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Matt Mernagh For Mayor

By  of The Mernahuana Show

I had a fairly strong debut for mayor candidacy on Sun News Network, Friday Jan. 3. The producer told me they had a problem finding a Toronto mayor candidate willing to come in on a Friday afternoon. Strange, given the number of candidates on the ballot to choose from.

The Mernagh Metro campaign clearly is outside of Toronto’s traditional political elite, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know how to campaign for public office. We have a pretty good idea on how election campaign’s operate and there are a few people whispering in my ear that have run successful campaigns resulting in wins. My first goal is to appear at all times like a mayoral candidate and this was clearly accomplished. Sun News Network focused on my excellent cannabis contributions, but pointed out it really isn’t a civic issue.Now I could easily talked about how Toronto Police Service represents the biggest chunk of our city’s budget. Then gone into a marijuana legalization spiel. However, I pointed out the provincial funding shortfall for our city is something we should be addressing and my campaign intends to address it. My communication skills developed lobby for cannabis are transferable skills.“We’re shoveling money into provincial coffers [via gas and sales taxes] and getting nothing in return.”Our mega city can not be funded on the backs of just property taxes. We’re not sugggesting a handout, we’re asking for fair funding for projects that are financial boon to Ontario’s economic well being.In 2003 Paul Lewin, who represented me in R v. Mernagh, ran for mayor on the Province of Toronto platform. Tooker Gomberg when running against Mel Lastman floated the idea too. It’s too drastic for me because I believe we all need to work together.

People were really excited to see the Sun News Network segment Matt Mernagh For Mayor? and the feedback was positive. My team has begun discussing how to improve my civic presentations and soon I’ll be comfortable discussing my research in more specifics. Our biggest hurdle is overcoming the cannabis stigma, but the last person who didn’t take me seriously almost lost the war on drugs.

Sun News Network is known for their aggressive style and knowing this advance really helped me stand my ground to communicate my message. The segment made for great political television and I’m looking forward to returning when our first policy plank is announced.

The interview ended fantastic – I think I demonstrated I am serious mayor contender – with a question about when we intend to release our first policies.  We will be ready to drop some ideas soon.

This is the longest political campaign in Canadian politics and that gives us some advantages. We can campaign akin to someone seeking the American presidency in the primaries.

My campaign manager Chris Goodwin is influenced by Ron Paul while I am McGovern and Hunter S. Thompson inspired. All three were fringe candidates who ultimately accomplished a great deal for political engagement. If we can run a campaign a tenth as good as Paul and on par with HST we’ll do fine on election night.

Slowly but surely we’ll start building up a steady ground swell of civic support. In these cold months you can pitch in getting the civic political engine warmed up by inviting me over for a cup of civically engaged coffee. Let’s skip the crack talk and use our energy instead to get down to the nuts and bolts of civic campaigning.

Watch Matt Mernagh For Mayor?

ARTICLE SOURCE Mernagh.ca

Toronto-based activist and writer Matt Mernagh interviewed on Sun News Network about his campaign for Mayor of Toronto 2014:

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VOTE Mernagh on October 27th 2014

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Video source SUN TV

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