Toronto Fringe Candidates?

shutternewbie 

Was flipping channels and got lured to what seemed like free airtime of unedited and one-take video clips of people running for the city's top post. It was a little odd but amusing. I had to check the Toronto Candidates List to see if what I was watching was just a sequence from "Air Farce Live." I was wrong. These people are absolutely running for city mayor.

Four of the so called, "fringe candidates," in my opinion, have more edge than the 4 more popular ones, in terms of "interestingness." I am in no way condoning them but their ideas might just be less crazy and less far-fetched than the frontrunners' platforms:

RATAN WADHWA

I found this 2006 article about this fedora-loving guy from Wapedia...

Ratan Wadhwa lived in Mumbai before moving to Canada. He is an actor and Charlie Chaplin impersonator, and the owner of Charlie's Flower Co. in Toronto. He first campaigned for Mayor of Toronto in 2003 at age 48, calling for legalized prostitution and cannabis, free condoms and viagra, and the creation of a red light district. He said that he was trying to develop political contacts rather than win the election, and speculated that he could manage a decent showing if enough people in the sex industry voted for him. He received 121 votes to place 43rd out of 44 candidates. He promoted much the same platform in 2006, and also called for increased helicopter surveillance and bullet-proof vests for police.

This year, he is advocating the construction of casinos and the creation of a red light district.

CLICK HERE for a short Q&A with him courtesy of CP24


(pic from CP24)

DAVID VALLANCE

I guess this guy has one of the most ambitious plans for the City of Toronto. Follow this LINK and judge for yourself.



To be fair, David's proposal is in Wikipedia.

Here is his Q&A courtesy of CP24.

CARMEN MACKLIN

Not sure why she is running but on the candidates list her address is at the Waverly Hotel in Spadina and she has Yahoo for email. In her video clip, she mentioned that when she becomes the mayor, she will be available to Torontonians almost all the time except when she has to take care of her mom.

JOSEPH PAMPENA

I am most intrigued by this candidate's look rather than his platform. He appears to have a visual impairment, if not blind, and just kept on yapping about "running the city like a PR office."

CLICK HERE for an article about him on The Star.

(pic from Insidetorontovotes)

Here is the Q&A by CP24.

It's good to know that there are other choices in the Toronto Mayoralty race aside from the four, supposedly, frontrunners. The other, not so loud, candidates might not be better choices to run the city but at least they are doing "something" for it...or they are trying to.

GTGL8RZ!