[LINK] "Enza Anderson Eyes City Council Seat"

[rfmcdonald]

Prominent Toronto transgendered woman Enza Anderson is, according to Torontoist, preparing to mount a run for City Council.

Enza Anderson waits at a bus stop on the west side of Bay Street by City Hall with a tall shovel in her hand. The bus to Queen's Quay pulls up and all eyes fixate on her as she boards. Walking towards the back, an elderly passenger comments, "A bit early for shovelling the snow off your driveway, isn't it?"

She replies, "Yes, but I'm going to be shovelling something a lot better."

In the same way the broom symbolized David Miller's promise to sweep out corruption at City Hall during his run for mayor (insert your salty quip here), the normally winter-worn outdoor tool will be the calling card of another foray into municipal politics for Anderson. The social activist, media personality, and grand marshall of the city's 2008 Pride Parade is putting the finishing touches on announcing her candidacy for councillor of Ward 27 (Toronto Centre-Rosedale). If her campaign—which she will publicly launch this month—is successful, she will be the first-ever transgendered councillor in the city's history.

"People are just fed up with incumbents who continually waste resources. These people don't understand that it's the taxpayer who picks up the tab and not them," says Anderson while, ahem, on the move to a photo shoot. "And at the same time I want to make history as the first transsexual on City Council."

No stranger to the bear pit of municipal campaigns, Anderson has twice run for office and lost, though has marked impressive showings. In 2000, she placed third in the mayoral race behind Mel Lastman and Tooker Gomberg, with more than 13,000 votes. In 2003 (a year after she tried to run for leader of what was then the right-wing Canadian Alliance), Anderson took on incumbent Kyle Rae for the Ward 27 seat. Soundly beaten, but not defeated, Anderson wants a rematch, and will brook no arguments that her efforts are solely about garnering press attention.