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Nov 12,2006 - Nov 19,2006 |
Mayoral race in Vaughan to choose its new Mayor
Michael Di Biase and Linda Jackson: last appeal to voters
By John Hanan
Like two prizefighters in a heavyweight bout, Vaughan's mayoral candidates stood behind a podium earlier this week at the Venetian Banquet Hall in Concord, hoping to send their opponent to the canvas.
For two hours, the mayoral candidates stood shoulder-to-shoulder, smoothly answering more than a dozen pre-selected questions from the Vaughan Chamber of Commerce while trying to secure as many votes as possible in the standing-room only event. While each candidate received sporadic outbursts of applause and jeering, no candidate managed to deliver a knockout punch.
And since many of the spectators in the audience were wearing their mayoral preferences on their sleeves, or in this case as a campaign button on their lapels, it remains to be seen whether the debate will do much to sway public opinion for any single candidate.
The debate was the last chance to see incumbent mayor Michael Di Biase square off against his main challenger, regional councillor Linda Jackson, but it was the third candidate Savino Quatela who nearly managed to steal the show.
Wearing a red t-shirt with an inscription touting himself as Vaughan's "second Robin Hood," the diminutive Quatela scored the loudest cheer of the night when he asked rhetorically "What's the priority? A new city hall or a hospital?"
However the debate was really a showdown between Di Biase and Jackson, and after the moderator asked about allegations of misconduct at city hall halfway through the debate, Jackson fired the opening shot at her opponent. "We have serious problems at the city of Vaughan. That's why I'm running for mayor."
Before she could finish speaking, Jackson (daughter of former mayor Lorna Jackson) was drowned out by her very vocal supporters and a handful of booing dissidents. Jackson continued by promising to hire an integrity commissioner, implement a taxpayer's bill of rights and a complete audit of all city departments if elected.
Di Biase responded by saying that Vaughan has always complied with the Municipal Act and added that Vaughan is recognized by the province as one of the top five municipalities in Ontario for transparency during the past two years. "If anybody has anything to say, don't just say innuendos but state the facts."
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