Toronto voters, already hit by a storm of change, are starting to be pelted by messages about “villain” councillors and mayoral candidate statements deemed “silly,” “fringe” and even “separatist.”With Toronto’s election map and date finally clear, messages from the “third-party advertisers,” boosting some politicans and attacking others, are set to become a social-media deluge.To some, regulating the advertisers — that is, individuals and groups, who are independent of candidates, and blasting out election ads — is bringing transparency to what was a “wild west.”“There were no rules at all, and, most importantly, no transparency,” in who was behind Facebook posts, text messages and other communications recommending or reviling municipal candidates in past elections, says Ted McMeekin, a former Liberal MPP defeated in the June provincial election. Read more:Toronto city council candidates re-file paperwork for 25-ward election With clarity from court, Toronto councillors turn attention to 25-ward electionIs Toronto council inefficient? Maybe not compared to other levels of governmentAs provincial municipal affairs minister in the previous government, McMeekin helped introduce, along with shortened election periods and a provincewide expansion of Toronto’s ban on union and corporate donations to municipal candidates, this reform.“There’s probably some potential for abuse somewhere in the system,” McMeekin says. “It’s probably like having animals in your attic; you plug all the holes they can get in, and you end up with one squirrel instead of 40.”To others, including veteran Toronto city councillor Gord Perks, the province is sanctioning social-media smear campaigns.Voters “don’t have time to figure out who (third-party advertisers) are and what agenda they serve,” said Perks, running for re-election in P ...
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