Dammit, Adam Giambrone. How is anyone in Toronto supposed to concentrate on the super-crucial provincial by-election that’s going on right in the middle of downtown with all your newsmaking? There’s the ongoing commentary about your straight-to-viral YouTube video announcing your mayoral bid. And that’s after you apologized for the crappy state of our public transit service and then released a beta version of the greatly anticipated online TTC trip planner. The mayoral election is still eight months away.Whether we’re ready or not, tomorrow’s the day that Toronto Centre will decide who shall replace eHealth-focal-point-turned-mayoral-candidate George Smitherman. Former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray seems to be the odds-on favourite, but renowned street nurse and anti-poverty activist Cathy Crowe has more than enough, er, street cred and cross-party appeal to stage a serious upset. Conservative candidate Pamela Taylor ran and lost against Smitherman in the last election, but Tim Hudak’s Tories are still banking on the anti-harmonized sales-tax backlash as the basis for a protest vote against Premier Dalton McGuinty. (This didn’t work late last year when Toronto Sun columnist Sue-Ann Levy finished second behind Dr. Eric Hoskins in Toronto’s St. Paul’s riding.) And yes, the Green Party is in there too, with Trinidad and Tobago-born employment specialist Stefan Premdas.Despite last year’s success, the Liberals haven’t been taking this contest lightly. Murray lost his first bid for a cabinet-ready seat in Winnipeg for the federal Liberals back in 2004, which many suggest as the reason McGuinty moved the Liberals’ provincial meeting to Toronto from Ottawa a couple weeks ago. (The Star reported on a mini-army of 200 Liberal delegates embarking on some canvassing action after the meeting wrapped up early.) For Crowe, the dissatisfaction with the Liberal government’s affordable housing plans and other neighbourhood specific concerns (like the lack of polling stations in St. Jamestown that denies the 10,000 residents there the same voting rights as their Bay Street neighbours) have kept her campaign out of the anti-HST rut. The fact that she’s not a bred-in-the-bone politician will probably go a long way towards convincing those voters still wary of Smitherman’s involvement in the eHealth scandal that maybe it’s time to consider the alternatives.So, consider away Toronto Centre. The next provincial election isn’t until 2011.Follow EYE WEEKLY on Twitter.