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Rob Ford's Toronto

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I flew out to Halifax to see some relatives on the weekend. Mention you're a Torontonian in a bar there, and they ask you "what's up with that Ford guy?". Really, you can't escape it. It happened about four times in two days.

The most pointed question came from a nice old guy who didn't have so much bias as the rest -- "why would such a successful city elect such a negative type?" or words to that effect. I directed the guy to the Globe and Mail weekend column (Gee) about the urban-suburban divide. I let the guy read the article on my iphone and he understood the issues.

So the stinky Ford thing, as one Haligonian put it, is everywhere you go, but don't feel too bad, fellow Torontonians, we're not the only demographic that has elected a whacko. Out east, they're actually more concerned about how Duffy has disappointed the maritime provinces. True, Duffy wasn't elected, but an elected PM put Duffy into the senate, no?

I digress. Back to the stinky Ford thing. In an ideal world, Toronto would learn something from this:

--For "Outer 416ers" -- negativity has its price. At the end of the day you get nothing for electing a goof like Ford to office.

--For "Inner 416ers" -- outer suburb alienation has its price too, ignore the issue at your own risk -- own the whole city for heaven's sake.

-- For potential mayoral candidates -- you don't run for office because you just might win, but rather because you have specific and cohesive ideas in shaping the future of this city, and because you have ways and means to implement your ideas, and because you understand the value of consensus rather than division.
 
Before I took office, any annual surplus was used to fill holes in bloated operating budgets, but not on my watch.
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God....how one can bare-face lie like that is astounding. Not only did he set a new record for highest operating budget, he balanced it by using the highest amount of surplus in one go.


It's no secret, I have a special place in my heart for the residents in Toronto Community Housing.
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Well yea....best place to score crack.
 
freshcutgrass said:
There should be particularly nasty penalty attached to the use of the term "common folk" by politicians. I'm glad Dougy thinks it recharges his batteries, cause I'll tell yo....it drains mine. By "common folk", I'm guessing he's either referring to those imaginary people, or the guy wearing track pants in the Tim Hortons? I can't imagine the level of a mind that can listen to either Ford talk, and actually feel inspired by it.

The level of denial here is just over the top to the point of comical.

Cut the LTT by 10%. Hmmm. More cutting revenue without an explanation on how to pay for it. Oh right....I forgot that those "common folk" who support this idea don't actually realize that. Cut revenue by $34 million and balance the budget by cutting what services? Or are we still looking for that magical "gravy" that's supposed to pay for everything?

And forget the fact that the LTT is actually an intelligent tax (like the VRT)....it targets where a lot of profit is being made (remember that there is no capital gains on selling your principle residence), and helps keep speculation and flipping lower which keeps Toronto's hot real estate market from being too volatile. It actually does the city some good.
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Cutting the Land Transfer Tax. Cutting the property tax. But raise user fees. Except on cars, of course (no tolls, please).

I consider user fees as the same as the LTT or property taxes. They are all revenue sources. One problem with user fees is that you need someone to collect those fees, do the accounting for it, and then audit them (check for accuracy). That means paying someone to do that work. In others words, there is an expense to collect revenue, which people forget about.
 
downradio said:
... I wonder if there are any other leads reporters are following up on regarding this case. There's too much out there for it to just die (I hope)...
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The media silence over the weekend is indeed deafening. Stories are being worked on.
 
So, it looks like with that email, we have the entire Ford re-election platform for 2014. Tailor-made for the "common people" or "commoners" as they affectionately like to refer to themselves. Cut Land Transfer Tax, hold out the promise of a big cut in Property Tax, no talk of new transit and attack, attack, attack. It's good to be the king. The "commoners" in the kingdom rejoice.
 
TOvp said:
The media silence over the weekend is indeed deafening. Stories are being worked on.
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Really, we only got into this scandal right now because Gawker blew open (or just plain blew) the crack video story. By now most local papers have undoubtedly returned to the usual business of source confirmation, evidence finding, etc., when it comes to real investigative journalism.

