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Rob Ford's Toronto

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RC8 said:
Defensive much? Spell it out for me, please. What did I say that was elitist?
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Hmmm...

Joe Pantalone was the only one of the three candidates with a decent curriculum but was unpalatable to just about anyone other than highly educated downtowners.
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I think had downtowners with one or more university degrees undemocratically picked one of those 3 candidates to run the city Pantalone would have been the one
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Johnny Au said:
This can mean that even high school dropouts can run for mayor. It is unfortunate that it lacks an educational requirement (some jurisdictions require at least a Bachelor's Degree (or equivalent) to run for politics).
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I don't think there should be a requirement and I don't think that it is unfortunate that there isn't one. University degrees are expensive, not everyone excels academically, and I think its a slippery slope when you start establishing a minimal education level to run for office. We don't put similar requirements for people looking to vote (and rightly so). Assessing a candidates worth, including their level of education, should be left to voters.
 
Johnny Au said:
This can mean that even high school dropouts can run for mayor. It is unfortunate that it lacks an educational requirement (some jurisdictions require at least a Bachelor's Degree (or equivalent) to run for politics).
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Some of the stupidest people I know have advanced degrees.

Remember the old adage, the "A" students end up working for the "C" students.

Besides, aren't there already enough lawyers in politics?
 
A mayor who refuses to lead
BY: EDWARD KEENAN

So here’s what just happened at the meeting of Mayor Rob Ford’s Executive Committee, moments ago as I write this: a slim majority (6-4) voted to defer voting on recommending new transit funding tools until later. How much later? A day after Metrolinx’s meeting where they’ll decide which revenue tools to recommend. The recommendations that will go to the province days later in order to decide how the GTA will pay for transit for a generation.

Rob Ford, Frank Di Giorgio, Norm Kelly, David Shiner, Cesar Palacio, and Gary Crawford. Those are the six who voted to remain silent on what might be the biggest quality of life decision the province will make on our behalf this year, or in many, many years. What a sad sack bunch that is. Michael Thompson, among others, was absent.

They didn’t vote to recommend some other set of tools, of course (say, a bake-sales and talent shows plan—which could work because Gary Crawford has spent more time playing music in front of political crowds in the past year than he has saying anything of substance). They didn’t vote to reject the idea of funding transit altogether. At least if they had done one of those things, they’d have been making a decision—putting their ideas out there in front of council and the voters so they can be judged for them. I would have criticized them if they had done that, because they’d still have been wrong, but I could at least muster some bit of respect for their integrity. If they decided to stand for something.

Instead, they decided to stand for nothing. They just voted to do nothing until it will be too late. The mayor, getting handed the ball with a minute left on the clock, down by two points, decided to just kneel down with the ball. Pathetic.

Mayor Ford gave a speech, of course: he said the whole process was “ass-backwards.” He said a provincial election might be coming right up, and who knows what will happen then? He said hell would freeze over before he supported these tools. And then he took a knee. Because why make a tough decision when you don’t have to? Why try to steer the provincial discussion when you can wait to see what they do and then complain about it, and blame them for any fallout? Why lead?

It is pathetic. This is our mayor. And this is his team of pet jellyfish, all five who remain on his own executive.
Council can fix it, of course, and most likely will. They could, at the next council meeting, revive the item for debate with 30 council votes—votes those who want to have this talk about transit funding probably have. Or they could, with the signatures of just 23 councillors, call a special meeting on this. Which is what Adam Vaughan is talking about doing now.

And so for the second year in a row, the mayor will see council respond to his lack of leadership by calling a special meeting over his objections, at which they’ll do what needs doing for the city on public transit. They can do it, and probably will. But they shouldn’t have to.

Of course, the mayor wants them to do that. His Chief of Staff, Mark Towhey, was apparently telling reporters today how exciting he finds the prospect of the mayor’s opponents calling a special meeting to implement taxes. You can see why: in next year’s election campaign, Rob Ford can blame those guys for raising taxes!

Now, if you actually care about the city, about governing, about doing what you can to make the city a better place, then the prospect of your opponents repeatedly humiliating you is not exciting. What’s exciting if you care about those things is implementing your plans. But if you have essentially given up on doing the job the people of Toronto elected you to do, the job they pay you to do, then it’s all a fun game of seeing what might turn into a wedge issue in the next election campaign. Rob Ford, mayor of Toronto, thinks he gets to run again on the anti-government, these-guys-running-this-place-are-incompetent load of hooey he ran on before. Neat trick. Who knows, it could work. It worked for him last time. It’s the only political point he’s ever known how to make, and the only one he’s ever had to make.

But it’s not leadership. It is beneath his office, beneath this city, beneath the trust of the voters and taxpayers who elected him. Instead of doing his job, he’s playing a cynical, cowardly, political game. Let someone else make the difficult decisions so he can complain about them.

Does he wonder why almost all of the strong coalition of supporters he had on council to begin with has abandoned him? Does he wonder why even on his executive committee—his cabinet—forty per cent vote against him on a key issue? Maybe he doesn’t. He won the mayor’s office in the first place by being an ineffectual ranting loner who lost every vote 44-1. He’s on schedule to work himself back into that position in time to run that way again. That may be where Rob Ford is comfortable. That may what he does best. But it is not leadership.
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http://www.thegridto.com/blog-post/a-mayor-who-refuses-to-lead/

I bet you that if council gets to vote on these, Ford will run on an anti-tax platform. Again, the Fords are a political cancer that must be expunged if any meaning discussion between the right and left is to happen.

