Top Toronto Mayoral Candidates Make Their Pitch at ZoomerMedia’s Doors Open Event

From the driver’s seat of his gorgeous 1954 white Jaguar XK120 drophead coupe, Moses Znaimer, CEO and founder of ZoomerMedia, greeted all the leading Toronto mayoral hopefuls as they showed up for this years Doors Open – The ZoomerPlex, held this past weekend in Toronto’s Liberty Village.

All of the big names vying to become municipal leader showed up: Olivia Chow, Anthony Furey, Mitzie Hunter, Mark Saunders, Josh Matlow, Ana Bailão, Brad Bradford and Chloe Brown were on hand to greet some of the thousands of voters who came to enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at the media company and connect with volunteers who were staffing booths at the candidates fair.

 

 

With promises ranging from making the TTC free and freezing property tax for seniors to cleaning up the city and cracking down on crime, the mayoral candidates took advantage of gorgeous spring weather this weekend for a campaign stop at the corporate headquarters of ZoomerMedia’s television, digital, print and radio divisions and home to CARP, the largest advocacy organization for older Canadians.

 

 

They’re trying to stake their ground in a crowded field of more than 100 candidates leading up to the June 26 by-election, which became necessary when previous mayor John Tory resigned in February after admitting to an affair with a former staffer. The candidates visited the television and radio studios and toured the MZTV Museum of Television before meeting with campaign workers who were staffing information tables.

 

 

After an informal meeting with Moses, Anthony Quinn, CARP’s chief community and benefits officer, took the candidates on a tour of the ZoomerPlex. The mayor hopefuls also took advantage of the multitude of media opportunities, making a video pitch on Vox Box, (ZoomerMedia’s Speaker’s Corner) or stopping in at the New Classical FM radio.

“It was our first candidates fair, and it was a huge success,” said Quinn, who oversaw the mayoral turnout. “We took advantage of the thousands of people visiting and gave them the opportunity to meet the candidates and learn about their platforms.”

 

 

Veteran politician Olivia Chow, who leads in the early polls, rolled into the event on her bike lugging a heavy knapsack full of books. Although the election front-runner did not speak directly about her platform, she met voters, did a radio spot explaining how she would support the arts, and toured the buildings.

 

 

As far as senior-friendly election promises, Mitzie Hunter stole the headlines by announcing several major promises that should appeal to older voters, including making the TTC and Wheel-Trans free to seniors, freezing property taxes for homeowners over 65 (who make an income lower than $80,000 per year) and expanding public services to make them more accessible to seniors. Anthony Furey staked out his ground on the right, sharing his vision on getting the city working again while Mark Saunders spoke about making the city safer and more affordable.

 

 

Josh Matlow shared his vision to create a caring, respectful and accessible city, Ana Bailão discussed how she plans to bring health care services to isolated seniors and Brad Bradford promised to end gridlock, make the TTC safer and cut costs instead of raising taxes.

The candidates will return to ZoomerPlex later in the campaign for the CARP Debate, which will focus on seniors issues. The debate will take place on June 7 at noon on Zoomer Radio’s Fight Back With Libby Znaimer. It will also be streamed on carp.ca and blogTO.

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