#Keesmaat vs #Tory and the #WiFi card

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I have made my preference for #Keesmaat4Mayor clear a while back even though I know she is more likely to lose. Let me tell you why and also about a lost opportunity for #Toronto and especially the downtown core, which involves better Internet access for everyone.

For weeks now, I’ve been hearing about how Keesmaat is “making gains” but John Tory is still solidly in the lead (cp24-gains). Though I would prefer that Keesmaat wins, I believe she won’t (tst-torywin). Whereas Tory has his platform finely tuned to appeal to both uptown / suburban ~~Toronto~~ GTA, Keesmaat seems to be content to target the downtown core.

Since I’m running in Ward 10, Fort York – Spadina, that’s mostly where I find myself in terms of both geography and ideas.

Keesmaat’s plan for Gardiner Expressway (tst-gex, tst-gard) illustrates perfectly this divide: to most people downtown is not bad, but it’s anathema for those who commute to downtown. Her previous “big idea”, Toronto “secession”, had not been well communicated and was subjected to attack ads (cbc-attacks). I did not go through all her promises (gn-promises), but I’m quite sure there is one missing: a Toronto municipal dark fiber network and blanket Wi-Fi coverage downtown.

darkfibre

Stockholm has installed this network long ago and propelled its inhabitants into Internet speed stratosphere – they have one of the highest speeds in the world while paying one of the lowest prices.

Stockholm STOKAB:

But as a former Rogers executive, John Tory could never oversee such a project.

downtownWIFI

TTC has started a contract for WiFi in all its stations but it’s moving exceptionally slow, and there is still no coverage in between stops.

It’s not hard to imagine providing seamless Wi-Fi coverage in the densely populated areas downtown under a similar contract, using the aforementioned dark fiber network as a backbone, on which APs are attached.

This article is not finished; I will finish it shortly. In the meantime, let’s have a look at articles supporting these ideas.

John Tory Rogers:

Montreal did it:

Sources / More info: cbc-attacks, cbc-endrs, tst-gex, tst-torywin, cp24-gains, tl-kplan, tgm-db8, tst-gard, now-1stdb8, gn-promises

Andrei Zodian: #thanksgiving, toronto, #keesmaat, #jennifer keesmaat, #tory, #john tory, #dark fiber, #dark fibre, #internet, #isp, #internet access (Tags)

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Andrei Zodian