[LINK] "Adam Giambrone, Guardian of David Miller's Vision?"

[rfmcdonald]

Torontoist's Hamutal Dotan has an extended consideration of Adam Giambrone as heir to incumbent mayor David Miller's policies. Topping things that he has the vision necessary, but Giambrone's management of the TTC and his youth could count against him.

While Giambrone taking up Miller's mantle will almost certainly lead to a great deal of knee-jerk criticism, it is also a very reasonable basis on which to run. Miller has detractors aplenty, and his administration has been far from perfect. That said, Miller has been responsible, in the aftermath of amalgamation and of Mel Lastman, for giving us back our optimism, our faith that municipal government can go beyond small-minded parochialism, that it can have aspirations and ambitions on a grand scale. (This is why we remain convinced that history will be much kinder to Miller than recent polling numbers are.)

There are many people who disagree with David Miller's priorities, and many more who take issue with his track record at implementing them, but almost nobody doubts that he has been a mayor worth taking seriously. The policies and projects for which Miller is most known and most responsible, and which Giambrone supports—Transit City, Mayor's Tower Renewal, TAVIS (the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy), working on priority neighbourhoods—befit a city trying to better itself. Whether they are the best tools for the job or not, Miller's administration has most of all been characterized by a fundamental shift in our public discourse, toward city-building and away from the idea that government necessarily and inevitably gets in the way of accomplishment.

[. . .]

If Giambrone is to succeed in his bid for mayor he will need (among other things): union backing, some quick turnaround at the TTC (where he is staying on as chair for the moment), and Rocco Rossi to bleed support away from Smitherman. That's campaign strategy 101. But if Giambrone is to persuade more than his natural baseline of 15-18% of voters to support him, he will also need to make us believe that he can be...mayoral.

Giambrone has the heart, and he has the right intentions. Now he needs to convince us that he can channel them effectively.