MSA candidate for Toronto mayor speaks to mass media
by Barry Weisleder
A bevy of bourgeois councilors and wannabees flocked to Toronto City Hall early on April 3 to register as candidates for the municipality's top job in a hastily called by-election. An exception to the Dishonor Roll of 28 servants to the status quo was the Municipal Socialist Alliance candidate for Toronto mayor, Kiri Vadivelu. The 37-year old tenants' organizer, Socialist Action member, and working class resident of Scarborough submitted the requisite nomination signatures and registration fee to join the instantly crowded race. Surrounded by a team of avid supporters, Vadivelu then faced a phalanx of TV cameras and news reporters to present the following statement:
"Good morning. My name is Kiri Vadivelu and I’m running to be the next mayor of Toronto. I am a social justice activist and a member of the Municipal Socialist Alliance which ran 10 candidates across southern Ontario last October, receiving about 15,000 votes. I was the MSA candidate in Scarborough Centre Ward 21 gaining 1,800 votes. I am the first Tamil-Canadian to seek the mayor’s office in Toronto. I immigrated from Sri Lanka as a child, and successfully resisted illegal eviction of my family at the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board during the 2020 emergency lock down. I believe good housing is a human right. I am a founding member of the Scarborough Tenants’ Union, a leading voice of Toronto ACORN, and a committed member of Justice for Workers. I was a shop steward in the United Steelworkers Union where I fought for better working conditions, and was the recipient of a 2019 union leadership award. Toronto is in crisis, the product of a failed capitalist system. Only socialist measures offer solutions. The MSA and I call for immediate mass social housing construction, expropriation of giant landlords, and free public transit. We seek repair of our schools, and a cut of the police budget by at least 50%. We demand a climate justice agenda. We call for replacement of the "strong mayor" powers with a grassroots participatory budget process. We insist on steep taxation of the properties of big business and the rich. Ontario Premier Doug Ford says don’t vote for anyone who wants to cut the police budget. We say: Don’t vote for anyone who voted for the police budget. Let’s build community power, working class power, from the bottom up. Organize and fight. Vote Socialist. Vote Kiri Vadivelu for mayor!"
