The Group Opposing Miller mulls a leadership convention to pick its contender

Running for the right

By ROB GRANATSTEIN, EDITOR

Last Updated: 2nd November 2008, 2:34am


The encouraging news out of City Hall is the GOM (Group Opposing Miller) have come to the real world conclusion only one person can run against Mayor David Miller in the 2010 election.

Then it gets interesting.

How do you decide who has the best shot at knocking off the boss?

The answer the GOM is working on may shock you -- a leadership convention.

"We'll throw confetti, we'll give speeches," said Coun. Karen Stintz, a viable contender for the role of hopeful-for-mayor.

She compared it to a Churchill moment, make the speech of your life, get your fellow councillors and the residents of the city on side, then run at the mayor.

Intriguing. That said, a convention, like political parties throw, is far from a sure thing.

There are huge issues to resolve. How do you pay for it when candidates can't spend any money on their campaigns until Jan. 1, 2010, and this would all have to happen in the fall of 2009 at the latest?

Who gets a vote?

Will everyone mulling a run against Miller -- from Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong to Coun. Michael Thompson to Coun. Rob Ford to Heart and Stroke CEO Rocco Rossi to even provincial infrastructure minister George Smitherman -- be willing to be part of this competition?

And, if it is councillors who vote, are they really the best people to be making this decision?

But it sure would be fun.

It's the sort of idea that could get Toronto -- a city where many are eager for a choice other than Miller in the next election -- enthused about the vote, and expose the winner to the spotlight.

Under the leadership of the senior members of council, Case Ootes and Michael Feldman, the right -- and they hope soon, the centre -- are working on coming together as a group, developing a platform and putting together, something Torontonians could get excited about.

This can work if the politicians can get past their little fiefdoms and come up with sound positions on city-wide issues the entire group could latch on to and support.

These politicians would have to come a long way from their self-interested, un-cooperative and dysfunctional selves. This group couldn't and wouldn't be forced to vote with the team as in a cabinet, but rather try to come to a consensus.

This plan can only work if everyone who's not on Miller's NDP team, like Brian Ashton, Peter Milczyn, Mark Grimes, Bill Saundercook, Ron Moeser, Paul Ainslie and Cliff Jenkins, pop onto the same page.

And what about the John McCain mavericks on council? Rob Ford, Doug Holyday, Mike Del Grande and Michael Walker? It has to be a large group or any effort will fail.

The most recent meeting of this group happened last week, with seven councillors, Stintz, Ootes, Feldman, Minnan-Wong, John Parker, David Shiner and Frances Nunziata.

"If we can get this group together, I'd certainly be interested," Stintz said about a run for the mayor's chair.

"You can't have eight people on Jan. 1, 2010, fighting for money, fighting for attention," Stintz said. "You're giving Miller a free pass."

Ootes said the candidate to go up against Miller doesn't necessarily have to be a Toronto politician, although a non-councillor has never made the jump to mayor in the modern era.

"I don't care whether it's in or out of council," Ootes said. "It's who's going to have the best shot at Miller."

But will this group of councillors opposing Miller even trust an outsider to do their bidding for them?

Stintz envisions convention speeches in the council chamber at City Hall, Miller's NDPers excluded, of course.

NO WHITE KNIGHT

But what would you do with a Liberal like Norm Kelly or Gloria Lindsay Luby, who likes to be seen as a Tory. Both are part of Miller's hand-picked team. Do they get a vote?

Stintz makes a point all Torontonians need to keep in mind: "I just don't think there's a white knight," she said. "It's not going to happen."

There isn't anyone waiting in the wings for the Bay Street big boys, like Paul Godfrey, to anoint as the next one.

The other big question: Can any of the "contestants" actually unseat Miller?

It's two years, six days until we get a final answer to that question.