George Smitherman rides the TTC.
George Smitherman is the political equivalent of Lady Gaga in Christina Rajabalan's Grade 12 politics class and if these teens were old enough to vote he might win by a landslide.
In a recent poll at East York Collegiate Institute, Mr. Smitherman took 34 votes, Joe Patalone was the runner-up with 21 and Rob Ford trailed with just 18. Only six of the nearly 80 students polled are old enough to vote, so the margin of error is, well, bigger than Justin Bieber.
The class discussed the results Friday and what might have led to the differences between their poll and broader ones of voting-age adults.
"Younger voters tend to be more liberal," their teacher, Ms. Rajabalan said.
The students nodded and one boy suggested that a campaign platform built on municipal tax cuts isn't likely to resonate with a demographic who've never bought anything more expensive than a pizza.
The bigger surprise is Mr. Pantalone's strong appeal to young almost-voters.
"I think Joe Pantalone is adorable," gushed Any Obando, 17, after watching a clip from this week's debate.
David So, 17, suggested the same thing that happened in Calgary's mayoral race could happen here, and Mr. Pantalone could come from behind.
The deputy mayor deserves props for his experience, according to Elias Haziprodromu, 17, but ultimately it's more important in this race to vote strategically.
"It's like you're giving away a vote if you vote for Joe Pantalone, it's as good as a vote for Rob Ford," he said.
A quick show of hands revealed that none of the students was in favour of lowering the voting age to 16. They said none of their friends was informed enough to deserve a vote.
Many, for that matter, thought their parents were uninformed, and could learn a lot in Ms. Rajabalan's classroom.
"I made my parents vote for Smitherman, they were going to vote for Ford, but I took them to the campaign websites," Ms. Obando said. She said her father is a cyclist and was alarmed to learn of Mr. Ford's lack of support for bike lanes.
"I think everybody should have to take this class," said Marc Bernardo, 17. "I think if everybody was well-informed, we'd probably have different leaders."
He said that he and his dad both support Mr. Ford and were wary of Mr. Smitherman's ties to the eHealth scandal.
Their teacher, Ms. Rajabalan, said that Adam Giambrone's sex scandal early on in the campaign made it easy to get the students interested in local politics.
"I have to compete with Jersey Shore, so I bring in the scandals in order to get them interested," she said.