EDITORIAL: Voters need to pay attention to mayoral candidates

As Rocco Rossi stood in line at Toronto City Hall first thing Monday morning to officially register himself as a candidate, the race for who will be our city's next mayor began in earnest. On Tuesday, it was veteran councillor Giorgio Mammoliti making it official and many more are expected in the near future.

Considered one of the high-profile candidates for mayor, Rossi is the former president of the Liberal Party of Canada and CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation along with being the campaign manager for John Tory's failed run for mayor in 2003.

To put it mildly, it's going to be an extremely entertaining mayor's race this year as we head toward election day - Monday, Oct. 25.

Voters who were hoping to put off any thoughts of this municipal election until November are reminded that voting day has moved up from the traditional early November date to the fourth Monday in October. The move was made as part of the provincial Good Government Act, which also calls for more accessibility for voters to polling stations and sets tighter rules on funding for municipal election candidates.

Of course, Toronto went even further than the new provincial fundraising rules for candidates by banning donations from unions and corporations.

That being said, among Rossi's main reasons for being the first register to run for mayor was so he could immediately begin raising funds.

It's generally accepted that a serious mayoralty campaign in this city requires somewhere between $1.5 and $1.75 million. With contributions from individuals being limited to a maximum of $2,500 for mayoral candidates, that's an awful lot of people to get financial support from.

And it is this amount of financial support that is ultimately going to separate the serious contenders from the frivolous ones when it comes to this mayor's race, which by the end of candidacy nominations on Sept. 10 could see as many as 50 names on the ballot. In the 2006 mayoral campaign, 38 people were on the final ballot.

Along with Rossi, other high-profile mayoralty candidates include Mammoliti, former deputy premier George Smitherman, deputy mayor Joe Pantalone, and possibly TTC chair Adam Giambrone and city budget chief Shelley Carroll. Whether some of those candidates can actually raise the required funds remains to be seen. That's already a pretty impressive field, and it will be made even more interesting if and when John Tory decides to declare.

Given the importance of the position, and the power the next mayor will have in shaping Toronto's future over a four-year term, we urge voters to pay close attention to the candidates and their visions for our city.

As outgoing mayor David Miller told Toronto Community News recently as he looked back at 2009 and the mayoral candidates for 2010, "Torontonians are going to hold them to the why - they're going to want to know what kind of city they want to create... Not, why do I want this job."