This is an old revision of this page, as edited by GoldDragon (talk | contribs) at 05:23, 6 October 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 05:23, 6 October 2006 by GoldDragon (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Sylvia Watson is a Canadian politician. She is a Toronto City Councillor for ward 14, part of the riding of Parkdale-High Park. Watson was elected in the 2003 municipal election replacing the long serving Chris Korwin-Kuczynski who retired from politics. She handily beat a field of seven other candidates.
Prior to being elected, Watson was a city employee with the Legal Department. Watson's voting record has positioned her as left-leaning, supporting many of mayor David Miller's initiatives. Her support has garnered her influential positions on city committees including chair of the Administration Committee.
However, in 2004 she broke with progressive ranks, and voted against a citywide pesticide ban, despite the recommendation of the city's medical officer of health.
In June 2006, Watson withdrew her candidacy for re-election to city council in order to run unsuccessfully as an Ontario Liberal Party candidate to succeed Gerard Kennedy in the Parkdale—High Park by-election. Some saw that the election indicated the differential between the Liberals' popularity and Kennedy's personal popularity. Kennedy's work as food bank director and education critic/minister allowed him to appeal to the many NDP voters in the riding. Ms. Watson was apparently unable to ride the coattails of his popularity. While Watson ran on the McGuinty government's record of education and health care, her opponents targeted numerous Liberal broken promises, including the addition of the $2.4-billion health premium after campaigning on a pledge to not raise taxes
During the course of this election her campaign released a number of controversial press releases attacking NDP candidate Cheri DiNovo. These releases have made reference to Cheri DiNovo's LSD use at a younger age and her lambasting of the media circus surrounding serial killer Karla Homolka. Several cabinet ministers also joined the attack on DiNovo, with Sandra Pupatello saying "DiNovo's comments do not reflect the views of any candidate who should be running for office". Both NDP and Conservative candidates for the riding denounced the press releases, claiming that they were taken out of context and were little more than a smear. The backlash also extened to Premier McGuinty himself, as some accused him of condoning or orchestrating the smear campaign.
External links
References
Source: http://www.toronto.ca/vote2003/results/officialdeclaration.pdf
Category: