Down low evil

I went to vote today in Toronto's municipal election.  There are times when I vote and I am excited, thinking that the person I am voting for might win, that change might be in the air.

Not so today.

John Tory is the mayor of Toronto, and as of this morning he was polling at 60%, with his nearest opponent polling at 30%.  You can see that there isn't a lot left for anyone else, so I have no doubt that Tory will be the mayor of Toronto again, despite the fact that I did not vote for him.

I can't tell whether Tory is an improvement over his predecessor.  The previous mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, was an international laughingstock - the crack smokin' mayor of Toronto.  He was a jackass, a buffoon, and a terrible mayor.

Tory isn't an international laughingstock.  He is bland, boring, and if a person could be beige in character, Tory is.  When asked to reveal a secret about himself, he responded that he had played trumpet in a band in his early years.

Trumpet.  How... exciting.

Tory has plenty of terrible policies, but he knows how to mutter platitudes and be inoffensive.  It seems like a huge upgrade over Ford's endless disaster, but I can't help but wonder if that is true.  Ford got sidelined in council and largely ignored, but Tory has managed to keep lots of people on his side and I have no doubt that he is being effective.  Unfortunately for the people of Toronto he is being effective in the traditional conservative fashion - push to solve problems by lowering taxes and hiring police.

Ford made progressives like me sad in a bright, savage way.  We were so upset by his blatant evil that we tripped over ourselves trying to hate him more than the next person.  The sadness Tory brings is a trembling, grinding sadness.  A sense that his kind of terrible governance is inevitable, unstoppable.  We can't rally the middle against him because he is careful to not upset them.  Ford could be easily called a disgrace, but that is a harder word to stick to Tory, no matter how much you might believe it.

The world does continue to get better.  I believe that, without doubt.  But I can't help but be discouraged that Tory is able to so easily get by simply by virtue of not being anywhere near as offensive as the previous mayor.  I wish the bar were higher than that.