The Globe Article:

Ford, councillors headed for showdown
ELIZABETH CHURCH
The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Apr. 23 2013, 10:01 PM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Apr. 23 2013, 11:05 PM EDT

Mayor Rob Ford’s efforts to delay debate on new fees and taxes to pay for transit has him on a collision course with councillors who say they have enough votes to force the issue forward – either at a special meeting or the next regular session of council.

The mayor has been clear he is against plans by the provincial Liberal government to use new fees or taxes to fund transit expansion, saying efforts to economize need to come first.On Tuesday, he took that argument one step further, setting the stage for the new fees to become an issue in a possible spring provincial election – one in which his brother already has promised to run as a Tory candidate. Failing that, the mayor’s chief of staff vowed to make transit funding a centrepiece of Mr. Ford’s bid for a second term as mayor.

“We don’t even know if we are going to have the same government in place in a month’s time” Mr. Ford told members of his executive committee, referring to a possible no-confidence budget vote in the minority Liberal government.

“If the province wants to move ahead and be heroes and implement taxes – go right ahead,” Mr. Ford said, characterizing the provincial funding discussion as “completely ass-backwards.”

“Let’s get every level of government in line and efficient and running like a well-oiled machine, then you can go to the taxpayers and say, ‘You know what, we have tightened up every single screw on this car, there is no more tightening up.’ Folks, we are far from that,” Mr. Ford said.

But the 6-4 vote to defer the transit funding discussion until May 28 – one day after the provincial transit agency Metrolinx makes its recommendations on revenue tools – was quickly challenged by councillors who said it is vital Toronto weigh in.

“This isn’t about taxes yes or no, this is about protecting the interests of the city and you don’t do that through inaction.” said Councillor Adam Vaughan who spent the afternoon gathering support from his council colleagues.

“There are plans to take action to govern this city,” he said. “If the mayor and the executive committee refuse to govern Toronto, council must.”

Mr. Vaughan said he has enough support to call a special meeting, which requires the support of a 23 councillors, or to put the item on the next council agenda, which needs the support of two-thirds of members present in the chamber.

That support includes executive committee member Jaye Robinson, who along with Denzil Minnan-Wong, Peter Milczyn and Paul Ainslie voted against Mr. Ford’s motion to defer.

“If Toronto’s voice wants to be heard on this issue, we need to vote on it,” Ms. Robinson said. “We need to step up. This is our opportunity,” she said.

Provincial Transportation Minister Glen Murray reacted to the vote in a statement late Tuesday, saying, “It is disappointing that city council will not be able to debate how to pay for transit projects in their community.”

Metrolinx is legally mandated to give the province its advice for funding transit by June 1, an investment strategy that will have been formally approved by the regional transit agency’s board at their meeting on May 27.

A spokeswoman for Metrolinx said that input received after May 27 would be “listened to” by staff but could not be included in the strategy.

“The May 27 [meeting] is the only date that the board is going to be reviewing the recommendations in the investment strategy,” Vanessa Thomas said Tuesday.

She added that it was “not an option” to call a special meeting subsequently to consider later arriving information.

A staff report recommends Toronto back four new sources of revenue in the short term – development charges, a fuel tax, a parking levy and a sales tax – and tolls and a vehicle registration tax once major investments in transit have been made.

The mayor’s chief of staff, Mark Towhey, said he is “kind of excited,” by the prospect of a special meeting to debate the new revenue tools. “If councillors want to sign a petition to call a special meeting to raise taxes on the back of citizens who can’t afford them, that will be the first campaign poster for the mayor’s 2014 campaign,” he said.
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ss1&utm_source=dlvr.it_tor&utm_medium=twitter

Jamie Strashin (@StrashinCBC) said:
Mayor's Chief of Staff: I hope council has a special mtg (on revenue tools). "Those 30 names will be the Mayor's first campaign poster."
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https://twitter.com/StrashinCBC/status/326817013408362496
 
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jje1000 said:
I bet you that if council gets to vote on these, Ford will run on an anti-tax platform. Again, the Fords are a political cancer that must be expunged if any meaning discussion between the right and left is to happen.
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That is exactly what he'll do, this joker is a part-time 3-1-1 operator and full time campaigner since he got the job. I still hope that Council gets the votes and opens it up for debate and a vote, this city cannot wait any longer for a long-term transit plan without threatening big business from coming into the city, or leaving due to gridlock and as the quality of life index goes down. I was talking to a friend about the Eglinton line last weekend - I was a young teenager in the early 80's when an Eglinton crosstown subway was being talked about. The state of public transit in this city is a joke.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
That is exactly what he'll do, this joker is a part-time 3-1-1 operator and full time campaigner since he got the job. I still hope that Council gets the votes and opens it up for debate and a vote, this city cannot wait any longer for a long-term transit plan without threatening big business from coming into the city, or leaving due to gridlock and as the quality of life index goes down. I was talking to a friend about the Eglinton line last weekend - I was a young teenager in the early 80's when an Eglinton crosstown subway was being talked about. The state of public transit in this city is a joke.
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I found it interesting that apart from Ford himself, not even on the (very right-wing) executive was there much overt argument against the principle of funding transit through raising new revenue. While there's no question this vote was not supportive of Queen's Park's plans, it's shrouded any true opposition in quibbling over details like City representation at Metrolinx and the mix of operating and capital subsidies. That alone says to me we've come a long way from the days when any suggestion of new taxation to fund rapid transit was denounced as 'highway robbery.' Eventually, one way or another, these measures are coming.
 
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