Rob Ford - Why the Supervillian?

[Second_in_pie]

Liberals launch powerful new ad campaign to win votes for George Smitherman! From the Purple and White Leaflet being handed out around town we learn this.

“George Smitherman delivers for Toronto,” proclaims the purple and white leaflet, promising to “stop the waste and make city hall work for you.”

Gosh. He sure does sound like one helluva great candidate to me. Who writes this crap?

Maybe it's outsourced? To the old Russian propaganda agency perhaps

 

[Mystic Point]

George Smitherman, finished high school and worked in camera store. That qualifies him for a job at Subway and not in charge of a city with a 6 billion dollar budget.

 

[W. K. Lis]

George Smitherman, finished high school and worked in camera store. That qualifies him for a job at Subway and not in charge of a city with a 6 billion dollar budget.

(Honest) Ed Mirvish lost his father at the age of 15, and he dropped out of school. I guess he wasn't qualified to run a department store or theatres, but at least he got along with people.

 

[nfitz]

George Smitherman, finished high school and worked in camera store. That qualifies him for a job at Subway and not in charge of a city with a 6 billion dollar budget.

I don't disagree. But what do we have? Rossi is off the wall, and has no first hand political experience. Thompson has no political experience. Pantalone doesn't seem to have any ideas. And Ford ... well he's a supervillain.

It's a real sad lot ... I'd much prefer either Miller or Tory over any of them.

 

[King of Kensington]

Rossi is the best educated candidate (MA, politics, Princeton).

 

[duper]

For the love of God.

Please, everyone, vote for George Smitherman. He literally has the number of people of the provincial and federal government.

The most important thing in this election is the ability to forge consensus.
Rob Ford would be a disaster. He has not, in ten whole years, been able to work with council to enact real changes. Smitherman, on the other hand, has the innate ability too work with others. It is by no means a sexy title to apply to a mayoral candidate, but a lot of how things work at city hall is dependent on how people work together.

Rob Ford would be a complete disaster. At best, Ford as mayor would result in a term of complete inaction. We simply cannot afford that.

 

[TonyV]

^ Basically, I agree.

I believe I can say with some reasonable degree of assurance that you will have the pleasure of watching Ford's numbers tank, seriously, during the next week. And he won't recover. And that may be just the thing to bring you some relief on this Saturday night. The plan for TonyV at this point in time is to vote for Smitherman. As I said once before, I know George has made errors, but -- so does George know that George has made errors, and I believe he is a learner. Ford is basically a stumblefuck - he doesn't learn anything. And I agree, he's highly dangerous for the city.

I also agree with the sentiment that nfitz has voiced - I'd much prefer a rematch between Miller and Tory to what we're witnessing right now.

 

[Torontovibe]

I was searching around, reading about Ford on the net, and it turns out Ford has no degree. He dropped out of university. I think he has a problem accepting responsibility for his actions. He claims he had to drop out to help his sister who had a problem. With a family so big and rich, they couldn't find someone else to help her? (like one of his brothers) Couldn't he have gone back to get his degree, after he helped his sister? Could it be he just flunked out and used his sister as an excuse? I find it very fishy. lol Why can't this guy just be honest and admit when he messes up? He needs to take some responsibility for your actions.

I was sure this guy did not have a degree in anything.

 

[nfitz]

For the love of God.

Please, everyone, vote for George Smitherman.

Well, I was thinking about voting for Smitherman ... but if he's that religious, I'm not really comfortable with that.

 

[adma]

I believe I can say with some reasonable degree of assurance that you will have the pleasure of watching Ford's numbers tank, seriously, during the next week. And he won't recover.

And if some of you are still scared by the signal-to-noise ratio, remember: "tanking" doesn't necessarily mean collapsing into Nunziata/Hall-esque single digits. Even after everything, Ford's diehard base could still be good enough for mid-teens. Just like that for Reform/Alliance in 1993/97/2000. But that isn't a winning share, unless everybody splits evenly w/fringers thrown in for good measure. A made-you-look "moral victory" is no victory.

