S
spmarshall
Guest
A long article. Just the first few paragraphs included, but Eye archives everything seemingly forever. Worth reading - the first sentence itself is telling.
The Rob Ford Problem
Penny-pincher, name-caller, ward-heeler, right-wing raving lunatic -- if Rob Ford is as crazy as he seems, why do voters in Etobicoke like him so much?
BY EDWARD KEENAN
PHOTOGRAPHY KERI KNAPP
At the end of last month, maverick City Councillor Rob Ford was attacking the $1.5 million in grants the City of Toronto gives to AIDS awareness programs, since "if you are not doing needles and you are not gay, you won't get AIDS probably -- that's the bottom line." That was just the hum-along hook to an epic operetta dissecting Toronto's $50 million in grant programs. Alongside the fat-cat AIDS establishment, Ford lambasted the cultural hogs at the city trough: the opera, the symphony, the ballet -- "This is so embarrassing. I just wanted to bring it to the attention of the poor taxpayer who is getting screwed left, right and centre by these grants." Ford was just getting warmed up when his five minutes of speaking time expired, so he asked for an extension -- a courtesy granted routinely in the hot-air-filled council chamber. Not this time. Council shut him up.
Later, Councillor Kyle Rae told Xtra that he and his colleagues are fed up with Ford. "I think [we're] embarrassed that we have a buffoon on council. I think he is fairly ostracized within council. It's almost like we're stuck with him."
Rae was expressing a sentiment that's widespread among councillors and downtown leftists. It's as if Rob Ford seems to be baiting them -- taunting them with his way-politically-incorrect speechifying -- at every turn. He's called people names: Giorgio Mammoliti is a "scammer," genteel Gloria Lindsay Luby is a "waste of skin." He once mused about declaring Toronto a "refugee-free zone." He drives his minivan to work on Car Free Day and considers laws banning pesticides and protecting trees symptoms of "communism" and "dictatorship." It gets better: he's volunteered to take an incinerator in his ward and only spends between $2 and $8 annually on office expenses, shaming those who approach the $50,000 limit. Then, in April, there was the time he showed up drunk to a Leafs game, shouting obscenities at those around him and handing out his business cards.
This raises a few questions about what might be called the Rob Ford Problem. What does it say about Toronto city council that it can be home to such a blustering embarrassment? How does a raving lunatic like this get elected twice (the second time with 80 per cent of the vote), with no defeat apparent on the election-year horizon? Are the voters in North Etobicoke as nutty as he is? ....
The Rob Ford Problem
Penny-pincher, name-caller, ward-heeler, right-wing raving lunatic -- if Rob Ford is as crazy as he seems, why do voters in Etobicoke like him so much?
BY EDWARD KEENAN
PHOTOGRAPHY KERI KNAPP
At the end of last month, maverick City Councillor Rob Ford was attacking the $1.5 million in grants the City of Toronto gives to AIDS awareness programs, since "if you are not doing needles and you are not gay, you won't get AIDS probably -- that's the bottom line." That was just the hum-along hook to an epic operetta dissecting Toronto's $50 million in grant programs. Alongside the fat-cat AIDS establishment, Ford lambasted the cultural hogs at the city trough: the opera, the symphony, the ballet -- "This is so embarrassing. I just wanted to bring it to the attention of the poor taxpayer who is getting screwed left, right and centre by these grants." Ford was just getting warmed up when his five minutes of speaking time expired, so he asked for an extension -- a courtesy granted routinely in the hot-air-filled council chamber. Not this time. Council shut him up.
Later, Councillor Kyle Rae told Xtra that he and his colleagues are fed up with Ford. "I think [we're] embarrassed that we have a buffoon on council. I think he is fairly ostracized within council. It's almost like we're stuck with him."
Rae was expressing a sentiment that's widespread among councillors and downtown leftists. It's as if Rob Ford seems to be baiting them -- taunting them with his way-politically-incorrect speechifying -- at every turn. He's called people names: Giorgio Mammoliti is a "scammer," genteel Gloria Lindsay Luby is a "waste of skin." He once mused about declaring Toronto a "refugee-free zone." He drives his minivan to work on Car Free Day and considers laws banning pesticides and protecting trees symptoms of "communism" and "dictatorship." It gets better: he's volunteered to take an incinerator in his ward and only spends between $2 and $8 annually on office expenses, shaming those who approach the $50,000 limit. Then, in April, there was the time he showed up drunk to a Leafs game, shouting obscenities at those around him and handing out his business cards.
This raises a few questions about what might be called the Rob Ford Problem. What does it say about Toronto city council that it can be home to such a blustering embarrassment? How does a raving lunatic like this get elected twice (the second time with 80 per cent of the vote), with no defeat apparent on the election-year horizon? Are the voters in North Etobicoke as nutty as he is? ....
