Word is out today the London District Building & Construction Trades Council has thrown their 10,000 strong membership behind Joe Fontana.  Now I’m not one to believe that union members blindly follow their leadership - despite popular mythology, to be in a union is not to be a mindless follower of the mothership - but this endorsement is still nothing to shrug at.  I wouldn’t be shocked to see more ‘keep London growing’ types throw their support behind Mr. Fontana.  For a list of who these folks are, you can check out the ‘Keep London Growing Coalition’ here.

So what does this mean, exactly?  Well, for starters this race might be more competitive than first thought.  A couple of unions throwing their support behind Fontanta isn’t going to tip this race in his favour, but it may cause long-time supporters of the Mayor to evaluate where they’re going to put their support during this election.  I’d say a cake-walk just turned into a stroll through the park with a little blister on your foot - the kind of blister that gets more painful if you don’t take it seriously. 

Second, if the public gets the change bug, our mayor may be in trouble given that she’s branding herself as “London’s longest serving mayor.”  That’s a fine thing to promote when people are generally happy, but not so great if a “throw the bums out” vibe begins breaking out in our fine city.  Also, politics is less about how long you’ve served and more about what you’ve done lately (like, in the past 18 months lately), and what you’re going to do next - a little less celebrating the past with fancy logos and a little more promoting a fresh and compelling vision for the future would be my advice to Her Worship’s campaign team.

Finally, I’m actually really happy this endorsement has come.  It means a big theme of the election is bound to be how London should grow in the future.  This is a really, really big question that voters need to answer for themselves before entering the polling place as it touches everything from transportation to housing to the tax base.  From this endorsement it seems Mr. Fontana may be of the “Keep London Growing Coalition” ilk, and the Mayor will likely be on the “Smart Growth” track.  If that’s what the election is about, looks like my choice will be an easy one!  If your reaction to the above paragraph is “Courtice, you whimsical minx, what the heck are you talking about?” I’ll get into this issue in more depth as the election draws near.

I will say that this election better not be about “growth” versus “anti-growth” - you’ll have a hard time finding any Councillors who don’t support growth, despite hot rhetoric to the contrary.  The questions for anyone who isn’t a spin-doctor disingenously trying to demonize their opposition are: how we grow, who decides, and how public and private interests are balanced.  This is big stuff, and we best all pay attention to this theme and be ready to ask candidates some good questions come the fall.