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Giambrone’s game

An eerie silence has fallen over the Adam Giambrone camp since that invite was leaked to the blogosphere about a special night of “celebration and excitement” at Revival Monday (February 1).[briefbreak]

So is he, or isn’t he going to run for mayor?

The boys and girls clogging up the mainstream, aka the City Hall press gallery, are suggesting Giamrbrone’s good to go, but they’re just assuming. Everyone’s just assuming.

Thing is, they’re assuming correctly this time. Giambrone will run.

The clearest indication we’ve had lately from Giambrone himself is the contrite, unusual for him, damage control act he’s been doing over the sleepy conductor dust up at the TTC, where he’s chair. Under the rug with that one. Don’t want it messing with the program.

Then there’s the Toronto Life feature that hit the stands this week. The timing, of course, is no coincidence. The article suggests a 2010 bid is merely a trial run for a cleaner shot at the top job in 2014.

I doubt that’s Giambrone’s plan. Federal politics would seem to be more his calling, lest we forget he ran against Sheila Finestone while making his way through McGill as a clean cut kiddie all those years ago.

But that’s a tangent for another day.

The truth is, Giambrone, despite some pressure from colleagues on the left to bow out and let Joe Pantalone carry the flag for the progressive forces, has been laying the groundwork too long for a mayoral bid to get all anti-climactic on us now.

Besides, and you heard it here first, political kingmaker John Laschinger is officially in the fold after weeks of speculation about where his big brain might land. He’ll be at Revival Monday.

Question is: just what will an Adam Giambrone campaign for mayor look like?

We know he’s been wooing the support of the city unions, but expect the emphasis to be on youth – and the Internet. See YouTube piece set o go up tonight on Giambrone’s Facebook fan page inviting everyone to the Revival revival. It’s

Obama and Yes We can, all over again.

The emphasis will be on striking a positive tone, and selling a vision for the future while reminding voters that Toronto’s still a decent, safe city with diversity and a lively arts scene.

David Miller won, twice, by fashioning a coalition that cut across political lines. Giambrone, because of his clear and longtime affiliation with the NDP, will have to rely more on labour and environmental and social justice groups to do the leg work for him in the trenches.

He’ll need an issue to run on. Transit City?

Sell, sell, sell mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi’s promising to stick a fork in Transit City. Look for Giambrone to make it a priority, especially the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, a critical piece of the public transit puzzle,

Giambrone will argue that we can’t afford another false start on Eglinton, a major economic corridor, if we’re going to build a truly sustainable city, environmentally, socially and economically.The creation and retention of green jobs will be a major platform plank.

Giambrone’s also hot on the idea of turning schools, where there is declining enrollment, into community hubs for health, recreation, educational services and the like. A great concept whose time is coming.

There’ll be no talk of selling off city assets to raise bucks for the campaign from big business, which would further set him apart from the other contenders. All of them have talked about everything from privatizing garbage pick up to selling Toronto Hydro.

Is Giambrone ready? He says he is.

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