Mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson is hoping to hammer home her transit message with a catchy pop tune.
Sung to the music of Pitbull and Kesha’s hit song “Timber,” a new video features Thomson singing about her tunnel plan with another singer she identifies as “White Kanye.”
“Swing your partner round and round/ End of the road, we’re going down / Long-term solutions are underground,” the pair croon in the song, released in a YouTube video.
As they sing, words flash across the screen, interspersed with a still image of Thomson.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to inspire people to invest in transit expansion,” Thomson said in a news release Monday.
Thomson’s transit plan, dubbed “Tunnel Toronto,” calls for a Yonge Street Relief Line and an underground LRT in Scarborough to replace the aging Scarborough RT.
Thomson says the $25 billion plan would be paid for through $10 billion in bonds and previously announced provincial funds of $15. 1 billion. An additional $370 million per year would be raised by imposing tolls on non-residents who use the DVP and Gardiner Expressway.
Speaking with cp24.com Monday, Thomson said the video is part of an effort to take her transit message to a wider audience.
“We were just brainstorming on how we could get the message of the need to go underground out… and reaching a broader demographic and we thought ‘why not a music video,’” Thomson told cp24.com
The original song by Kesha and Pitbull was released in October and hit the top of Canadian music charts.
Thomson said her transit version of the song took about three hours to record in a studio and cost a couple of hundred bucks.
She said her singing partner, “White Kanye,” would rather remain anonymous for the time being.
This isn’t the first time Thomson has used a creative prop to try and draw attention to her message. Last month Thomson announced her candidacy by riding up to city hall in a horse and carriage to make the point that Toronto is behind on transit.
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