What A Race to the finish in Ward 17 Davenport

"Alejandra Bravo (Ward 17, Davenport) is the perfect example of a 21st century Toronto — she speaks four languages and has a load of experience dealing with social justice and equity issues. We agree with the Toronto Star’s and NOW’s assessment: she offers the energy and intelligence in this less-than-affluent but vibrant west-side community. Our city needs more people on council with her qualities." - spacing.ca


It was right down to the bedtime hour for the two rival candidates in Ward 17 Davenport on Monday night to find out who was going to carry our issues to city council. The Hungarian House on St.Clair West @ Winona was the host of the Bravo/Mendes and Mihevc celebrations. Andrew Burke of Digital Contruction, my partner Veronia, step -daugther Bailey and I were there to check out the civic action on a very exciting evening.




Bravo was poised to be part of a new group of municipal councillors. A strong indicator that she was an appropiate choice for Greens and the candidate for the many cyclists in our riding came with the endorsements of both Pam McConnell – Ward 28 (Toronto Centre-Rosedale) and Paula Fletcher – Ward 30 (Toronto-Danforth).




I had the pleasure of meeting both of them two Sunday's ago on an afternoon walk with my step-daughter Bailey heading down Alberta Ave to grab a coffee at the Alcoa Bakery. Both are considered by spacing.ca to be strong advocates on cycling issues.

On an evening that saw Adam Vaughn victorious in Trinity Spadina and the near removal of Case Oates on the danforth, it seemed that the two time candidate would be on the move to a new office. Alejandra Bravo, an advocate for change with a wide breath of issues that have appeared on the municipal radar stepped out on the stage at around 9pm to concede defeat and thanked her supports for an excellent campaign.

She has created a local arts organization, advocated on immigrant issues and has a history of environmental concerns here in the community and in 2003 for the Toronto Bike Plan . We live in a beautiful part of the city and the environment is an important issue in Ward 17.

At 9:20pm on Monday night, the Hungarian Hall errupted as the doors at the far end burst open with cheers, clapping and chanting!! An ally of Bravo, Joe Mihevc a local champion of public transportation and cultural events on St. Clair returned to City hall with a huge victory last night in Ward 21. It appears that good ol Joe knows a thing or two about politics with a renewal of 57% of the vote. It was a great night to see citizens of st.clair and st.clair west enjoying food, good cheer and local democracy.

Several Green issues will be on the agenda for city council. An example of the work ahead would be the Tooker bike lane. Hayley Easto, the Toronto Representative on GPO Council and a strong advocate on cycling issues in Toronto participated on a ride last Saturday to draw attention to this issue. Hopefully, the city councillors identified as supporting cycling issues will come onboard to recognize a remarkable person and alternative tranportation.

The party that is now poised to work with cities and these re-invigourated city councillors is the Green Party of Ontario. Hot off the presses is Envisioning Sustainable Cities & Towns in Ontario that shows that the party understands the issues and policy decisions that need to be put in place to work with cities.

It is now time to turn our eyes to the 2007 provincial election where Frank Dejong and the emerging Green Party of Ontario will be advocating for the issues that make for a better Ontario- air, transit, renewable resources and plenty more of where that comes from!!!!