It’s one minute into Election Day, folks, and already my mind fills with dark thoughts. All those what might-of-beens mingling with the open sores of fearful speculation. What if this happens? What if things break that way? No matter how disengaged the good people of Ward 7 York West are, Giorgio Mammoliti can’t possibly be re-elected, can he? Not this time. Not again.

I push such ruminations back to the back, to that little corner of my consciousness called the Den of Denial. Uh-uh. No way. Can’t happen.

Look, given the events that transpired on Election Day 2010, things could be looking much, much bleaker for us as a city. We are a little worse for wear, no argument there. Is Toronto a better place to live, work, get around, get ahead than it was 4 years ago? Probably not for the majority of residents. I think it safe to say that, on the whole, we are paying more and getting less.

Still, the outgoing administration’s worst instincts were thwarted and fended off. Governance ground forward not to a halt. City Hall remains standing despite some attempts to crater it.

I’m not one for making bold predictions but I do believe, despite all the nagging doubts and bitter-esque disappointment that I regularly do battle with at this time of the day, tomorrow today’s results will be better than those we received 4 years ago. That is to say, it could be bad but it won’t be as bad. We should expect at least some perceptible improvement in how City Hall goes about its business.

I think. I hope.

And on this one day, for the next 23 hours and, I don’t know, 55 minutes or so, I’m going to believe that everyone who dedicated the time and effort running for office, and those who put in their time and effort and dollars in helping to elect these people to office, and those covering and reporting and commenting on all the races, all who’ve done so did so for all the right reasons. They truly believed that they were working to help make Toronto a better place for every resident choosing to call it home. Despite the ugliness and outbursts of anti-social behaviour during this torturously long campaign, most of us believed we were contributing to a bigger cause than our own insignificantly small circle of self-interest.

On this, Election Day 2014, we’re all in it together.

So get out and vote if you haven’t already. And if you’ve got some spare time, a few hours from 10am-8pm, get out and help your candidate get elected. Because democracy just starts with a vote. When all the numbers are tabulated and winners declared, the real work begins.

— kumbayahly submitted by Cityslikr