John Tory, member of Mel Lastman’s kitchen cabinet at the height of the MFP scandal .

John Tory, who endorsed both Rob and Doug Ford (open Doug Ford's policard) in 2010 (publicly and with his wallet), and continued to support them right up until he decided to run for mayor himself.

John Tory, who in 2014 urged women to learn to play golf in order to earn more money.

John Tory, who, when asked whether white privilege exists, replied “No, I don’t know that it does.” (Ahem: QED.)

John Tory, whose transit plan has been systematically criticized by experts, whose shaky funding mechanism is completely untested on this scale in Canada.

John Tory, who said at a debate that the city has no role to play in creating child-care spaces.

This is the man many progressives are convincing themselves they must vote for. It’s strategic voting, we hear. It’s about making sure Doug Ford does not get elected.

This whole city has been so traumatized by the Ford years that some progressive voters are willing to overlook all that is so retrograde and unappetizing about John Tory, just because he is not Rob or Doug Ford. Or even more weirdly, because Olivia Chow did not embody everything they wanted in a Ford-vanquishing campaigner.

Do you care about poverty? Anti-racism? Affordable housing? Implementing plans crafted by actual transit experts to improve public transit? Do you have a stake in child care and after-school recreation programmes? Would you like to see a minimum grid of safe, connected bike lanes established? Do you value the arts and public services? Do you recognize that poor neighbourhoods are underserved and believe that city government has a role to play in addressing that?

If you answered yes to even one of those questions, summon yourself out of our collective Ford-whipped trauma and recognize that John Tory has proposed no plans to tackle any of those issues. In his many positions, he has been chronically unwilling to acknowledge or address any kind of systemic or structural barrier. His world view is a Victorian charity model, where philanthropists make donations and give the needy “a hand up” and nothing ever changes. At a debate in the Jane-Finch neighbourhood, he referred to his own work in so Romney-esque a fashion that we half-expected him to invoke “binders full of people of colour.”

John Tory will be civil. He will not smoke crack. He will not muse about “jamming” female colleagues. He will not use racial slurs. He is unlikely to run over Pam McConnell (open Pam McConnell's policard) while racing to the aid of his thug brother.

Is that really all you need?

We are voting for Olivia Chow. Not because she ran a perfect campaign — we wish she had campaigned from the beginning on an unabashedly progressive platform, leading an aspirational conversation about the kind of city we want to build. But no, she has campaigned in the same traumatized climate that we are voting in, cautiously arriving in the third trimester at her vision of Toronto. Regardless, Chow’s track record is one of fighting inequality and improving city services. And her platform is the only one that recognizes there are systemic problems that disadvantage certain residents, and structural inequities that need redress.

We want our votes to count. We believe municipal politics have a huge impact on people’s lives, and we will not use our votes to trade the bully conservative at the top for another more polite one. We will vote for a candidate who understands — from experience — the immigrant reality of the millions who built this city, continue to build it and remain under-represented and underserved despite their huge contributions.

It is an understandable but fundamentally irrational choice to think that voting for Tory is the way to right the Fords’ wrongs. Strategic voting is only strategic if it gets you the things you want. If it nets you a mayor who is blind to the systemic inequalities that plague Toronto, we get a repeat of the last four years of decay, turmoil, and exclusion, minus the sordid bits. Remember that, as you start to hear John Tory steal Olivia Chow’s lines this week in an attempt to woo her supporters.

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Can Olivia Chow beat Doug Ford? Absolutely, if only we might clear our heads and hearts of the Fords’ poison, remember what our priorities are as progressive voters, and make a decision based on policies, track records, and values.

Andrea Addario was Mayor David Miller’s communications director from 2003 to 2005. Sarah Polley is an award-winning actor and director.

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