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Rob Ford's Toronto

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Both sides miss the point that the year end surplus happens just because the City can't predict revenues and expenses perfectly at the start of the budget year. It is not a sign of a good job, or a good tax. It is a sign of bad forecasting, period.

I don't think both sides necessarily "miss" the point. This fact would be fairly evident to anyone who follows city budgeting year after year.

What is surprising is how many people talk about city budget without understanding it. That's how you end up with those asserting that Ford is responsible for the surplus. You can count on his supporters taking credit for that surplus now, and then arguing how that surplus is is an affront to taxpayers and that the LTT should be done away with - even thought the LTT is only encountered on the purchase of a property.

You can bank on that.
 
On the plus side, Ford got the opportunity for a bit of a run. He did complain that it's hard to fit exercise in I'm the evening

Seriously though, the man does seem to exhibit repeated episodes of paranoid and irrational behaviour
 
On one hand, Dale would need to have a really good imagination to fake an eyewitness account like that, so I'm inclined to believe the reports of Ford's abusiveness. Also, wearing a campaign shirt? Really? Is his home clothing budget that strained, or did he want to damn well make sure everyone else knew who he was?

But on the other hand, Dale's phone dying right in the heat of the moment and the fumbling of the recorder seems too convienent. But perhaps it would have mattered little even if they worked, as per the CBC incident last year, Ford continued to lie even with video evidence showing otherwise.

Those two court cases that could potentially throw him out can't come soon enough.
 
Bad optics on both sides- the Star needs to leave Ford a bit of breathing room, and if they keep on following Ford so closely, they need to be more proactive in outplaying Ford on the victim card.

Ford obviously needs to keep his cool.
 
Bad optics on both sides- the Star needs to leave Ford a bit of breathing room, and if they keep on following Ford so closely, they need to be more proactive in outplaying Ford on the victim card.
Following closely?

Given the story that came out today, that Ford is trying to buy part of a city park behind his house, isn't The Star (and every other media outlet in the city) duty bound to go look at it? That's their job, isn't it. Does seem a big conflict of interest, that he's trying to obtain public land.
 
Rob's story ;) http://www.torontosun.com/2012/05/0...-home-over-star-reporters-alleged-trespassing

"I ran around and I caught him," Ford said. "He just went nuts, he dropped his cellphone, he dropped his tape recorder."

"I said, 'What are you doing here?' He started screaming, 'Help! Help! ...Help! Help! Help!' I think he thought he was going to die but I didn't touch him.

"I'm not going to tolerate people taking pictures of my kids and my family in my backyard."

Daniel Dale's story

I arrived sometime after 7:30 p.m. I walked around the parkland toward the mayor’s property. I took note of the trees, then, standing perhaps 10 metres from his wooden backyard fence, emailed an additional two sentences to my editor at 7:47. My phone died as I tried to snap photos of the trees and the fencing. I’m still not sure if the parcel I was standing on is the parcel Ford is looking to acquire, but I can say this with certainty: I never came close to entering his backyard.

Moments after my phone died, the mayor appeared, wearing a white campaign t-shirt, at the sole entrance and exit to the parcel of property; he had walked around from the front of his house. He appeared extremely agitated.

“Hey buddy,†he yelled. “What are you doing? Are you spying on me? Are you spying on me? Are you spying on me?â€

I shouted, astonished, that I was not – that I was writing about his attempt to buy TRCA land. He began to approach me at a brisk walk, asking again, at an escalating volume, if I was spying. I continued to plead that I was writing about the land.

At some point, perhaps 10 or 15 seconds into the encounter, he cocked his fist near his head and began charging at me at a full run. I began pleading with him, as loud as I could, with my hands up, for him to stop. I yelled, at the top of my lungs, something like, “Mayor Ford, I’m writing about the land! I’m just looking at the land! You’re trying to buy the TRCA land!†Instinctually, I also reached into my pocket to grab my dead phone. I then fiddled with my voice recorder, trying fruitlessly to turn it on so that I would have a recording of any physical violence.

At some point, perhaps two metres away from me, the mayor did stop moving toward me, but his face remained menacing, and he continued to cock his fist and shake it. “Drop your phone!†he demanded, shouting louder than I have ever heard him. “Drop your phone! Drop your phone now!â€

Every time I tried to sidestep him to escape, he moved with me and yelled at me again to drop my phone. I became more frightened than I can remember; after two or three attempts to dart away, I threw my phone and my recorder down on the grass, yelled that he could take them, and ran.

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1172168--daniel-dale-on-what-happened-near-the-mayor-s-home?bn=1
 
Bad optics on both sides- the Star needs to leave Ford a bit of breathing room, and if they keep on following Ford so closely, they need to be more proactive in outplaying Ford on the victim card.

Ford obviously needs to keep his cool.
Indeed, while The Star does need to cover Ford, it really does seem like The Star is out to get Ford... probably partially as a response to Ford's hatred of The Star.

In the end though I've begun to avoid The Star much more than I used to, because their articles seem so much like anti-Ford whine fests these days.

I stick more with The Globe. The writing seems more objective most of the time.


