Ari Goldkind is a successful criminal lawyer — whom you’ve probably never heard of — who’s running for mayor.

He has virtually no chance of winning.

Goldkind is smart, has realistic ideas about fixing Toronto’s transit woes, and as an outsider doesn’t have the baggage so many career politicians carry.

But that doesn’t really matter.

This 2014 municipal election is (politically) the most star-studded contest Toronto has seen since amalgamation. Voters have three top-tier candidates to choose from in John Tory, Olivia Chow and Rob Ford. Karen Stintz hasn’t cracked double digits in the polls yet, but she has A-list strategists on her team, access to donor dollars and solid name recognition.

Former councillor David Soknacki is a long shot, but he has enough support from current members of council that he landed the token “dark horse” slot on the major candidate roster.

The rest are the so-called “fringe” contenders. There’s a dominatrix, an 18-year-old high school student and a musician activist whose campaign website is robbnotford.com.

In fact, because the starting lineup is so packed, some of the “fringe” might actually have had a shot in years gone by. Sarah Thomson, who registered her candidacy Thursday morning, was the Soknacki in the 2010 election. (She eventually dropped out to support George Smitherman). There’s also former councillor and police board chair Norm Gardner.

And of course, Goldkind.

So for candidates like Thomson, Gardner, and Goldkind — who know the odds are stacked against them, but push forward anyway — the question is: Why bother?

“The truth is, I’ve been asked this even by people close to me,” said Goldkind. “I believe that if I can just get a seat at the table, you put me in a room with Tory, Ford, Stintz or Chow, and no one is going to question that I should be there.”

Gardner said much the same: “I think if I can get my message out, I think I could get a lot of support,” he said.

While Goldkind is convinced he can win, Gardner has a slightly more pragmatic goal.

“Whether I get in or not, if my ideas are adopted it would improve Toronto,” he said.

(Gardner’s main priorities are fixing ambulance service and shelving the Scarborough subway extension until other, higher priority areas are dealt with.)

Bernie Morton, a seasoned political veteran who helmed Rocco Rossi’s bid in 2010, said there’s no easy answer to the fringe question.

“On the one hand you want to encourage democracy. On the other hand, you want to make sure that the electorate is properly served. And when you see a ballot with so many names on it, often I think it can confuse the voters,” Morton said.

“Running when you have no chance of winning and knowing that you (can’t) raise the money needed to share your ideas, and if you don’t have a strong component of community support, then really — those motivations are not in the best interest of the electorate.”

At present, there are 41 candidates registered to run for mayor. By Oct. 27, there will be many more. And unfortunately, said Morton, most don’t seem to be there for the right reasons.

“I think if they were serious they would probably put their name on the ballot to run for council first,” Morton said. “Most aren’t even part of their local ratepayers association or engaged in community groups.”

It’s not written in stone that a mayoral candidate has to be a councillor first, he said. Someone with a high-profile position in the public and/or private sector could be just as qualified, but the motivation should be serving the public, not self-promotion.

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People sometimes point to Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi — who came out of nowhere to win back in 2010 — as an example of why it’s important to give a platform to more than just the perceived frontrunners.

But as Peter MacLeod points out, the odds might have been against Nenshi, but he wasn’t “fringe.” He was a professor who had been involved in various high-profile civic movements, who was able to rally ground support and inspire the electorate with ideas.

MacLeod, who is the principal of MASSLBP —essentially a democracy consulting firm — said the lack of political parties in Toronto’s system is partly to blame for the huge number of candidates. A party system helps weed out those who aren’t serious.

Then again, he said, “We’ve got to have a degree of patience for the vanity projects and self-promoters, because it’s also a hallmark for an open society.”

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