I've been perplexed by certain of the resigned anti-Ford left jadedly bringing up Mel Lastman as a precedent for Torontonians electing buffoons--well, we're dealing with buffoons of a different feather here. To use a common template for all electoral buffoonery is like using a common template for all "feisty" youth, to the point of turning a blind eye to, well, when a kid gets blinded in one eye. Methinks w/Ford we're dealing with the equivalent of such a kid who's too "feisty" for his own good. Look, elders: take some responsibility. If another kid gets hurt, or property gets damaged, or animals get mutilated, or sexual-assault-type things happen, "feisty" is no longer an acceptable alibi...

 

[tkip]

Well, I was thinking about voting for Smitherman ... but if he's that religious, I'm not really comfortable with that.

Just how religious can Smitherman be? I haven't heard anything to indicate that he's some fundamentalist religious nut.

 

[tkip]

I don't understand. Population growth is bad because our infrastructure can't handle it, but we need to have more babies at the same time to support the growing amount of elderly people in this region? Population growth is population growth whether it is due to immigration or an increased birth rate. Somehow cities all over the world manage to cope with growth, in some places much more rapid growth than here, and Toronto itself has grown to accomodate larger and larger populations over time.

I don't think that cities/nations that have experienced massive population increases have gotten off that lightly. In Toronto's case, we're a very young city and only in the last generation has our population exploded.

There are more than a few people out there that think in the long term, huge population increases whether in citites or nations is simply not sustainable. Looking at the beginning of the oil age that allowed the kind of large scale agricultural techniques that enabled populations to grow fast you realize that without endless cheap energy and fertile land, that we have a serious problem on our hands.

If you pay more carefully to what's been reported the last several years, you'll realize that topsoil erosion around the world is accelerating, fresh water is in decline, fish stocks are serioisly depleted and oil production has apparently peaked. And the world's population just gets bigger and bigger. At some point with resources being strained past their breaking points, governments are going to have more difficulty providing for their populations.

This includes Canada and cities that have a population that number in the millions like Toronto and the GTA region. And immigration only temporarily offsets a declining birthrate. You can't count on it forever to supplement your own population having fewer and fewer children. But that's another topic. It might look like we have unlimited resources but look south and you'll see the states and how it's own huge population demands with affect us.

I'm more of a pessimist and I tend to see problems down the road for a host of reasons linked with population in our future. Things might look rosy now but in a few decades I suspect it's going to be a different story.

Whew! That's it. I've said the word population too many times and time to get back on track to our topic. Ford and his taking over of the world...... All bow before his majestic majesty and greatness..........

 

[Mystic Point]

(Honest) Ed Mirvish lost his father at the age of 15, and he dropped out of school. I guess he wasn't qualified to run a department store or theatres, but at least he got along with people.

Running a discount department store and a theater, or getting along with people is all fine and well. Over-seeing a 6 billion dollar budget in a city that is spiralling down the drain is another thing. I imagine even Honest Ed would agree.

 

[adma]

Just how religious can Smitherman be? I haven't heard anything to indicate that he's some fundamentalist religious nut.

Er, with your weak sense of irony/sarcasm/etc, you missed the post he was responding to...

For the love of God.

Please, everyone, vote for George Smitherman.

 

[GraphicMatt]

Running a discount department store and a theater, or getting along with people is all fine and well. Over-seeing a 6 billion dollar budget in a city that is spiralling down the drain is another thing. I imagine even Honest Ed would agree.

With your strong emphasis on higher education as a prerequisite for political office, you must have been a huge supporter of David "Summa Cum Laude at Harvard" Miller.

And geez, if education makes politicians better, then Michael "BA at UofT, Masters at Oxford & Cambridge, Ph.D at Harvard" Ignatieff is set to be the best Prime Minister ever. Be sure to support him over Stephen "University of Calgary" Harper.