Who will become Toronto’s next mayor?
That’s the question voters will answer on October 25, when they elect a new mayor to replace retiring Toronto Mayor David Miller.
It has been an exciting race so far, largely because of a former Toronto city councillor named Rob Ford. Ford has a “big personality” and doesn’t hesitate to speak his mind. Many people thought that such a big and boisterous candidate could never succeed in the race to become mayor, but Ford came out as the early leader and has maintained that position.
In fact, if the election were to be held tomorrow, Ford would win with about 28 per cent of the voters choosing him. In second place would be another former councillor, George Smitherman, with 23 per cent of the votes.
How do we know who might win an election? Before most elections, companies are hired by the media to take “polls” to find out who people are thinking of voting for. They call hundreds or thousands of random voters and ask them, “If the election were held today, who would you vote for?” That way, we get an idea of who the front-runners are and who’s not likely to be in the running.
In the Toronto election the main candidates are: Rob Ford, George Smitherman, Joe Pantalone and Rocco Rossi.
About 25 per cent of Toronto residents are either voting for someone else or still undecided about who they’re going to choose. And that’s a large margin of error – this election is still a toss-up. Stay tuned!
Update: Rob Ford won the election and is now Toronto’s mayor.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
Writing/Discussion Prompt
Each mayoral candidate has put forward several ideas to improve the city. Some ways in which they propose to improve the city: increasing public transit, focusing on the environment and decreasing homelessness. In your opinion, what are the most important issues facing people living in Toronto?
Reading Prompt
1. How does the headline on this article help you understand what the article is about?
Primary and Junior
Identify text features and explain how they help readers understand texts (OME, Reading: 2.3).
2. Why do you think the headline was written as a question rather than a statement?
Primary and Junior
1.5 Use stated and implied information and ideas in texts to make simple inferences and reasonable predictions about them (OME, Reading: 1.5).
Grammatical Feature: Comma
Highlight the use of the comma within the article. Discuss the use of the comma in the following passage: In the Toronto election so far the main candidates have been: Rob Ford (28%), George Smitherman (23%), Joe Pantalone (10%), Rocco Rossi (7%) and Sarah Thomson (7%).
