photo credit: GKS.

Councillor Suzan Hall charged $720 for donations to local groups and tickets to charity events as of June 30 2010.

I was checking 2010 expense report which is only showing January-June 2010.
July October 2010 is going to be VERY interesting.

I am not against giving donations to local groups and charity. I spend a lot of my time volunteering for different organizations in Toronto and I have helped my niece with her drama class when they had a play or her sports events when they had a bake sale/bbq. There is only so many cookies, hamburgers and hotbeds I can eat.

When I buy the tickets for the plays or when I line up to get a raffle type ticket that they got at the dollar store that when I move to the next table will give me a hamburger and drink…I use my dinero. I never use my corporate visa or corporate dinero.

I could check all expense reports for all 44 Councillors and 1 Mayor for 2008 and 2009 as well.

Is this a kind of buying of votes? Printer toner, photocopying, cell phone bills, etc… are understandable. If Suzan and the others want to support local community endeavours then awesome but Councillor Hall and the rest should not use our money. What if they give to a charity/group I don’t support due to whatever reasons?

Are they buying those tickets/making those donations in hope to get votes or that they actually care for xyz public school’s drama program?

If they actually care, I say they should use their own money and not mine.

What do you think?

@robfordteam, @jpantalone, @roccothevoteTO, @G_Smitherman/@TeamSmitherman, @himysyed and @ThomsonTO.

I have seen fake accounts for Ford, Smitherman, Rossi and Thomson. I have not seen fake accounts of Pantalone or Syed.

Ford has the most fake accounts.
All fake accounts from all candidates are following my personal twitter account.

@shitrobfordsays is one of those accounts.

Do I think some of the staff/volunteers from campaigns are behind some of the fakes of their opponents? Yes

Do I think those people hiding behind fake twitter accounts are insecure weasels? You bet you toes.

I have criticised all candidates. That’s part of my job and part of democracy. The candidates are free to e-mail me when I write an article about them or the others.
Same goes for the rest of my staff.

Fake twitter accounts get ZERO chance to say anything on how we do things. I have no problem saying my opinion and I don’t hide behind anon twitter accounts like other people.

Does Ford, Pantalone, Rossi, Smitherman, Syed and Thomson have more skeletons in their closets that’s already out there? You bet. Will they come out? I say at least 3 more skeletons from the group of 6 will come out.

So what makes these little rats hide behind Twitter? They are like Leslie (The rat that seems to live under the rails on Bloor station. Yes I name subway rats). I just saw Katarina (rat on College NB) as I type this paragraph.

What I don’t think Rocco Rossi realizes is that twitter followers, tweets, retweets, twitter anything and everything does not equal votes. I am only mentioning him because he mentions he is the queen of Twitter (Jeriko proved him wrong by the way).

A million more fake accounts can follow me. That still won’t influence me one bit. Except the twitter account for Rob Ford’s tie that seems to be angry at Rob. I am a tie-a-holic.

What do you think of fake accounts on twitter?

photo credit: tagawa

So I have been measuring 6 candidates. Today’s update I added Jonathan Goldsbie just for fun.

Mr. Goldsbie is tied with Mr. Syed but he is kicking the asses of Ford, Rossi, Thomson and Pantalone.

If two or more candidates have the same score (Goldsbie/Syed, Ford/Rossi) then we use alphabetical order.

As you can see: 4 people are kicking Mr. Rossi’s ass off the stage (Smitherman was always kicking Rossi’s ass since August 13 when this Twitter Grade thing started).

I asked Miroslav (big boss of Discovering Toronto With Transit) to photoshop Rocco into something appropriate for this site.

He made Rocco into a drag show queen with a crown, white silk dress and a tiara for his head. Alas I can’t post it. I don’t want you to have nightmares.

Back to Mr. Rossi…he is NOT the Queen of Twitter.

Just because you make tweets…I am sure your “team” makes more tweets than you…doesn’t mean you are the queen of ANYTHING.

Just because your followers retweet every bloody tweet you make, it does not mean a thing. It just means you tolerate spam.

We know the “social media directors” for Smitherman, Thomson and Pantalone. Syed does his own tweets.

We are still trying to figure out the smd for Ford and Rossi.

