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Torontonians: Do You Want This Man To Be Your Mayor?

It all started, it seems, a few days ago, when [whatever subversive cutting-edge anti-comedian is running the Twitter account of] Jose Canseco made some New Year’s resolutions. Some were normal, perhaps even heartwarming (“spend more time with my daughter,” for example). Others, though, were more ambitious:

6.Get elected to a important political office in the U.S. or canada to help all people and governments with there problems

— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 2, 2013

Well, it just so happens that the mayorship of Toronto is in flux. Current mayor Rob Ford is embroiled in a conflict of interest scandal that could cost him his office. You could say this gif of him represents the current state of his political career:

Anyway, Toronto: largest city in Canada. Millions of people. Mayor of Toronto sounds like a pretty important political office, right? Hey, Jose: you thinking what we’re thinking?

Need exact guidelines of what I need to run for Toronto mayor and how long it takes to claim residency. #yeswecanseco

— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 4, 2013

Yes. Yes you are. Why, you even whipped up a slogan. We knew we could count on you. And the person pretending to be the former slugger turned steroid whistleblower just kept going from there:

Well, certainly bringing Toronto an In-N-Out Burger is a can’t-miss strategy if successful, but we had to know: what do actual Torontonians think? Well, as luck would have it, Hilary George-Parkin of our sister site Styleite is from Toronto. Hilary’s not terribly up on the Twitter phenomenon that is Jose Canseco, but we put it to her (in the form of Gchat) anyway:

Hilary: haha well it certainly would be a big change from our current [mayor]
me: so it’s tough for you to offer an opinion on whether you’d like to see him as toronto mayor, in other words
Hilary: indeed
although in theory it sounds like a fun idea

Then, though, we introduced her to the #yeswecanseco tagline, as well as some of his stated goals as mayor…

Hilary: i’d vote for him for the hashtag alone
Hilary: and he would DEFINITELY win if he could sort out the NHL lockout

Well, there you have it – that’s at least one native of the city on board with Canseco’s mayoral candidacy. Oh look, National Post sports columnist Bruce Arthur is another. This might have started as a flight of Twitter fancy, but now? It’s a movement. Our first choice would have been getting Marty the horse to switch city allegiances, but this? This is a pretty nice consolation prize. #yeswecanseco – you’re damn right.

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