Whether or not these same papers should have jumped into the pool with Gawker is an open question. The DoFo hashish story from the G&M seems particularly irrelevant. The Star probably should have at least waited a day to secure their hook-up to the video. Eh, nothing we can do about it now but wait.
 
PinkLucy said:
So despite sending numerous emails to Mayor Ford like he tells us common folk to do, I never get an answer. But this weekend, he sent this email telling me all about the good work he has done, and how he is so supportive of the folks at TCHC :rolleyes:
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ttk77 said:
Yup...I got that email too. New communication policy? I haven't written the mayor's office about anything in several years.
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Anyone who has ever sent him an email has had their email address mined and received that ridiculous letter, what an excellent campaign tool next year - having access to tens (hundreds?) of thousands of email addresses. I hit reply and asked how he is going to build subways with only a partial amount of $186M a year. I don't expect a reply.

This morning he was with Denzil on Sherbourne Street officially opening the Sherbourne bike lanes. If you think he looks uncomfortable dodging the media at City Hall you should have seen him squirming and mumbling on camera this morning, hilarious stuff. His new staff (the "movers and shakers") are really "putting him out there" in the past week, along with what will probably come regular email blasts with his huge mailing list. A couple of classic photos can be found of him on twitter (@TOMayorFord) and Facebook this weekend too, if you follow him. His (or his staff's) twitter posts are mostly unremarkable, it's the replies that really make it worth the while.
 
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Adaax said:
The DoFo hashish story from the G&M seems particularly irrelevant.
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i believe that the GM Drug Ford story to be extremely crucial. not so much because of its relevance to the larger Rob Ford story, to which it is only tangentially related, but because it permanently deep-sixed Drug's larger political ambitions.

no one who was a known drug dealer in their youth has a future in provincial or federal politics. full stop. (occasional) pot smoker? sure. drug dealer? no.

also, the fact that David Price is widely believed to have been one of Dougie's drug lieutenants back in the day, and that the Fords decided to invite Price into the lair right now, makes the whole thing extremely germane.

also, the story is continuing to be developed. i think it is only a matter of time before it becomes widely known that the scale of his drug dealing operation was bigger than previously believed. all it is going to take is having one person go on the record, and i think that is an inevitability in this case.
 
thedeepend said:
i believe that the GM Drug Ford story to be extremely crucial. not so much because of its relevance to the larger Rob Ford story, to which it is only tangentially related, but because it permanently deep-sixed Drug's larger political ambitions.
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Really? I was hoping he would run for the Tories so that he could be that Albatross around Hudak's neck. The PCs really need a competent leader that I would like to vote for, like the Big Blue machine of yore.
 
jje1000 said:
Really? I was hoping he would run for the Tories so that he could be that Albatross around Hudak's neck. The PCs really need a competent leader that I would like to vote for, like the Big Blue machine of yore.
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Hudak is his own albatross. He doesn't need Ford for that.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
Anyone who has ever sent him an email has had their email address mined and received that ridiculous letter, what an excellent campaign tool next year - having access to tens (hundreds?) of thousands of email addresses. I hit reply and asked how he is going to build subways with only a partial amount of $186M a year. I don't expect a reply.

This morning he was with Denzil on Sherbourne Street officially opening the Sherbourne bike lanes. If you think he looks uncomfortable dodging the media at City Hall you should have seen him squirming and mumbling on camera this morning, hilarious stuff. His new staff (the "movers and shakers") are really "putting him out there" in the past week, along with what will probably become regular email blasts with his huge mailing list. A couple of classic photos can be found of him on twitter (@TOMayorFord) and Facebook this weekend too, if you follow him. His (or his staff's) twitter posts are mostly unremarkable, it's the replies that really make it worth the while.
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Thanks for pointing out his twitter account. Some of those replies are absolutely hilarious.
 
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