Municipal Elections

Well, the various municipal elections took place here in Ontario yesterday. Mississauga re-elected Hazel McCallion once again by a landslide, making her one of the longest serving mayors (32 years!) in Canada now at age 89. I like and admire "Hurricane Hazel" very much, but I must confess that I voted for another candidate, Peter Orphanos, as I feel that Hazel has had a great run but should let somebody else take the reins. Still, Hazel won again with 76% of the vote, so Mississaugans obviously love her. The illustration pictured above shows a caricature of "Hurricane Hazel" alongside the mayors of Waterloo and London, Ontario, that I did for a magazine cover a couple years ago.

Things are somewhat less rosy in Toronto today (in my opinion) after voters elected Rob Ford as their new mayor. Having observed this guy in news reports during the campaign, I must admit that I think he's going to be trouble for the city. Rob's style is confrontational and very much "in-your-face", as is evidenced in the following two clips showing him in his former role as Toronto Councillor. Still, he'll be a political cartoonist's dream, so it isn't all bad!