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Rob Ford's Toronto

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DeathSilver said:
This is almost certain. The press conference was very weird. Both Rob and Doug looked depressed about the whole thing.
Maybe there's more to this. Arrest pending?
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Yes, there is no way Doug would have bowed out from the race without being told by Hudak that the pipe dream is over. Hudak gave Doug the option of announcing it himself, so he could exit gracefully.
 
tiffer24 said:
It's probably all part of Diane Ford's political masterplan. Replace Hudak with Doug at next leadership convention. Replace entire city council with Ford-friendly allies in October. Makes sense to me...
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That may be her plan, but none of it looks feasible. Doug is persona non grata to the OPCP and replacing council with Fordites isn't going to be easy.

It looks like Doug's provincial aspirations aren't panning out (i.e., Hudak et al. simply don't want him), he senses he might not hold Ward 2 and that leaves him only one way to stay involved. At least until Rob is arrested/removed ... and maybe Doug as well, although he's counting on that not happening.

If Doug were to take over the bid (is that possible?) in Rob's absence, he wouldn't have the same level of support anyway, right?
 
DeathSilver said:
This is almost certain. The press conference was very weird. Both Rob and Doug looked depressed about the whole thing.
Maybe there's more to this. Arrest pending?
Click to expand...

Or maybe some dismal internal poll numbers re Doug's chances? Though I expect there were some pointed messages from Hudak as well.
 
Like others, I am thinking Hudak either directly or stongly hinted that Dougie wouldn't be welcome. There's the end of that pipe dream, I hope.
 
That press conference came off as a public declaration of "don't worry Tim; we won't meddle in your attempts to become premier".

Also; I imagine if Rob were to somehow get re-elected that he'll name Doug as either Chief of Staff or advisor or some such official role. Doug strikes me as being bored as a councillor anyways and relishes his role as mayor without title.

Maybe......Director of Illogistics......AND then he can donate his salary all over again.
 
Can't find the twitter link but there is a rule from 2010 that council/mayor can't hire family in their office. Don't think council would support amending that for Rob/Doug
 
NoCleverName said:
Can't find the twitter link but there is a rule from 2010 that council/mayor can't hire family in their office. Don't think council would support amending that for Rob/Doug
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Doug's not collecting his salary even now - could he not just do it as a volunteer position?
 
kbdid said:
Like others, I am thinking Hudak either directly or stongly hinted that Dougie wouldn't be welcome. There's the end of that pipe dream, I hope.
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Could Doug Holyday be thinking about staying on as a candidate in the next provincial election and didn't want Doug Ford to run in the same riding?
 
TJ O'Pootertoot said:
De-amalgamating is a ridiculously retrograde idea. If anything, we should be looking to implement that Metro model on a more regional scale (which, to an extent, Metrolinx might be able to do). Going back to little fiefdoms, pretending York and North York have no common interests, for example, is utterly absurd and it's a total overreaction by people who want to deal with the symptom of Ford while not addressing at all the underlying "disease."
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We need a national transportation plan, and dedicated operating funds from all levels of government. Maybe then we'd get high-speed transit to Montreal. When I went to Paris I was astounded by how seamless transit is there. A trip to Fontainebleau, and we only had to buy tickets from one agency for local transit in Paris, transit to Fontainebleau, and local transit in Fontainebleau. If I were to travel from Toronto to Orangeville (a similar distance), I'd need to buy tickets from three different agencies, none of whom cooperate with each other in any meaningful way. It's insane how little attention we've paid to general mobility of the non-driving populace here.

As well, I think we truly need to get rid of the city names from all official Toronto documentation. No more Scarborough, Etobicoke, North York, York, etc. Wards should be named after local neighbourhoods *only*. We are one city of little neighbourhoods, we should start acting like it.

I think the Harris cuts did more than anything else to polarize the former cities against one another. The amalgamation had little to do with it (as all former cities had pretty much the same services and taxes anyhow). The cuts that were packaged along made people feel the amalgamation was a failure and the problem was Harris cutting funding to the TTC, downloading provincial roadways and services to municipalities, etc. The negativity then focused on the area with the most prosperity: "downtown". Whether Mike Harris was a political genius, or a self-serving a-hole, time will tell.
 
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Jimmi T said:
Apparently you can't hire your sibling as a staff member.
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But you can hire former football players you coached, your brother's friends, your friends…

Seriously, why aren't qualified candidates hired by the city and divided as needed? Hiring by the office creates loyalties to the politicians, not the city.
 
Council watching the Olympics must be a first!
 
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