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Predictability, thy name is Mississauga.
As long as Hazel McCallion is the cork in the bottle that is Mississauga politics, the status quo is the mainline go around here.
“Why did we even have an election?” moaned Roy Willis late Monday night after the most obvious result occurred in every council race.
Well, because of this little concept called democracy that mandates these periodic rituals.
The number of former Peel public school board trustees doubled from two to four on council (that’s 25 per cent) when Carolyn Parrish won in Ward 6 and Sue McFadden won surprisingly easily in Ward 10.
The men (Frank Dale, Nando Iannicca and George Carlson) are going to have to start lobbying for affirmative action programs, as they are now outnumbered nine to three.
Nobody won any big cash on this election, unless they are into betting the over/under on the 20 per cent turnout.
In retrospect, Parrish was always in control of the Ward 6 encounter with the huge advantage of a national profile that garnered free media plugs galore (can you say Hazel Minor) which apparently impressed the home folks. A fanatic organizer who hoards piles of invaluable information, polls regularly, has loyal foot soldiers and never skimps on the work on the street level , Parrish evened her record at running for council at 1-1.
Ron Starr found out that collecting money for council candidates isn’t the same thing as being one. Making so many appearances at council on behalf of the development industry left an uneasy impression on the minds of many voters.
Independent Ward 10 voter Dave Belcher told me last week he was voting for Sue McFadden because she was at every school event he attended over the past few years when she was his Ward 9 public school trustee. She was dedicated and hard-working and that was good enough to separate her from the gang who gravitated to the open seat in the west end.
McFadden registered first, organized first, hit the streets first and finished first.
Many see her as another in the pea pod of prosaic politicians that are the problem at City Hall. A hard worker who isn’t big on speechifying, McFadden will undoubtedly be overshadowed by Parrish, her luminescent seatmate in the class of ’06. But then there is a lot more to being an effective politician than generating headlines.
Bill McBain was probably the best challenging candidate in the whole city, who ran a thoughtful and effective campaign and still barely collected 20 per cent of the vote in Ward 9.
The Larry Taylor Cell, a loose group of reformist, mostly NDP-affiliated candidates coached by the former City councillor, ran solid campaigns for the most part but certainly didn’t get the results they expected. Brian Hurley ran strongest, collecting almost 20 per cent of the vote in ward 2 but mostly it was a case of strong on the street, in signs and canvassing, but soft at the polls. Especially in ward 7 where Beju Lakhani finished behind Shane (Sue You Later) McNeil.
When all is said and done in Mississauga we seem to be quite content with the divas we know.
Is it possible that the corollary of good governance is boring politics?
One more note: Got a glimpse of some of the emotion that rides on these so-called walk-over races Monday night when Ward 3 Councillor Maja Prentice (class of ’85) rose to thank her campaign workers, a close-knit group of friends and family at the Burnhamthorpe Community Centre. Prentice’s eyes welled with tears. She had to stop for a moment and compose herself.
It may look like it is easy to the rest of us but it’s not easy, win or lose, when you are battling in the trenches every day.