It’s been over a month since new episodes of Dan For Mayor aired on CTV. Over a month since Dan broke up with Brianna, since his ex-girlfriend Claire broke up with Mike, and since the campaign – with Dan and Claire on opposite sides - was heating up.
“It bugged me in that Canadian shows take a backseat to American shows for sweeps,” said co-star Mary Ashton, who plays Claire, of the May shutout. “But I’m glad CTV is coming back with a push to get people to watch it.”
Ashton and I spoke the day after an ACTRA protest targeting Global for spending millions on American shows while finding room for only one hour of scripted Canadian drama – the new Callum Keith Rennie series Shattered – on their fall schedule. We also spoke the day before CTV announced it was renewing its entire Canadian scripted lineup, including Dan For Mayor.
“It ended in a limbo, where both Dan and Claire are between relationships. She just liberated herself, so who knows what’s going to happen.”
Of course, Ashton knows; the season had finished shooting even before the first episode aired. She’s filled her time waiting for a season two with theatre work, including an upcoming show at the Toronto Fringe Festival – I caught her during a rehearsal lunch break at Kensington Market.
“I loved this episode,” she enthused about Monday’s Claire-centric return. “The writers gave me a chance to have some fun. I think it was the most ridiculous for my character, in that she was totally vulnerable – she was trying to figure out what was going on with Brianna and Dan – so she was obviously jealous, but at the same time excited. She was trying to keep a poker face about it all, until she finds out they’ve broken up. I think maybe it’s just a fulfillment of her own ego that she wants to find out he broke up with her for her.”
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