A discussion held as part of the mayoral debate at Evergreen Brick Works on Sunday gave many Torontonians the chance to listen and compare front-running candidates to three young underdog counterparts.
The front-runners included Olivia Chow and John Tory. The young underdogs included Klim Khomenko, Morgan Baskin and Matthew Crack.
Mayoral candidate Ari Goldkind also participated, in place of Doug Ford. Ford, who just entered the race on Friday, chose not to attend.
“All the young people”
Before the main debate, the three younger candidates were given the chance to share their plans for the city.
Matthew Crack, 24, explained his plan dubbed “Open-Source Democracy” as a system that will allow people to vote online on specific municipal issues. According to his website crackthequo.com “The result provides a quicker and more accurate city wide consensus as well as more participation beyond election season”.
Morgan Baskin, 19, the youngest of all of the candidates, elaborated her plan, which is based on three pillars. Her website www.morganbaskin.ca classifies them as:
Digital: “The city must leverage our connectivity to help manage transit issues, and improve city services. Making data accessible to all.”
Global: “We need a municipal government that is going to work to decrease barriers in helping Toronto’s cultural strengths as well as small and medium-sized businesses reach global markets.”
Green: “We need to take action to create the city we want to live and grow in. Bringing a focus to green space as we see greater housing intensification, understanding our lost rivers, and employing innovative transit strategies.”
Klim Khomenko, 22, summarized his plan called “Be the change.”
“I want to get people involved in politics and engaged with our political system, expand the political discourse in our city, challenging existing ways of doing things that aren´t working and propose alternative solutions for the issues facing us as a community,” reads his website www.klimkhomenko.ca
This debate was one of the many scheduled debates leading up to the Oct. 27 municipal election.
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