Does Smitherman himself tweet? Both his accounts are run by the same guy.
Does Ford himself tweet? We are leaning on the no side.
Does Syed himself tweet? Miroslav has seen it with his own eyes. YES
Does Rossi himself tweet? Maybe, no evidence is available either direction.
Does Pantalone himself tweet? Yes.
Does Thomson herself tweet? Most of her tweets are from her Team, but yes.

The End

photo credit: euthman

So you can see on the right sidebar the photos of 22 Mayoral Candidates.
Those are the ones we found last night. We converted them to 125 x 125 and put them together, also added their names on top.

We are going to crown the sexiest candidate with a tiara.

So let’s have some fun with the candidates. There are 34 and we found 22 of their photos so 12 of the candidates are not there.

So vote for one candidate. We will crown the candidate with the most votes.

First place – a tiara and a sash (most likely from a local dollar store – hey we like to help out the small business owner and local economy in Toronto).
Second place – a sash
Third place – a thank you for running, congrats on third place

photo credit: Guillermo Julián

So as per every election, there is going to be rules that are broken. This municipal election has twitter, craigslist, Facebook and more.

So let’s go on about the spam on the #VoteTO tag and have some fun.

The popular candidates have twitter:

1. Rob Ford (@robfordteam) 369
2. Joe Pantalone (@jpantalone) 580
3. Rocco Rossi (@roccothevoteTO) 1,313
4. George Smitherman (@G_smitherman & @TeamSmitherman) 287 & 359
5. Sarah Thomson (@ThomsonTO & @TeamThomsonTO*) 1,555 & ???
6. Himy Syed (@Himysyed) 7,675

* As I am typing this, I checked the twitter accounts above and Sarah’s Team twitter account is gone. Still going to keep it here.

The italicized numbers above are the amount of tweets they tweeted on August 04, 2010 at 15:00.

Above list is by last name, the list below is by amount of tweets

1. Himy Syed
2. Sarah Thomson
3. Rocco Rossi
4. George Smitherman
5. Joe Pantalone
6. Rob Ford

We combined the two Smitherman tweets and he is on fourth place, we were going to combine the two Thomson accounts but it’s gone. Oh Sarah, why?

Himy Syed: Mr. Syed is everywhere. The saying doesn’t just belonng to CityTV.
He is at almost every event that I have gone to as both staff of this wonderful employer of mine and on my personal time. I have witnessed him tweeting directly.

Sarah Thomson: Mrs. Thomson used to have two twitter accounts. One for her team (recently deleted) and her own.
The mayority (pun intended) of her tweets are from -TT. Instead of Sarah using @ThomsonTO and -TT using @TeamThomsonTO they just settle for the first twitter account (-TT being Team Thomson and -ST being Sarah).
What about those tweets with a -?T ?
Sarah why are most tweets from your team and not you?

Rocco Rossi: These people can’t handle criticism. Any time you disagree with something Mr. Rossi says you will get bitched at by the Rossi sheep.
Any time he makes a tweet, it gets retweeted 20-30 times.

Call me crazy, If someone cares for what Rocco Rossi is saying…you guessed it: THEY WILL FOLLOW HIM.

This applies to all candidates mentioned on this post and not just RR.

Also he overposts on craigslist. I see a pattern of spam in here.

He has had twitter convos with our twitter account and our EIC.

George Smitherman:

He has a horrible social media plan so far. George: Watching seaweed grow is more interesting than following your tweets. I mean this for both your accounts. You should fire your social media director. It wouldn’t kill you if you tweeted.

Joe Pantalone: Your tweets have quality. You still need to tweet more. Keep on using Twitpic.com.

You could have a great social media push but you need to put more of an effort.

Rob Ford: I am very sure Rob does not tweet. Hey that data package is waste of money. His tweets are the same “doom and gloom” that come out of his mouth.

So the winner: Himy Syed
The not so winner that gets last spot: Rocco Rossi

The furious called the angry a chicken. Poulet. Gallina.

Bruce Davis came to the media to talk to them and a chicken was there (funny coincidence). Here is the link. Why is Bruce holding a media event at City Hall, hey Bruce that breaks the rules. Shame on you.

Anyways…

1. Rob Ford has been called a lot worse (some from me).
2. A Chicken?

Come on George, how old are you?, seriously this is grade 1 material.

I am seriously pissed at his bald royal highness for calling the other candidates noise. That tone/message is a democracy killer.

