The Wookey campaign had its opening party at an art gallery with fifty highbrow members of Toronto's art society (like Sylvia Tyson of Ian and Sylvia fame) complete with a top flight campaign manager (used to be Sheila Copps') and a polished campaign slogan "Let the Wookey Win" all written up in a page size article in the Sunday Toronto Star (September 24th).
Wookey, 35, is running in Ward 18, Davenport, in the west part of the city, up against incumbent, 28 year-old Adam Giambrone, who ran several times, before he finally was elected.
The Ward has a little bit of the commercial art area along Queen Street West but the rest is working-class Portuguese (38%) which is a slight problem for Wookey. His stepfather, literary agent Bruce Westwood, pointed out to him that his background of Upper Canada College and of growing up on Hazelton Avenue, which Wookey's father built from slum, might show him to be too upper-class.
Wookey is half Estonian. His mother is Kersti (born Lepik) who is the daughter of Emanuel Lepik, an Orthodox Priest, schoolteacher and architect. Grandfather's suggestion to Wookey was to learn a trade, because conditions may change and one will have to sustain one's family somehow.
With that exhortation Wookey learned to cook. He became a Cordon Bleu chef. He also worked as a camera assistant on "Star Wars, Episode I" and "Shakespeare in Love". He has worked in the software business and now works with his father at modernizing his company "Seniority Investments".
Wookey is dealing head-on with the Portuguese question by learning to speak the language. He has acquired the help of Ana Bialao, a Portuguese lady, who ran unsuccessfully in the last municipal election.
The phone number for the Simon Wookey Campaign is (416) 534-6504.