Toronto's municipal election campaign winds up in two days and on November 13th you have an opportunity to ensure that moving forward on the Bike Plan, and making Toronto a more bike friendly city are top priorities of the new City Council. Your vote for Mayoral and Council candidates who support Active Transportation, walking and cycling, will help ensure we see real action on these issues in the next term.

The Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation (TCAT) has worked to ensure that cycling and walking were important issues in this election. Surveys were sent to candidates for all positions up for election, Mayor, Councillor and Trustee. As you decide who you will vote for check the survey responses of the Mayoral Candidates and the council and trustee candidates in your ward.

The survey results were released at a press conference held by TCAT. There the TCAT plan to make toronto a walking and cycling city was endorsed by leading health environmental and business organizations. TCAT Press Conference Nov 1, 2006. Three speakers, Glen Murray, Chair of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, Dr. Alan Abelsohn of the Ontario College of Family Physicians and Gil Peñalosa of Walk and Bike for Life spoke about why the City of Toronto needs to support Active Transportation, walking and cycling, and in support of TCAT's plan to do that. You can see the video of the press conference at the following link. TCAT Press Conference Video- Nov. 1, 2006.. The election is your chance to add your voice to the call for more action on these issues.

If you are not sure which ward you are in or where to vote you can get all at the information at the City of Toronto web page 'Where do I vote?'. You can find answers to other voting questions at the City of Toronto's Toronto Votes 2006 - Voter Information page. If you are not yet on the voters list you can still vote by filling out a form at the polling site. Make sure you bring photo I.D. and something to prove your address is in your ward like a phone bill or other document with your name and address on it.

The Mayor and Council that is elected on Monday, November 13th, 2006 will determine the fate of the Bike Plan for the next four years. Vote to ensure it is a bright future for cycling and for the health of the City. As TCAT says, vote to bike, vote with your feet!

If you are like me you feel a bit of guilt on voting day when it comes to drawing the line to mark my vote for trustee. Since the trustee races are not covered as well as the mayoral races or the councillor races you don't have much information to go on. You don't want to randomly pick one, that doesn't seem right. To help voters find out a little more about their trustee candidates the Toronto Coalition on Active Transportation (TCAT) sent them a survey asking them to get their views on Active Transportation, cycling and walking.

In its press release TCAT explains why the trustees were surveyed. “Our education system plays an important role in encouraging Toronto's youth to walk and cycle,” explains TCAT trustee survey coordinator Dylan Reid. “Schools are one of the first and most important destinations for young people when they begin to travel in the city. Through education, promotion, and facilities, schools can help develop safe, sustainable and healthy active transportation habits that will serve Toronto and its citizens well throughout their life.”

The links to the survey results at TCAT's Trustee Candidate Surveys web page.

The following is the announcement from the TCAT website. Go and check out how the candidates for Mayor and Council responded to the survey.

The responses to the Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation (TCAT) Active Transportation survey are now on line on TCAT's website at www.TorontoCAT.ca Toronto voters can now see where candidates for Councillor and Mayor stand on taking concrete steps to making Toronto a city where cycling and walking are safe and enjoyable; and on ensuring Active Transportation plays the role it should in Toronto's Transportation system. Active Transportation (cycling and walking) is an integral part of the urban transportation network, and the most sustainable, affordable and healthy form of transportation.

Links to the survey responses of the candidates for Mayor and Council on our website at the following links:
Council Candidates: TorontoCAT.ca/CouncilCandidates.html
Mayoral Candidates: TorontoCAT.ca/MayoralCandidates.html

The TCAT Active Transportation survey consists of 18 questions that ask candidates to let Toronto voters know where they stand on key initiatives that the next city council will need to support in order to improve active transportation in Toronto. The survey also provides a ward-by-ward breakdown of key active transportation projects and asks candidates if they will act as champions for the projects in their wards.

As Torontonians consider which candidates that they will vote for on November 13th, 2006 TCAT encourages them to consider the candidate's position on the measures proposed in the TCAT Plan to BUILD a continuous cycling and pedestrian network, INTEGRATE cycling and pedestrian issues into city planning, PROMOTE walking and cycling as safe transportation, PROTECT vulnerable road users through better policy and design, and LEAD by example as a cycling, walking city.

The Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation (TCAT) was formed to give a unified voice to the many groups working for a better cycling and pedestrian environment in Toronto. The TCAT plan for active transportation emerged out of consultation with environmental, health and transportation groups from across Toronto.

We have made every effort to contact all candidates by gathering contact info from publicly available sources. Thanks to Dave Meslin of whorunsthistown.to for his assistance in this endeavour. In spite of this there are still some candidates for whom we don't have contact information and were unable to contact, those are indicated on the site. If you are a candidate who has not received a survey please contact us at info@torontocat.ca. Not all candidates have returned the survey. Those are also indicated. TCAT encourages all candidates to complete the survey and return it to be posted so voters can make an informed decision on election day.

TCAT Coordinating Team

The 2006 Toronto municipal election campaign is underway. The deadline for the registration of candidates closed on September 29th, 2006 and there are 38 candidates running for Mayor and 275 candidates running for the 44 council positions. The future of the Toronto Bike Plan will rest in the hands of the Mayor and the 44 Councillors who are elected this November 13th, 2006. They will be responsible for setting the budgets, approving the bike lanes and deciding on the fate the programs that are called for in the Bike Plan for the next four years.

This is a critical campaign and if the cycling community wants to see real progress in implementing the Bike Plan over the next four years they have to get active in this campaign. There are three ways to get involved in the election and show your support for cycling: voting for candidates who support cycling, working for those candidate's campaigns, and contributing money to those candidate's campaigns.

The question is then which candidates support cycling and the measures outlined in the Toronto Bike Plan. The Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation (TCAT) www.TorontoCAT.ca, a coalition of cycling, pedestrian, health and environmental groups, is trying to do just that by conducting a survey of all candidates in the municipal election to gauge their level of support for Active Transportation, walking and cycling. TCAT will start posting the results of the survey in mid-October. You can see a copy of the survey questions at the following web pages: Mayoral Candidate Survey, Ward Councillor Candidate Survey. Part of the Ward Councillor Candidate surveys is a question on the support of the candidates for the Bikeway Network Projects in the ward. You can see the lists of projects for all the wards at the following page TCAT - Ward Info. You can see the candidates that are running in your ward at www.whorunsthistown.to

You can support the work of TCAT by asking candidates who call on you if they support the TCAT plan for Active Transportation and cycling. Tell them you do. Ask them if they have filled out and sent in the TCAT survey. Go to all candidates meetings, ask the candidates questions from the survey. Ask them if they support the bike lanes planned in your ward.

Once you know the candidate in your ward that best supports Active Transportation, work to get them elected. This could mean handing out flyers, making phone calls on their behalf, going door to door canvassing with them, helping out in their campaign office or working to get the vote out on election day.

The third way to support a candidate is to make a donation to their campaign. There is a rebate for a portion of the contribution to those who make contributions of over $25. You can see the rules governing contributions at the following page Toronto Vote 2006 Contributor Information.

2007 will be the 6th year of the 10 year Bike Plan. This council will be in power till 2010. Toronto will only see progress on the Bike Plan if the next Mayor and council make it a priority. To make it a priority after the election it has to be made an issue during the election. A coalition is building to see that happen. Your involvement will add to that momentum.

Martin Koob
tcc-rep@tbn.ca