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Rob Ford's Toronto

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Funnily enough, for all of Miller's shortcomings, his own personal ethics was never in question - unlike Fraud who is under how many investigations, on top of ethical lapses right now?

AoD
 
Yeah, Miller's perhaps Gadaffi-like if one holds to a spider-esque notion that NDP members should be disallowed from public office, or something like that
 
From the Sunday Sun comes this quote:

Ford seems almost oblivious to the constant, often personal attacks from the left-wing media, the special interest groups, the unionists, his council arch-rivals and those who still can’t wrap their heads around the idea that a ‘commoner’ is head of this city.

“I don’t listen to all of the negative stuff,” Ford says. “I listen to taxpayers from every walk of life I meet in local Tim Hortons or at McDonald’s.”

Ford says these people urge him to “stay the course.

“I intend to keep my eye on the target and keep going hard.”

"I don’t listen to all of the negative stuff" Taxpayers are saying the negative stuff, and he should be listening, but seems to refuse to listen to everyone who does not agree with him. That is not how a mayor should act.
 
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"Bad news for Ford: it gets harder" (Toronto Star, Oct 24th)

From the Star opinion page today. I know the Fords don't bother with The Star but they might want to wise up and pay a bit of attention to it.

This op-ed piece is not the best of writing, but the content is good.

I appreciate the author's use of the expression "The Fords" over and over again.

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/1074221--bad-news-for-ford-it-gets-harder?bn=1

Bad news for Ford: it gets harder

Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that after being elected just one year ago Mayor Rob Ford has made a mark on Toronto. He’s kept some promises while breaking many others and along the way delivered concrete change — both good and bad.

Let’s start with the good. He cracked down on city councillors’ office expenses, ending official tolerance for wasting taxpayers’ money on costumes, parade beads and other rubbish. Ford drove a stake through the heart of some dubious proposals, like tearing down the Gardiner Expressway and building an arena with four ice rinks stacked one above the other. And he ended transit workers’ right to strike — a measure the Star had urged since the 1990s.

It’s too early to add some other initiatives to the “plus†side of Ford’s ledger although they, too, might turn out well. The mayor’s push to privatize garbage collection for 165,000 homes between Yonge St. and the Humber River has resulted in a promising bid from a Pickering company. That might eventually save the city as much as $100 million. But the winning bid is so low there’s some doubt over the firm’s reliability. It will take a while to see if Toronto’s garbage actually ends up in good hands.

Also unknown is the outcome of Ford’s drive to privatize three city-owned performance centres and the Toronto Zoo. This could pump some welcome cash into the city’s cobwebbed coffers but a successful result depends on finding suitable buyers and a worthwhile price. Neither might be available. Still, Ford has done well to at least investigate such sales.

If that’s all he had accomplished in his first year, Ford could well be described as a promising and prudent mayor. Sadly, neither word applies. There’s more — much more — to his record.

One of his first acts was to foolishly kill Transit City. Displaying staggering short-sightedness, Ford axed a fully funded light-rail expansion in favour of building an unnecessary subway costing $4.2 billion. It’s money the city doesn’t have.

Indeed, managing money has been Ford’s downfall. And no wonder. A year ago he thought balancing the books simply involved finding bureaucratic “gravy.†Ford’s education in the real world has come at a cost. In his first budget he froze the city’s property tax when he didn’t have to, since he hadn’t promised any such relief. He squandered much of a $367 million surplus left by his predecessor David Miller, and lifted Toronto’s much-hated vehicle tax in such a clumsy fashion that it needlessly cost the city $36 million.

Those missteps only aggravated a budget shortfall that Ford puts at $774 million, although, in fact, it’s considerably smaller. Now he’s demanding service cuts despite promising a year ago that there wouldn’t be any. And ordering all city departments to cut their budgets by 10 per cent — except the police, of course, who managed to nab a $6 million increase.

The Ford administration’s budget process is still ongoing but so far it has been characterized by faulty numbers, mixed messages, needless threats to valued services, and capitulation to Toronto’s men and women in blue. It hasn’t been pretty. And it’s about to get worse, with a report yet to come outlining huge user fee increases that will set even Ford Nation to howling.

As far as Ford is concerned, perhaps the worst development in recent weeks has been the rise of a successful resistance movement to his agenda. It coalesced in response to a brazen attack on Toronto’s waterfront plans by Ford and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford. Hoping to ease their budget woes by selling off prime shoreline property to international developers, they attempted to seize control of the city’s Port Lands from Waterfront Toronto.

The Fords’ ludicrous vision for the future — complete with a megamall, monorail and giant Ferris wheel — was so abysmal that a tide of Torontonians rose up in protest. Most city councillors broke with the mayor’s program and quashed the takeover. As they do with every defeat, the Fords declared victory.

One thing seems certain: with his poll numbers dropping and opposition solidifying on city council, Ford will have a much harder time imposing his agenda in coming years than he did in his first. That’s a good thing.

One telling impact of his year in office has been psychological. Torontonians don’t view their city quite the same way as before. An old complacency is gone. And, in some ways, that’s welcome. It’s evident in the move to save the waterfront, and in how hundreds of people (some waiting all night) spoke up to support city services. It can also be seen in the way Toronto is now working with a community group to find alternate funding for Riverdale Farm. People are taking action.

