Back when the mayoral race was still young, we put together an interesting feature on three of the more notorious fringe candidates. Although that post could have been a complete joke given the chances and platforms of each interviewee, I like to think that the writer demonstrated a respect for the democratic process by at least trying to take the intentions of these mayoral hopefuls at face-value, even when they were downright scary (see Don Andrews).

So, in keeping with the fact that I keep hearing people bemoan our mayoralty front-runners, here's a quick round up of some of what's been written (online) about our fringe candidates.

• Way back in January, EYE Weekly devoted a short post to our fringe candidates, the best part of which is that Sarah Thomson makes the list. But, really, were they wrong?
• Relative newcomer to Toronto's online news scene, OpenFile has also devoted some coverage the outsiders of the mayoral race over the last few months, profiling a collection of candidates, some of whom have serious platforms and others not so much.
• The Star's Corey Mintz offers an insightful and humorous narrative about a dinner in which he hosted Kieth Cole, Rocco Achampong and Himy Syed.
• For all the seriousness that some of these candidates rightfully deserve, the mere fact that certain people have ponied up the $200 to enter the race is comical. "Know Your Crazy Third Party Toronto Mayoral Candidates" doesn't always hit the funny bone, but it's worth a quick read through if you've ever been curious about lies in the shadows of the so-called five leading candidates but not inclined to devote a whole lot of time and energy to the process.
• And for a more neutral look at all the candidates - including those on the fringe - try the Wikipedia entry titled Toronto mayoral election, 2010. It's actually a pretty decent resource with brief write-ups on most of those running and a summary of the advance polling conducted so far.

Photo by Tomasz Bugajski