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Nov. 7 - Nov.14, 2004 |
Hall into the home stretch of mayor
The campaign for Toronto's seat in City Hall is set to heat up in the coming weeks
By Ken Shular
Originally Published: 2003-08-24
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Former Toronto mayor Barbare Hall is ready to run again for the job.
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With a 27-point lead in the polls, almost 2,000 volunteers and a long list of distinguished supporters ranging from filmmaker Atom Egoyan to a number of MPs and MPPs, it's fair to say Barbara Hall's campaign is in full swing.
The former city of Toronto mayor, who was beat out by Mel Lastman in the first megacity election in 1997, has probably had the biggest impact in this year's race. Hall has positioned herself away from a pack of five high-profile candidates - 31 in total are registered to run - as it is expected the campaign to be the next mayor of Toronto, heats up in the coming weeks.
"I feel great," said Hall during a recent discussion with Tandem. "I feel an enormous amount of excitement in all parts of the city about the future of our city, so I think that gives me a lot of energy. Also, I feel a lot of encouragement. I was out at Kipling subway station at seven this morning with a lot of recognition and support and I feel that in all parts of the city."
"My plan was to be active in all parts of the city and put my vision for the city out there and to focus on what I had to offer and that's what I continue to look at and I'm getting very positive responses from that; lots of volunteers coming in and getting involved; and it feels totally on track."
In recent weeks, Hall has been the target of her opponents over a fundraiser held last year a full six months before she even registered to run for mayor. The 'Friends of Barbara Hall' group raised and spent $100,000 exploring the feasibility of such a campaign and to register whether there was enough support for her candidacy.
The Hall campaign has dismissed the attacks, saying her opponents are trying to find something that will close the gap in the poll numbers. At present, former city councillor Tom Jakobek, also in the race for mayor, is the only one to file a formal complaint saying Hall is in breach of the Municipal Elections Act. That complaint is under review by provincial courts.
Hall narrowly missed being the new amalgamated city's mayor, when Lastman edged her out in 1997. She lost by less than five percent.
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