I arrived sometime after 7:30 p.m. I walked around the parkland toward the mayor’s property. I took note of the trees, then, standing perhaps 10 metres from his wooden backyard fence, emailed an additional two sentences to my editor at 7:47. My phone died as I tried to snap photos of the trees and the fencing. I’m still not sure if the parcel I was standing on is the parcel Ford is looking to acquire, but I can say this with certainty: I never came close to entering his backyard.

Moments after my phone died, the mayor appeared, wearing a white campaign t-shirt, at the sole entrance and exit to the parcel of property; he had walked around from the front of his house. He appeared extremely agitated.

“Hey buddy,” he yelled. “What are you doing? Are you spying on me? Are you spying on me? Are you spying on me?”

I shouted, astonished, that I was not – that I was writing about his attempt to buy TRCA land. He began to approach me at a brisk walk, asking again, at an escalating volume, if I was spying. I continued to plead that I was writing about the land.
Yeah, Ford over-reacted, but the reporter is a fool if he thinks someone wouldn't be pissed about his snooping around the guy's backyard.
 
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Following closely?

Given the story that came out today, that Ford is trying to buy part of a city park behind his house, isn't The Star (and every other media outlet in the city) duty bound to go look at it? That's their job, isn't it. Does seem a big conflict of interest, that he's trying to obtain public land.

Of course it's a story worth following, but it might have made a bit more sense if Dale visited maybe a bit earlier, say 1-4pm instead of 7pm.

I stick more with The Globe. The writing seems more objective most of the time.

The Globe leans centre-right and doesn't question Ford as much as they should. Heck, at least one of their columnists supported Ford until they realized how inept he is governing.

In the end, the newspapers are supposed to find out things we don't know- and that's what the Star was doing, whether you agree with the way they did it or not.
 
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But on the other hand, Dale's phone dying right in the heat of the moment and the fumbling of the recorder seems too convienent. But perhaps it would have mattered little even if they worked, as per the CBC incident last year, Ford continued to lie even with video evidence showing otherwise.

Hold on now, let's keep to facts here - Mary Walsh (in charactor as Marg Delahunty for her Princess Warrior piece) was indeed on Ford's property. Of course he could have played along and not been such a goof about it all, but she and the crew were trespassing on that occasion.
 
The Globe leans centre-right
Heh, of course people here would people say that.

Most people I talk to say that the Globe leans centre-left or centrist on most things, although for pure financial policy sometimes it may be centrist or centre-right. IOW, it has a reputation of being socially liberal and fiscally conservative.
 
Globe's coverage: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ltercation-with-star-reporter/article2420986/

At a news conference in his driveway around 10 p.m. Wednesday, a visibly upset Mr. Ford told reporters that he was home with his wife and two young children when a neighbour rapped on his door to say, “there’s some guy looking over your fence taking pictures.”

Mr. Dale wrote that he stayed about 10 feet back from the mayor’s wooden fence; Mr. Ford said the reporter stood on a pile of cinder blocks for a better look at the backyard.

National Post interviewed the neighbour: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/0...ce-after-spotting-photographer-near-his-home/

Zravko Gagro, Mr. Ford’s next door neighbour, reported seeing the man just before 8 p.m. “He looked very fishy, and I went to the Mayor’s house and I told him what was going on.
 
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Heh, of course people here would people say that.

Most people I talk to say that the Globe leans centre-left or centrist on most things, although for pure financial policy sometimes it may be centrist or centre-right. IOW, it has a reputation of being socially liberal and fiscally conservative.
Right ... that's why the Globe keeps endorsing Stephen Harper in elections - because they are centrist or centre-left. Now, they are somewhat more pragmatic than the Post, and supported McGuinty over a clearly grossly-inept Hudak, but if I remember correctly, supported Tory over McGuinty.

The big problem with the Globe, is that their Toronto section is just about non-existent. I can't even find it in today's paper ... unless it was that obituary for that Belleville business man, or a short article about a Niagara Gorge dare-devil. Yet there's no less than two article about Conrad Black - welcoming him back to Canada (not sure where this view about the Globe being centre-left these days comes from ...). I'm always surprised when I'm in Vancouver, how much better their Vancouver news is, in the Vancouver edition, than the Toronto news in the Toronto edition.
 
Right ... that's why the Globe keeps endorsing Stephen Harper in elections - because they are centrist or centre-left. Now, they are somewhat more pragmatic than the Post, and supported McGuinty over a clearly grossly-inept Hudak, but if I remember correctly, supported Tory over McGuinty.
I've been reading the Globe on and off since I was a kid. They've generally pushed the Liberals, but I can most definitely understand why they would have supported Harper last time around.

The big problem with the Globe, is that their Toronto section is just about non-existent. I can't even find it in today's paper ... unless it was that obituary for that Belleville business man, or a short article about a Niagara Gorge dare-devil. Yet there's no less than two article about Conrad Black - welcoming him back to Canada (not sure where this view about the Globe being centre-left these days comes from ...). I'm always surprised when I'm in Vancouver, how much better their Vancouver news is, in the Vancouver edition, than the Toronto news in the Toronto edition.
The Globe is a national newspaper, and that's where its focus is, but I find the Toronto edition's coverage of major Toronto events fine. I used to read The Star to fill in the gaps, but lately I've been finding them too annoying.
 
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Funny thing about Ford's "fence issue" is that his yard's already reported to be heavily fenced--methinks he just wants a bigger back yard for the li'l wuns...
 
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