A few days before the most recent BikeFriday on October 27th, I scoured the internet for as much email contact info I could find about candidates in the upcoming municipal elections. Most of these I found from the wonderful whorunsthistown.to site.

I emailed all candidates (even the incumbents) about BikeFriday, to see if they’d like to bike downtown with the cyclists in their ward they’ll be hopefully representing, or even setting up a little bike-friendly stand along a cycling route with a little giveaway.

A couple of Parkdale-HighPark (Ward 14) candidates rode with Tammy (who I think is planning a Spacing Votes post about it) on the Queen West ride… Rowena Santos (who also took part in September’s BikeFriday …), and David White - which looks good on them, as now we KNOW that they’re willing to get up early to support a bike-friendly event.

Major props to Patrick Kraemer of Ward 30 (Toronto-Danforth), who is going up against Paula Fletcher. Patrick set up a table with juice and muffins on the Danforth just west of Coxwell. He was out there early in the very dark morning, offering goodies to people on two wheels.

It just so happens that Ward 30 is my ward. While I voted for Paula Fletcher in the last election, I haven’t really heard boo from her on anything else but the whole "Stop the Plant" initiative (and I’m on her mailing list). Cycling issues have been non-existant. I suspect that she feels that now that the Dundas East BikeLane is in, she can forget about cycling initiatives.

I’m seriously considering voting for Patrick now. Below is a photo of his juice/muffin stand that he sent me, as well as a picture of him and his bike from his website.






It should be noted here that staff of Cesar Palacio (Ward 17 - Davenport) helped BikeFriday get the Dark City Coffee Event on Nathan Phillips Square. Thanks guys!

Labels: politics

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2 Comment(s) so far:

Actually Paula Fletcher has proposed bike lanes on Eastern between Carlaw and Leslie. (although more of a traffic calming initiative than for cyclists benefit I'm sure) I have heard tons from her office but we have a mailing list (leslieville) for local concerns. I'm actually also opposed to the majority of ward 30 projects that are proposed on the bike plan with a few exceptions.

By  Tanya, at 9:51 PM  

Rowena Santos does not even live close to Parkdale and knows nothing about the community's issues.

By  Walt Jarsky, at 8:43 AM