It looks like pressed a few buttons over at Raise the Hammer. I have to admit that I was taken aback about some of the comments about my piece, but a thick skin is what is needed when you venture out and let people know of your opinion, especially after being called a "smart ass writer".
My thanks to Ryan for publishing my thoughts on Mahesh Butani's rant. Perhaps I will be doing more commentary on the mayoral race as time goes on. But I need to touch on some thoughts that were laid out, because some took exception to a supplementary statement I made in the comments area that, "an endorsement from the Spec is gold." Some argued that it was bunk because Fred Eisenberger won the election despite Larry DiIanni being endorsed.
But I need to point out that despite all the polls, especially a bogus one that left the impression that there was nothing that could get in DiIanni's way of a second term, Fred Eisenberger did win. That shows that it's one thing to win an opinion poll, but another thing to win the election. As they say in football, you can predict the outcome of a game, but you can't give the win to a team before the game is played. So let's go over why Eisenberger won over DiIanni. The most obvious thing here is that not one candidate could even reach the 50% mark.
One could speculate that it was the low voter turnout that did it. Perhaps everyone thought he had it in the bag and just didn't bother to show up and do the formalities. Some could speculate that the Spectator poll was a load of junk and the election demonstrated that.
But the most obvious thing I could see here is that there were more votes against DiIanni than for him. It was more that Di Ianni lost the election than Eisenberger won it. Unfortunately, I can't see how the election was broken down by wards and that would have better illustrated where the voters were from. What I am sure of is that Ancaster, Dundas and Flamborough had a free-for-all, making those the wild card areas or kingmakers, while Hamilton, Stoney Creek and Glanbrook would have had very close numbers between them.
It is too easy to criticize the media when you don't see things their way. Heaven knows a lot of the logic used in the papers have me shaking my head a lot these days. But opinion is just that. And phone-in polls are only as good as the participants, while random polls are only as good as the sample. Look, most polls are psychological. They hope that you'll see things their way. But as they say, you can lead a horse to water, etc...
There are those who thought that Mahesh Butani's letter was a metaphoric banging on the doors on Frid Street to get attention to some apparent attempt to shut out someone of the wrong race from the mayoral race. The problem with that analogy is that other than the blogosphere debating this matter, nobody's paying attention. When you burn one bridge that could have got you some respectable notoriety, what do you replace it with? My concern with Mahesh's approach to the Spec was that if he did come across as a loose cannon, throwing baseless accusations, who will pay attention to him? Who will Mahesh have to rely on to make sure people know who he is? He needs the media to get his messages out, otherwise nobody knows who he is. And yes, he doesn't just need the Spec, but it would be a good start.
Look at it this way: the media is a tool and nothing more. If you use the right ones, you will do well, but use or abuse the wrong ones and your fortunes will turn for the worst and from that point, nobody's listening. But don't shoot the messenger for it. Love them or hate them, we need the media to inform us and entertain us and hopefully enlighten us. But keep in mind the words of Marshall McLuhan: "The medium is the message."
The fact is that civic elections are supposed to be civilized. We have them so we're not having civil wars over who is in charge and that everyone has a say in who they want in charge. Unfortunately, not everybody wins, but that's democracy and that's the world we live in. We have a right to be unhappy, but only when you actually vote.
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