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Rob Ford's Toronto

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Don Peat tweeted out a couple of interesting items from the Feb 19 council agenda.

Report on an Inquiry into a Fundraising Event
This deals with the BILD fundraiser that was held for RoFo.

Social Media Policy during an Election Year
Recommendation to changes to the rules so councillors can't use existing social media accounts for campaigning. We all know the RoFo has his staff send out the tweets on his official twitter account. Would he even bother with a new account and if so, who would send out the tweets?
 
euler said:
Not a single mayor in the MegaCity has won with less than 43% of the vote. Nor in Metro back to the 80s, that's as far back as I cared to look.
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Also perhaps worth noting ( maybe it's just a coincidence) all of the Metro Chairmen, and later the Mega-City mayors, I served under since 1972 , with the exception of David Miller, were from the former boroughs.
 
voxpopulicosmicum said:
I'm guessing we'll lose JimmyT's insights on this particular part of the discussion, which is a shame but completely understandable. It's likely for the same reasons that I can't really share my insights on a different aspect of the discussion. The same can probably be said for a number of otherwise-active contributors in this thread. I have to admit, for the glib and cynical bast@rd that I am, I get cold feet. If I were a braver and more-prinicipled person, I would be more generous with my knowledge. I b!tch about the stupidity of the electorate, but maybe the problem is my cowardice?
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That's the danger of these people I could prove how I know what I know very easily. Would it put me and my family in danger? Probably. Will anything actually change, no. This particular organization has intertwined itself so much in our civil and political infrastructure while developing legitimate fronts and business to hide behind and to maintain their power and influence.
 
euler said:
Not a single mayor in the MegaCity has won with less than 43% of the vote. Nor in Metro back to the 80s, that's as far back as I cared to look.

We are in uncharted waters, to be fair, but I don't think Ford has even the slightest chance of winning an election.
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The last time someone became mayor with less than 40% of the vote was John Sewell in 1978. He won with 39% by splitting the right. Since then Toronto mayoral candidates have been incredibly paranoid about vote splitting.

However, even 39% of the vote would be a big stretch for Ford. Ford would be lucky if he got something like 34% of the vote. The last time a mayor won in Toronto with a percentage that low was Nathan Phillips, challenging incumbent (and appointed) mayor Leslie Saunders way back in 1954. Unlike Ford, Phillips was an unproven challenger who went on to become a hugely popular mayor. Ford is an incumbent mayor who has never been able to get his approval rating out of negative territory.
 
iClaudiusII said:
That's the danger of these people I could prove how I know what I know very easily. Would it put me and my family in danger? Probably. Will anything actually change, no. This particular organization has intertwined itself so much in our civil and political infrastructure while developing legitimate fronts and business to hide behind and to maintain their power and influence.
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I always ask myself if this is any different from "they way it's always been". For example, half a century ago it was understood that you couldn't become mayor of Toronto if you weren't a member of the Orange Order. Around the same time in my home town, there was an informal "confessional" system for parliamentary elections that paired ridings and gave one seat to a Protesant and one to a Catholic, regardless of the actual vote results.

The difference, I suppose, is that the corrupt establishment is becoming less homogenous, and communities other than WASPs and anglo/francophone Catholics have been able to insert themselves into the corrupt establishment. Is it defeatist to say that there will always be corruption? What really bugs me, more than corruption, is the hypocrisy about how Canada is not corrupt and is a shining example of the rule of law.
 
voxpopulicosmicum said:
What really bugs me, more than corruption, is the hypocrisy about how Canada is not corrupt and is a shining example of the rule of law.
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Reminds me of what Oscar Levant had to say about political corruption in America, "The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too."
 
Silence&Motion said:
The last time someone became mayor with less than 40% of the vote was John Sewell in 1978. He won with 39% by splitting the right. Since then Toronto mayoral candidates have been incredibly paranoid about vote splitting.
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So I think that guy with the sig "Ford more tears" has the right idea. I wonder if Robbie is man enough to cry.

Do you think the media will continue to follow him after he loses the election? (Hahah, who am I even kidding asking such a question)

edit: Seriously speaking, the polls said over 60% would definitely not vote for Ford, and the remaining 40% who might consider it could easily be swayed by literally anyone else with a better image. With our long campaign period I think it's very unlikely that we will see a lot of vote splitting, it seems to me that people do gravitate to 2 or 3 candidates by the end of it and I don't think Ford has a chance. Will he even raise enough money to meet the campaign cap? I heard that you really can't become mayor if you don't raise near the cap, and the fact that Ford is resorting to publishing his message on YouTube shows that he really might not have that kind of support from the moneyed in Toronto anymore. I find it hard to believe that anyone thinks Ford can win, especially as the scandal has really mobilized the electorate. I'm in my 20s and none of my friends my age have ever voted in a municipal election, bar one. But *everyone* I know is coming out to vote against Ford...
 
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euler said:
I'm in my 20s and none of my friends my age have ever voted in a municipal election, bar one. But *everyone* I know is coming out to vote against Ford...
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Also in my 20s, almost ruined Christmas dinner because my parents and their guests, 50+ , and my older sibling and their friends 30+, all live in in old toronto, mix of service professionals and blue collar workers! all parroting each other " he is watching our tax dollars, who else will take care of us, he sticks up for the little guy". I had to stare at the ceiling the whole time.
 
casita said:
Reminds me of what Oscar Levant had to say about political corruption in America, "The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too."
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Ralph Nader had a great quote too: "The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door."
 
iClaudiusII said:
Also in my 20s, almost ruined Christmas dinner because my parents and their guests, 50+ , and my older sibling and their friends 30+, all live in in old toronto, mix of service professionals and blue collar workers! all parroting each other " he is watching our tax dollars, who else will take care of us, he sticks up for the little guy". I had to stare at the ceiling the whole time.
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Had the same experience
 
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