim Campbell's glorious election campaign in '93 that may-or-may-not have made light of Jean Chrétien's facial paralysis? That would be one John Howard Tory.

In an ideal world, Chow's way out in front, Tory's saying some interesting things but has no shot, and the Fords are out somewhere calling people "kikes" or whatever it is they do for fun. Instead, we've got Doug Fucking Ford handing out $20 bills, people in TCHC buildings impressed with his little dog-and-pony show (and apparently voting for Fords in crazy-high turnouts), and now I've gotta burn my vote on... John Tory.

...and they say municipal politics are boring.