Toronto Election 2006 - The Invisible Election November 7, 2006

Toronto Election 2006 - The Invisible Election
A new face in every ward
Tuesday November 7, 2006 at 10 am
849 Dundas Street West

Meet in person a full slate of un-incumbent mainstream non-fringe candidates
running for Toronto City Council who until now, have been invisible in the mainstream media.

There will be a unusual gathering of Toronto municipal candidates at 10:00 AM on Tuesday, 7 November, 2006. Dozens of candidates from across the city will be coming together at Caffe Brasiliano, 849 Dundas Street West. They are committed to working together to make Toronto a better place.

"Can someone please inform City Hall that there is an election going on?" asks Dave Meslin, who first coined the phrase "The Invisible Election" on his Who Runs This Town website.

"We are the invisible candidates in the invisible election," said organizer Himy Syed, a candidate for Ward 19 Councillor and Deputy Mayor. "We are coming together to build a culture of civic engagement in this city. This election has the most candidates ever running in Toronto electoral history, yet there are many competent, candidates who aren't getting any attention in this race," said Syed.

The meeting, to be held in the campaign office of Syed's competitor George Sawision, is an unorthodox show of good faith in working together during an election campaign. It is also a barometer of the need for change in an electoral system that heavily favours the incumbents.

A number of other candidates will be sharing the spotlight with a competitor from their ward. The groundswell of candidates in this year's election shows the strong desire for new ideas and better representation in Toronto, arguably the most multicultural city in the world.

Many of the candidates coming together in this coalition of independent, non-incumbents came to know each other though City Idol, a competition earlier this year to win a volunteer campaign team to run for Toronto City Council. City Idol was organized by Dave Meslin, founder of the Toronto Public Space Committee and Who Runs This Town.

Because Tuesday morning November 7 will see the single largest gathering of independent un-incumbents during the entire 2006 municipal election, you are invited to meet this coalition of candidates dedicated to the vision of building a culture of civic engagement in Toronto. Unless independent, competent, non-fringe, candidates who thus far have been overlooked by the media in an election that has the most candidates in the history of the amalgamated City of Toronto, in one week's time, Toronto will discover just how invisible this election was.

Time is running out, Election Day is hours away, and Toronto can't wait for the next election in 2010.

Contact:

HiMY SYeD
679 Bloor Street West
KoreaTown, Ward 19
Toronto, ON M6G 1L3
Cell: 416.655.2641
E-mail: ward19[@]BecauseOnNovember13YouCanElectHiMYSYeD.TYO.ca
Website: www.The Invisible Election.TYO.ca

Official Website: http://www.TheInvisibleElection.TYO.ca