Rob Ford Won But It's Okay | Positive Points in Song Form

We at The About Face Collective would like to extend our thanks (and a stiff drink) to all of you who helped spread the word and who got out to the polls yesterday. We would also like to thank everyone who came out to our After (Vote!) Party last night and the amazing crew at Insomnia for so graciously hosting it.

One member of this crew, our lovely bartender, was kind enough to remind me this morning of a text message I sent in advance of arriving when the results appeared to be pretty well decided: I'll be there in 20. Can you please have a stiff gin martini ready for me? And can you please throw it in my face? A pretty good representation of my sentiments at the time, and of course these were largely echoed by the artists and cyclists and... well, pretty much everyone in the bar last night as we watched the numbers come through.

If you were there, you got your stiff drink, but more importantly, we hope you got a little inspired. The general tone, though admittedly disappointed, was motivated and positive. I heard a lot of "We've got a lot of work to do!" and "Let's keep this momentum up!" And seriously, not referring to the pace of ingesting beer.

There really is a lot to be proud of and excited about; one thing is certainly that voter turnout increased from 39% in last election to 53.2% this year (also that this number includes a first ballot from my little sis, who beat me to the polls), cheers to that! And there really is a lot of work to do, and a lot you can do to help keep Toronto moving in a positive direction. Start by checking out (and supporting) Ranked Ballot Initiative of Toronto (RaBIT) and follow us on Facebook and Twitter for other ways to support things like art funding and bike lanes and food security in this city.

If, like us, you were maybe sipping a martini with a sigh rather than a victory cheers last night, we have a little cheersing up for you here. Our very own magical and incredibly talented Natalie Boustead (you may have read about her before here) tells us why Rob For Won, But It's Okay... in a song. This ought to make you happy.



If you're still sighing (you probably hate unicorns, but) Insomnia's open. And Damara makes a mean dirty with extra olives.

xx
-L