With less than a month until this city's municipal elections, it's not hard to miss the deluge of campaign signs that are littering neighbourhood lawns. With 275 people running across Toronto for the position of City Councillor, finding out about each and every single candidate (even out of the few running in your own ward) can get daunting.

In an effort to learn more about the people trying to run the future of this city, I sent out dozens of emails to candidates trying to learn about their motivations and aspirations. A few responded, many didn't. Over the next few days, I'm going to take a look at the few that did.

Today's candidate: Zane Caplan, Ward 33.

Why did you decide to run for city council?
A series of decisions by the current coucilor and the mayor made me decide this was my time; also my experience with a recent landlord indicated to me that someone needs to stand up for tenants' rights.

What are the significant issues that people in your ward are facing, and what do you plan to do to address those issues?
The issues of the working people of ward 33 are the same as my own: living in a clean and safe home and building a prosperous community for our children to grow up in with intelligent planning that puts people and our environment first .

What are some of the city-wide issues that you feel most engaged with and why?
The TTC's recent single-sourced contract with bombardier must be scrapped: value for taxpayers' money is paramount. That goes for the Gardiner and the dump purchase decision as well: the current coucncil is out of control.

Other city issues include:
- An improved Toronto marketing campaign: 'Toronto Unlimited'? No thanks.
- TTC tickets should be changed to be time-based.
- TTC stations should be hubs for bike pedestrian and carpooling.

What is your larger vision for Toronto in the next few years?
Toronto is the greatest city in the world and its high time we stopped apologising to anyone for our shortcomings. I want to promote our city with a 'welcome to my Toronto' campaign featuring testimonials from real people about what they love most in our city: tourism can be an engine for growth that helps keep taxes down.

Go Leafs Go!

blogTO does not necessarily endorse any of the candidates profiled. Candidates were selected based on the ease of finding their contact information on the web, their willingness to reply to my first email, and a bit of random serendipity.

The Toronto municipal elections take place on November 13, 2006. To find out more on how to vote or how to get involved, visit the city elections website.

(Image: Payam Rajabi)