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Voted #6 on Top 100 Family Business influencer on Wealth, Legacy, Finance and Investments: Jacoline Loewen My Amazon Authors' page Twitter:@ jacolineloewen Linkedin: Jacoline Loewen Profile

August 17, 2010

What do mayor candidates say about business owners?

Business owners, here is worthwhile an event by the Globe & Mail, September 9th, 2010 to the first major debate to start off the fall mayoral campaign.  This is for business owners in the city and how the mayoral candidates plan to address them. The town hall will be streamed live and be interactive on the web.  We know that small & medium businesses create the most jobs. Governments the world over recognize this and are putting forward efforts to stimulate their growth. What do the candidates have to say about what they would do to make Toronto a place for entrepreneurship, small & medium businesses?
Quick Facts:

  • Toronto has the highest small business growth rate 7.5% between 2008-09: national average is only 2.7%
  • 240,000+ self-employed people in Toronto & at 17%, Toronto has the highest rate of self-employment in Canada. 
  • There are about 84,000 employer businesses in Toronto. 
  • Toronto serves a constituency of about 300,000 micro-enterprises in Toronto (self-employed + businesses with fewer than 10 employees). 
  • 1-10 women are self-employed 

Mayor Miller won with 332,969 votes in 2006.  It is a constituency that can certainly make a difference to a candidate.
Candidates:
Rob Ford
Joe Pantalone
Rocco Rossi
George Smitherman
Sarah Thomson
Media Questioners:
Marcus Gee, Columnist, The Globe & Mail
Julie King, Publisher & Managing Editor, CanadaOne.com
Rick Spence, Columnist, Financial Post
A big thank you to the Globe & Mail for making this topic a worthwhile issue. The Ontario Government leadership vote sure did not even mention business until they announced the Family Day Holiday which cost me a day's wages for my staff at a time when the economy was imploding. 
So big shout out to Globe & Mail. Also, quite a few of the candidates are business owners so that will be useful.
Finally, stop calling it SMALL business. There was a magazine called that and they had to rebrand. We hate to be called small - early stage, business operator, owner managed, but not SMALL.

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