Fourth mayoral candidate surfaces at Strive debate. Lou Turco doesn't

After missing previous mayoral debates, mystery candidate Kemal Martinovic finally showed up last night at an election event organized by Strive Young Professionals Group and Golden Child Kitchen.

Martinovic declined to answer a number of questions, citing insufficient knowledge.

He told SooToday that he hadn't attended the earlier mayoral debates because he was "under the weather."

Describing his electoral platform, Martinovic mumbled something about integrity and then quipped: "I thought a platform would be something you jump on, but that's neither here nor there."

When asked by moderator Elaine Della-Mattia at the close of last night's debate to provide a 90-second closing statement, he remarkably said: "Well, there again, it's a hard question."

"It's just your 90-second closing," Della-Mattia prompted.

"I'm hoping for the best and expecting the worst," Martinovic offered.

In an earlier written statement, Martinovic promised to cut city spending by $6 million a year by rolling back wages and salaries of all unionized and non-unionized city employees to January 2015 levels.

"No services will be cut," he said.

Two-way traffic downtown

Asked for his stand on allowing two-way traffic on Queen and Bay streets, Martinovic said the idea is "not good."

"We'll just leave everything alone, that's my opinion," he added. "It would cost money. We don't need to spend any more money if we don't have to."

Incumbent Christian Provenzano said he's worried about the cost of switching to two-way downtown traffic.

"I'm concerned that... it's going to be too expensive and the value isn't going to be there. But I'll make that decision when I get the report with the next council," the mayor said. 

"My personal opinion, I would like to see two-way traffic, based on my experience with other communities I've lived in," said candidate Ted Johnston. "I love cities that are pedestrian-friendly. I love cities that base themselves on people getting out and getting around out of their vehicles.... A two-way street is kind of a way of doing that."

Rory Ring agreed with making Queen Street two-way, citing "a proven economic benefit."

"It will foster more small businesses to be developed. It'll foster more activity and engagement," Ring said.

Some other highlights of the mayoral debate:

• Ring, who's promising lower taxes, proposed expanding the boundaries of the Downtown Association
• Provenzano warned Ring that all members of the Downtown Association are taxed, so "if you enlarge it, you increase the taxes"
• Ring responded that the Downtown Association could only be expanded with permission of "about 98 per cent of the businesses involved"
• Provenzano repeated a commitment he made earlier this year, that if re-elected, this will be his last term as mayor
• Ring described the M.S. Norgoma as "an amazing piece of history," adding "I think we need to embrace that, not cast it out"
• Provenzano still wants to get rid of the Norgoma. "I am not of the personal belief that this boat represents our community's history. First Nations culture, coming here for thousands of years, represents our community's history," he said. "I don't think 11 or 12 years of this packet freighter stopping here is our history"
• Johnston called for more public input on the Norgoma, and said he would side with the majority
• Martinovic said he wouldn't kick out the Norgoma
• Provenzano hilariously referred to the programming language used by much of the city's antiquated information technology hardware as 'COBALT." In fact, the antiquated software is known as COBOL (common business-oriented language)
• Johnston revealed that, while he's fully capable of disarming a land mine, he has no idea how to use a smartphone
• to that, Ring replied: "For some of us, a smartphone is a land mine"
• Johnston quoted former Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King: "Where there is a lack of public input, there is likely to be bad government, which sooner or later becomes autocratic government"

Where in the world is Councillor Turco?

After the mayoral debate with incumbent Christian Provenzano, Rory Ring and Ted Johnston, a second debate was held for candidates in Ward 2, which includes the downtown commercial district.

Moderator Elaine Della-Mattia announced that longtime councillor Lou Turco had "chosen not to participate this evening," evoking audible groans from the audience.

It was the third ward debate that Turco had missed, prompting an angry response from candidate Sam Cistaro.

"It is so disappointing, the lack of respect that he shows the process," Cistaro said.

"All of you people are possible voters for him. He takes it for granted. If he gets elected this time, it'll be 22 years on council. What has he done for 22 years?"

At an Oct. 9 ward debate at Algoma University, Cistaro said Turco's truancy started well before the current election campaign.

He accused Turco of missing more meetings than any city councillor and having the least number of motions – five in the last four years.

Last night, Cistaro was greeted with loud applause from the young professionals when he suggested trying to get #whereslou trending on Twitter.

Cistaro also promised to fight for term limits for city councillors.

"No one should be on City Council for 22 years. If I'm elected I will do my best to cap that at eight years, two consecutive terms. You sit out a term, if you want to come back, that's great," he said.

Also running in Ward 2 are Luke Dufour, Ted Hallin, D.J. Thyne, Lou Turco, Lisa Vezeau-Allen and Jason Young.

The election is this Monday, Oct. 22.

Angela Caputo of Golden Child Kitchen and Breakfast Pig Badass Eatery said this will be the first time she's voted in her 34 years. "Politics is for everyone. Everyone should know about this stuff," Caputo said.