I think GEORGE SMITHERMAN is a chicken. He is afraid to go with the other candidates. He is afraid to go against Himy Syed, Rocco Achampong, Sonny Yeung and so forth. That is the only explanation.

It could be he has a personal issues with Rob Ford.

So I spent 5 minutes doing the two following:

So which chicken costume is better? the one on the article or one of these two?

I am going to KFC now to get some chicken. (I swear the I feel like chicken tonight soup song was playing on my head while typing this article).

Now, if any candidate resorts to childish acts like calling another candidate a chicken, I will resort to photoshopping you.

I am not necessarily a supporter of Rob Ford but he did good, will give him credit for that.

I love you so much George.

You are all more than welcome to use the images above, the George Smitherman head was from one of my photographs of him at the Mary Ward CSS debate. Just link bank to this article and give me credit.

Please answer which of my George Chickens is the better George Chicken.

The original festival was called BIG ON BLOOR and it was a lot longer (it started around Christie). This year was different, new name as well.

The 600 metres from Dufferin Street to Lansdowne Avenue was the place for this wonderful festival.

I saw three Davenport South (Ward 18) Councillor candidates: Kevin Beaulieu, Frank de Jong and Hema Vyas.
I also saw former candidate Ken Wood who dropped out of the race due mainly to financial reasons. He is in the photo above.

The photo shows 3 elements of an election:

1. Former candidate
2. Current Fringe candidate
3. Current Media candidate

We had interesting conversation and I have to give Rocco Rossi credit when he deserves credit.

The four of us talked about different topics, one of the things I said to him (as a suggestion) is to grab a marker and a ride guide, start drawing your subway lines.

I also told him about how using labels like “Priority Neighbourhood” is destroying the people and the neighbourhood. I live in Kingston-Galloway. I moved there some months ago. Before that I lived on the border street of another so call priority neighbourhood, within the priority neighbourhood but my neighbour across the street does not live in a priority neighbourhood. Both our houses were identical and we both made roughly the same amount of money a year.

Rocco did his Mayor-a-thon and stop #7 was in my neighbourhood (Guildwood Farmer’s Market), he said that he would come again. Rocco, I am seriously going to hold you to it and to publish those times, so my neighbours are aware and they can talk to you (I like to get my neighbours informed).

Ken Wood talked about poverty (among others issues), Rocco was very receptive to Ken’s concerns.

I mentioned to Rocco about how he and Sarah Thomson were crying about that whole George Smitherman challenging Rob Ford and ONLY Rob Ford and calling other candidates background noise. I mentioned that he now knows what Himy Syed and others are feeling like. Himy Syed challenged Rocco Rossi to a debate, one-on-one. I don’t know if Himy was making fun of George‘s one-on-one with Rob Ford but a Syed-Rossi debate is something I would like to see.

I should mention something: Kevin and Hema were at their booths, Frank‘s booth was empty.

Bad thing about this thing: I have that exact shirt (that pattern), I have other similar but that pattern is in my closet. He has good take.
Good thing about this thing: I have more hair than Rocco. Sweet.

I wonder if Rocco and Himy would be up for an interview. BOTH of them at a local restaurant/coffee place at the same time.

Answer to question (title of post): They were involved in a good conversation with me.

It is the ONLY street that goes through Etobicoke, York, North York, Toronto, East York and Scarborough.
From the 427 to it’s eastern end at Kingston Road it is 39 kilometres. According to Google Maps, it would take 6 hours and 40 minutes to walk. I would die by Martin Grove Road (2.1 km to the east of 427/Eglinton).

I caught up George in the middle section, he started at Bayview and went up to Kennedy.

The thing is that I wasn’t sure what part of Eglinton he would be at. Discovering Toronto With Transit HQ is at Lawrence/Kingston/Morningside area. This is a hint for all candidates to start putting more of their canvas schedules on their websites. People can interact with them instead of travelling across the city to their campaign offices.

So I was on the 34 Eglinton bus and I found them just west of Victoria Park Avenue, I got out at Sloane Avenue, hopped on the eastbound 34 bus and got out at Victoria Park. That is the border with Scarborough by the way.

They talked to people in the area. George got interviewed by a local media crew and finally they had lunch. I left to get back to the office to charge my batteries (phone and camera) and had lunch, the end.

Here are 8 photos of when they crossed Victoria Park Avenue into Scarborough.

