Crack is back in Toronto mayoral race
Once a week through the end of the mayoral election, the Star is introducing readers to an obscure candidate vying to be Toronto’s chief magistrate.
His name is Matthew Crack. Oh, he knows.
“As a mayoral candidate, there’s been no better time in history to be named Crack,” he says on his campaign website. “And yes, we’re taking advantage of it.”
Crack is a freelance web designer and a baseball instructor who tutors young players. Though he is 24 and has no political experience, the Yonge-Davisville resident insists he has a chance to unseat the mayor whose use of a particular substance helped inspire his underdog run.
Below is a condensed-for-length transcript of a conversation with Crack:
Since you announced your run, have you been hearing many crack jokes? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I’ve been hearing it my whole life. So nothing new. But yeah, obviously I know my last name’s unique relevance for this election is kind of going to help jumpstart it, I think — kind of help us get noticed.
What do you think your chances are? I wouldn’t say I’m a favourite by any means. But I think, you know, my last name being Crack gives me kind of a leg up for the name recognition. And I think the ideas we’re putting forward are ideas Toronto can get behind. I think if people can hear the platform, people will get behind it, and I do have a chance to win.
Why did you decide to run? I grew up in Toronto. I’ve always been pretty interested in politics. And I think, like everybody right now, with the whole Rob Ford scenario, they feel like, “I can do better.” And I feel the same way.
Through something we’re calling Open-Source Democracy, we want to give everyday Torontonians more decision-making power. We want to decentralize the decision-making process.
What is Open-Source Democracy? The short answer is it gives the ability for Torontonians to vote online for specific municipal issues. It’d be basically like an official poll for the city and city issues. We’re changing the one-on-one style of communications, with phone calls and emails between citizens and city councillors, to more of an open-forum style, where it’s available for all Torontonians, and all councillors and the mayor, to see and to comment on.
There’s a general distaste for politics amongst most people these days. So we’re trying to reach out in different ways and get people engaged in ways more in line with how society has trended. If you look at fashion trends, they change every decade because people get bored of them and want to see something new. Politics has been pretty stagnant.
Other than the online portal, are you campaigning on any particular proposals or policies? We don’t want to be stuck saying, “This is the way we see it and that’s that.” We do want to facilitate discussions; that is the essence of our campaign. But we are trying to bring
up different ideas, like a waste-toenergy program, different ways we can help alleviate congestion in the city. What if we had express buses running up and down Yonge St. during rush hour? That’s something we have the infrastructure for, today, that could help alleviate congestion while we wait for those bigger transit (projects) — the downtown relief line — to take effect.
Did people encourage you to run before you decided to, or was this all you? It was basically my family and I. We were sitting down at the dinner table and it kind of came up as a joke that I should run for mayor. I kind of sat back and thought, “Maybe I should do this.” And I gathered a couple of friends of mine together and formed a little campaign team. And here we are, running for mayor.
Was your last name being Crack a factor in your decision? Uh, yeah, I can’t say it isn’t. Name recognition is half the battle when you run for politics right now.
Is there anything else you think is important to know about you or your candidacy? I think we’ve basically covered it. I mean, my last name’s actually Crack. I’m sure people will be wondering about that one.
Do you know what its origin is? The Crack name is either German or Dutch — it’s still unknown due to unclear border lines at the time. It got Anglicized in England.