Election signs sprouting up across the city this week offered a visible reminder that the municipal election is hitting full stride ahead of the Nov. 13 vote.
But well before the signs went up, incumbent councillors and challengers have been busy trying to secure endorsements.
That's when the gloves come off.
In Etobicoke North, the campaign team of candidate Sonali Verma cried foul this week over a picture in a brochure sent out by incumbent Suzan Hall. Under the heading "vote to re-elect Suzan Hall" is a picture of her with the local top cop, Superintendent Ron Taverner of 23 Division. By law, police make no endorsements.
The photo did not sit well with Ms. Verma, who complained to the city's integrity commissioner.
Ms. Hall says "I didn't think there was anything untoward about it [the picture]." Still, she has dropped Supt. Taverner from her latest brochures.
Though a political novice, Ms. Verma has learned a thing or two about endorsements. A recent press release features separate pictures of her with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Conservative Leader John Tory, neither of whom are making local endorsements.
A long time ago in a ward far, far away. . .
Nominations for the candidate with best campaign slogan in the history of municipal politics have closed and the winner is: Simon Wookey, a 35-year-old with Liberal links running in Ward 18 (Davenport) with a slick website and an endorsement from folk legend Sylvia Tyson.
His slogan will warm nerd hearts everywhere. Buttons with vintage Star Wars-style lettering, reads: "Let the Wookey Win."
It's an obscure line lifted from the first Star Wars movie, when golden robot C-3PO gives advice to his companion, R2-D2. The garbage-can-like droid is winning a sci-fi chess game against Chewbacca, a hairy creature known as a Wookiee.
As Chewbacca's frustration turns to anger, C-3PO advises his robot friend: "Let the Wookiee win."
Green, greener, greenest
In the much-watched open race in Ward 14 (Parkdale-High Park), campaigners for Liberal-leaning Ted Lojko tout an endorsement from Ontario Green Party boss Frank de Jong as proof their guy can out-green rival NDPer Gord Perks, an environmentalist lobbyist.
But there's a history here. The Greens hate the NDP and the feeling is mutual.
Why an endorsement from the long-time leader of a party that has never won a seat anywhere in the province is worth boasting about is another matter. Fortunately for him, Mr. Lojko also boasts of several other supporters with name recognition, including Chris Korwin-Kuczynski, the former city councillor.
In fact, everyone and their brother is endorsing someone in this riding, with Liberal leadership candidates backing several different horses. But Mr. Perks counts Mayor David Miller as his No. 1 fan.