[View with PicLens]

Read bottom up (1-4):

Usually I don’t post Direct Messages/e-mails/etc…but to be fair and I liked his last message.

During the debate I mentioned that Rocco Rossi was not there.

I personally think that all candidates should be at all debates. I know there are con-current events going on.

I have to give him credit for respecting the Jewish population.

I am not sure if you know this but there are non-Jewish in the community. What about them?

There are things I do not like about RR’s platform and there are things that I like about RR’s platform.

His 7th. stop on his Mayor-a-thon was at the Guildwood Farmer’s Market. I go there every week. I live close by. He came to my neighbourhood.

He helped Luminato. I forgot exactly how. Rocco? Help.

He was there at Pride Toronto’s Parade. I was volunteering again for the parade. I got Smitherman, Thomson and Pantalone.

As I was going down the line doing my duties…as I approach his group he says hello to me and shakes my hand. That was awesome. He remembers my name AND pronounces it correctly.

I am not going to endorse him (or any candidate).

If I see Rocco at a festival, or even at a grocery store I will say hello.

After the debate I went for dinner on Queen’s Quay. I went to a midnight Improv show and during that show Rocco sent me the DMs.

I will crtiticize all candidates platforms. I will chew the platforms, I will gurgle them and spit them out.

Just because I talk to any of the candidates, it doesn’t mean I will endorse them.

If they can’t handle criticism then they shouldn’t be running.

I “picked” on Rocco because he wasn’t there. I also “picked” on George Smitherman for leaving. Did you see what I wrote about Rob Ford?

I (along my staff) are immigrants who came to this country from hell holes. We enjoy the freedoms of this country. Part of the democratic process is to share our opinions.

The one thing I will never allow: racism/blatant personal attacks from anyone to the site or the other way around. Criticize the platform and don’t make personal attacks.

Now I am going to that Bloor Festival

Yes you are reading correctly.
Rocco Achampong, Not Rocco Rossi.

Mr. Rossi was partying at Caribana. I guess he doesn’t care for Lawrence Heights. These debates are essential to democracy and our community. I am sorry Mr. Rossi but Caribana and the universe will not explode if you do not attend Caribana. You dissapointed me tonight.
Now watch Mr. Rossi’s so called social media army attack me.
You have entered the race thus you and the other 33 candidates opened yourselves to positive and negative criticism.

Sarah Thomson: I noticed this at the last debate at CP24: She has the cojones to play with the big boys. I saw that again today. She went after Rob Ford. I loved that part. She has that passion burning inside of her. She very good at this debate.

Rob Ford: Do I have to repeat things again about this sack of shit again? My head will explode and I will have a heart attack. I would rather vote for Osama Bin Laden than Rob Ford. He brought the same twist of things again. Rob, you know that guy who waters the plants inside city hall, stop acting like that is the only thing the guy does. You have said things that are racists and homophobic. Why did it take you so many years to apologize for that AIDS comment? If you were truly sorry you would apologized back then. You claim people want subways? What people actually want is RELIABLE TRANSIT. By the way, a few days ago the entire subway stopped working due to an error at a server. Oh gee, subways are so perfect. Did you notice how all the othe candidates went after you? I have been at every City Council meeting (many of your fellow councillors can testify to that) and you are missing from the council floor. He is suing the star. He can dish shit to others on council and fellow candidates but when feces goes flying back to him, he can’t handle it. You are the front runner. You are going to get A LOT of flying feces.

George Smitherman: You came, stayed for an hour or so then left while the others stayed. However he did offer to come back to the community another time. I don’t like his destruction of democracy when he said it is a two horse race. Two words for you…I won’t type them, use your imagination.

Joe Pantalone: I have huge respect for this man. His transit plan is the only one that will bring better transit to my neighbourhood. He is pro-transit and an enviromentalist. He even said hello to me and started a conversation. That was nice.
He gave the best answers at this debate.

Rocco Achampong: I was surprised to see this Rocco instead of the other Rocco that was partying in Caribana related activities.
Achampong has good ideas. I totally respect the man for his wanting to do something for his community and the City. He won #2 place at our EMD.

I like to thank all candidates (minus Ford) for running. It isn’t easy. You care for my neighbourhood, my family, my friends, my city and my fellow Torontonians.

Hvala, Merci, Gracias, Thank You.