Thomson mum on Queen's Park bid

[attach]3488[/attach]Less than six months after she bowed out of Toronto’s mayoral race, rumour has it Sarah Thomson will be taking yet another stab at politics.

There’s been speculation the Rosedale resident will run in a Toronto riding for the Oct. 6 provincial election.

One political insider told the Town Crier Thomson has been in discussions with both the Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties, but any firm decisions have yet to be made.

While Thomson has not ruled anything out, she is mum on a possible jump into provincial politics this election year.

And, in January, she firmly denied reports that she’ll be running for MPP in Parkdale-High Park.

“That was a candidate who had put that out as a rumour,” Thomson said Jan. 24.

“I haven’t talked to anyone about Parkdale-High Park.”

Thomson, publisher of the Women’s Post said right now she’s focused on growing her business, which she said suffered a bit while her attention was centered on the mayoral campaign during most of 2010.

“I have to get that back and running,” Thomson said of the magazine.

She’s also focused on paying off her mayoral campaign debt. To that end, former Ontario premiers Mike Harris and David Peterson and former PC leader John Tory hosted a fundraiser Jan. 27 to help her, Mayor Rob Ford and Rocco Rossi diminish their debts.

She said it could be March or April before she’ll know if the debt is cleared up, and further, whether she can focus efforts on a new political campaign.

“The longer after you run, the harder it is to (retire) a campaign debt,” she said.

Campaign debt and politics aren’t the only things on her mind, though.

Thomson said now is the time to focus on Women’s Post because her high profile mayoral run attracted new readers.

Thomson, who is raising two young sons with husband Greg, is also busy event planning.

Her magazine also hosts the Glass Slipper Awards to honour women who help other females succeed.

In March, the top 100 finalists will be announced and the top 50 will be honoured at a May gala event.

On top of that, Thomson has also started a new non-profit focused on Toronto architecture.

Heritage buildings and preservation were issues she often raised during the mayoralty campaign, before she dropped out and backed second-place finisher George Smitherman.

Her idea is to create a design panel to promote the construction of beautifully designed buildings in Toronto. And she wants to get the community involved, too.

“Planners at city hall get influenced by 30 people in a room rather than 3,000 in the community or 5,000 in the bigger community and architecture gets compromised,” Thomson said

Her interest in architecture goes way back: Thomson’s father and grandfather were architects.

There’s limited info on this new design panel project at [url=http://www.studioto.ca]www.studioto.ca[/url] that explains, “StudioTO will host public debates/discussions on the need for good design, beautiful architecture and vibrant cultural events in Toronto.”

Though she calls Rosedale home, Thomson said she still sees the whole city as her playground.

“I don’t just stay in my own neighbourhood,” she said. “I love dinner out in High Park, lunches in the Beaches.”