February 4, 2012

Inside Furious George's war room

Malcolm Johnston

If politics is war, the past week has shown that some arsenals may be better stocked than others.

On Monday, as TTC chair Adam Giambrone announced his mayoral candidacy with a thumping launch party at Revival, Smitherman's camp launched the opening salvo of the campaign and showed some political cunning, all before Giambrone had even stepped to the mic.

Just hours before Giambrone made it official, Smitherman had called for Giambrone to resign as TTC chair, then announced his vision for remaking the TTC.

The day was supposed to be his; suddenly Giambrone was fighting for his own headlines.

Welcome, Mr. Giambrone, to politics a la George.

So just which battle-hardened generals were behind this latest spotlight steal?

Scott Reid, Smitherman's communications advisor, was Paul Martin's director of communications; Bob Lopinski, Smitherman's communications director, is a Queen's Park veteran who worked with Lyn McLeod, Dalton McGuinty and David Peterson; and Stefan Baranski, Smitherman's spokesperson, worked with Ernie Eves, John Tory and Tim Hudak at Queen's Park.

In all, enough experience in the rough and tumble of campaign politics to fill a shelf of memoirs.

And so far, that experience has shown.

How Giambrone responds remains to be seen.

 

This article appears in the February 2010 issue of Post City Magazines

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