The progressive silence is deafening

Today's entry is inspired by my last post and leaves me wondering where Toronto's progressive voice is in this mayoral race. My last post left me rambling about something that a reader was kind enough to seek clarification about:

“Hi, Tonika,

while I heard a lot of rhetoric in this piece, and agree with the general sentiment that we should give our seniors more help, I don't quite get the specific issue you are complaining about.”

To be clear the “rant” was about 3 things:

1. As a first generation Canadian, I appreciate the work that my grandmother put in to ensure that my father and subsequently, I had a better life

2. Toronto needs to acknowledge that a newcomer who retires, is not like a Canadian-born retiree through an innovative taxation system

3. This innovative system should be part of a larger seniors strategy that is inclusive and includes the experiences of seniors like my grandmother (who is not sitting on a $500,000 nest egg)

I read the comment three times and then read my post. After the third time I regretfully conceded that the reader was, in fact, correct. My point was lost somewhere between my passionate story about grandma and the end. It really got me thinking about this in a larger context.

It’s no secret that I would count myself among the politically progressive. These circles often consist of advocates, activists and sometimes radicals who enjoy jumping on their soapbox. However, I often find that many of my peers get so passionate about illustrating their point that they lose it. In turn, our conservative counterparts, who often don’t share our fire, desire and compassion use these moments to discredit our views on the basis that we can’t clearly state them in 30 words or less.

The progressive voice in this mayoral race is missing. Why? Is it because overzealous storytelling trumps the utility of the story itself? Can the progressives in this mayoral race just get to the point?

About Tonika Morgan

Comments

[Sonny Yeung]

There are progressive voices in the election. Unfortunately, the corporate media is focusing on 5 right wing and 1 status quo mayoral candidate.
Of the 26, two thirds are right of centre on the political spectrum. There are alternative sources to the Toronto Star(smile)

[Go Ford!]

The "progressives" ran the show for the last 7 years and brought this city to the brink of disaster with their incompetence. Is it any wonder that none of the mayoral candidates want to wear the Miller Millstone around their necks. So now we have a few center-right candidates (Ford, Thompson), a few center-left candidates (Smitherman, Rossi, Mammoliti) pretending to be centre-right and the "progressives" trying desperately to appear closer to the centre than they are.

[greg]

the city has grown impatient with so called progressives. Toronto's council has brought us to the point where we now associate progressive policies to budget defitics, service cuts, strikes and new taxes/ service fees or whatever we call them today. This is the reason why progressive voices have been drowned out by the media and why more conservative voices are dominating the debate. We can put the blame solely on the perceived failures of the current administration, who calls themselves progressive on a daily basis.

Maybe there needs to be a new progressive movement, one that connects with the people in this city in a meaningful way.