He faces stiff competition from Helen Kennedy, Chow’s former constituency assistant, Adam Vaughan, a long-time City Hall journalist, and four other candidates. “There is no municipal standard right now to hold a landlord accountable,” he said, stressing the need for city-licensed landlords.Ĭole, 24, is gunning for the city councillor seat vacated by Olivia Chow.

“Don’t dilly-dally with it,” he hollered at a defenseman at one point, before turning back to policy. Periodically, he would turn his head to scan the Leafs game on a television set.

He gushed about forming ward councils to deal with local issues at the neighbourhood level, and about extending municipal voting rights to 16-year-olds and non-citizens. He spoke excitedly about expanding bike lanes, encouraging green roofs on buildings to save energy, and working with businesses to use less air conditioning in summer. His beer glass emptying as he packed away a sandwich inside a nearby restaurant, awaiting CAA, Cole brimmed with ideas about bettering Toronto’s Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina.

His campaign for city councillor may have momentum, but in Kensington Market on Saturday night, Desmond Cole’s campaign car was not going anywhere.

J cole the audacity