The Fords, no doubt, hope to see a shift in attitude in which cost-cutting, a shrinking public service and higher private-sector involvement become business-as-usual at city hall. That may happen if they stop bumbling and find a more efficient way to deliver on their agenda. As it stands, the mayor’s sinking popularity testifies to his failure to deliver what he promised and what the public expected.

It’s just as likely that the Fords’ excesses will inspire a backlash against bullying and cuts, and restore people’s appreciation of public services. Just as Ford supplanted a free-spending, government-activist mayor, he might well be replaced by his opposite. It’s too early to predict the outcome. But one year in, a backlash is rising.
 
Ford calls police after CBC camera crew stations itself outside his home.

by Patrick White
TORONTO— From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Oct. 24, 2011

This story has 365 days, 22 Hours and three telephone digits.

It began early Monday morning when Mayor Rob Ford emerged from his Etobicoke home, six-year-old daughter in tow, and noticed two odd-looking reporters pacing up his driveway.

The press gallery at City Hall has often grumbled about their lack of access to the mayor and this was setting up to be a big week. Not only would it mark the one-year anniversary of Mr. Ford's landslide election win but City Council was also scheduled to vote on a private garbage contract covering a large swath of the city, a key plank of Mr. Ford's election platform.

“There was a lady dressed up and she was screaming my name ‘We got you Rob Ford, we got you,’” Mr. Ford said, recounting the incident that would end with a call to police. “And my daughter, she was scared so she went back in.”

The mayor says he stepped into his van only to be hemmed in by the television crew. “I couldn’t get out of my car,” he said.

Eventually, the burly mayor heaved open the door and retreated into his house where he called 9-1-1.

“I didn’t know who they were. Obviously I’ve had death threats.”

The crew made haste before the police could question them.

And if Mr. Ford remains mystified by the whole encounter, he might want to click on CBC Television Tuesday night to clear things up. The network acknowledged Monday afternoon that a crew from the news parody show This Hour Had 22 Minutes waylaid the mayor early Monday morning just as they have done with Canadian politicians of every stripe over the past 18 years. That screaming woman was actually actress Mary Walsh reprising her role as Marg Delahunty, Princess Warrior. According to a press release, she was in Toronto to offer Mr. Ford some advice on reversing his sinking poll numbers.

“Many politicians have participated in these kinds of interviews,” CBC spokesman Chris Ball said. “They have become a part of public life in Canada.”

Politicians make frequent appearances on the show, generally playing along with the joke.

In 2008, 22 Minutes comedienne Geri Hall was handcuffed and detained by police when she professed her love for Prime Minister Stephen Harper during a press conference. Mr. Harper later granted her a one-on-one interview in which he slyly asked “Do you like handcuffs?”

A year later, late NDP leader Jack Layton played a drinking game on air with 22 Minutes host Mark Critch.

Mr. Ball told The Globe and Mail the crew also wanted to ask the mayor a few questions about Movember, the annual event that encourages month-long mustache growth in support of men's health issues. Mr. Ball said the segment should air Tuesday night.

But even after he was informed of the light-hearted nature of the confrontation, Mr. Ford wasn’t laughing.

“I’m open to games,” he said. “But come to my private house early in the morning and ambush me? I think that crosses a line.”

Mr. Ball noted that the program has blindsided numerous politicians over the years but couldn’t say if its stable of comedians has ever cornered anyone outside their home.

And lest any other reporters get any ideas, Mr. Ford, in moment of simultaneous tenderness and menace, put other would-be comedy correspondents on notice.

“My kids and my wife are the closest things to me and I’ll do anything to protect them. So I just hope someone else doesn’t do that again because I don’t want anything serious to happen."


Marg_Princess_Warrior.jpg


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...tions-itself-outside-his-home/article2212079/
 
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Good grief ... Rob Ford really doesn't recognize Mary Walsh? She's only been doing this role since when Mulroney was Prime Minister. When Ford was in his early 20s ...

Apparently he's been complaining about being ambushed early in the morning, in the dark. The Star is reporting that it was in daylight after 8 AM.
 
I can believe he doesn't watch 22 minutes. But calling 911? Didn't the cameras and microphones tip him off that this wasn't related to death threats?
 
Considering his size and thuggish good looks, I think death threats in the other way around has a bit more err, weight.

Speaking of the garbage contract - does anyone find that 9 years is a tad long? Aren't these contracts usually limited to 5 years, if not 3? I think that's a bit fishy.

AoD
 
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Good grief ... Rob Ford really doesn't recognize Mary Walsh? She's only been doing this role since when Mulroney was Prime Minister. When Ford was in his early 20s ...

I can believe he doesn't watch 22 minutes. But calling 911? Didn't the cameras and microphones tip him off that this wasn't related to death threats?

I don't watch 22 Minutes and many people don't watch it either. What's your point? :rolleyes:
 
I said that I do believe he doesn't watch it. I know not everyone does. However, I know people who've never watched the show but know about Marg Delahunty -- the clips are often played elsewhere. The point is that this isn't some new thing; Mary Walsh has been doing this for years, and it's rather surprising that someone who has been involved in politics for as long as Ford has isn't aware of it.

My further point is that Marg comes equipped with a crew so they can record the event -- it's not a one-person ambush, it's a tv crew. I do think Ford knows what a tv crew looks like, so his "I was frightened enough to call 911" excuse is rather weak.
 
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