Rob Ford's Toronto

[requiem]

Jesus, he looks 55 or 60 in those pics.

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

Jesus, he looks 55 or 60 in those pics.

We can see at least one piece of campaign advice he's taken that Doug has clearly given: The people want slicked back hair!

I expect we'll see more black (it looks bad-ass AND it's slimming!) and maybe a gold chain before the spring is over.

 

[DufferinMallrat]

He's a professional, mature adult and bought into Ford's "honesty" and the "stop the gravy train" of money waste at City Hall aspects of his campaign in 2010.

It's funny if you really look at RoFo's "waste cutting" commitments, they amount more to smoke and mirrors than to any actual beneficial systemic change. More impressive to me would be a candidate who promised to improve accountability. For example, why can't we know more about our counsillors and their staff? It's my understanding that counsillor's records are off-limits for FOI requests (correct me if I'm wrong) and that they don't have to disclose their staff salaries. So we don't know what Dougy, for instance, is paying his convict friend/newest staffer. Also, it should somehow be mandated that mayors have to disclose their schedules. Obviously some of it would be confidential but I would, in general, like to know how a mayor is spending their day. Maybe it's just me, but I would strongly consider voting for someone who came in and said, not "I'm gonna slash budgets by 10%" but "I'm going to make sure you get ALL the info you need to be sure your money is being put to good use." RoFo is not transparent, and to me being fiscally responsible means you can demonstrate how you're getting me value for money, and I hope that his lack of accountability can be used against him.

 

[OSS 117]

The details of politics--eg voting records--are boring to most people, so it comes down to character and charisma. eg: Obama, Clinton, Bush etc.

For example, Tory strikes me as a Bob Dole to say Ford's Clinton; he will lose again. Chow may just become a sideshow distraction. RF is a brand so it will take a strong centrist to beat him--that person hasn't risen to the occasion yet.

You're letting your personal politics skew the facts. In no way is Chow a "sideshow attraction". Unless the right unites completely behind a single candidate, the election is hers to lose. There's no magic centrist that's going to parachute in and unite everyone.

 

[dforthandbview]

re: Slow news week at City Hall. It should be noted that it is March break and there's not much going on there (just a small amount of meetings). Some councillors took time off, Stintz went to BC, I'm sure Doug Ford is in Florida. Also, regarding the photos above, I believe they were taken when the news of his press secretary Amin Massoudi's hospitalization broke which might explain his appearance (or maybe that on top of the other stuff). According to the Lisi ITO, Massoudi and Ford are close.

 

[LowPolygon]

The details of politics--eg voting records--are boring to most people, so it comes down to character and charisma. eg: Obama, Clinton, Bush etc.

For example, Tory strikes me as a Bob Dole to say Ford's Clinton; he will lose again. Chow may just become a sideshow distraction. RF is a brand so it will take a strong centrist to beat him--that person hasn't risen to the occasion yet.

You are so consistently wrong when it comes to your comments on this thread, that it is kind of astonishing to me.

 

[AlbertHWagstaff]

+1

Also, it's one thing for people to respond to his rhetoric about 'cutting waste, reducing taxes, etc.', but the reality is that he hasn't really done that much in that area. It's been more about cutting spending, cutting revenue and failing to account for anything that might have been done with money found through 'efficiencies' and cutting 'gravy'.

Exactly, but what's keeping him afloat is that brand, and perception that he stands for cutting waste, reducing taxes, etc. Hence all the taxi drivers that people here have talked to that still think he's the best, "did what he said he would do" even though he hasn't. Whenever ardent supporters are asked for examples of him doing those things, they can't come up with anything beyond the VRT and the "bag tax" and when his actual performance is explained, they still seem doubtful that it hasn't been made up by the Star or something. That's what the other candidates have to hammer away at is that perception, and reveal him to be a charlatan and faker.

 

[soimelk]

I keep hoping that it was passed along to the OPP for charges to be laid, however, a little part of me wonders if the opposite is happening. What if Blair couldn't make a case, and wanted OPP to agree and sign off? OMG, I don't even want to go there.

I've spoken to several lawyers who work in the criminal justice sphere who said it would be unheard of for the OPP to take a dud case off the hands of another force, particularly in a situation like this where the political fallout would be massive if charges were never laid. One criminal defense lawyer (who did not claim inside information), said that it seemed possible that the police were going to lay some sort of charge of murder, given the pace of the investigation and the public statements made by police thus far. Another remarked that the OPP views itself as the best police force in Canada, and wouldn't take on such a high profile case if it were not to enhance the image of the organization.

 

[Kat_YYZ]

re: Slow news week at City Hall. It should be noted that it is March break and there's not much going on there (just a small amount of meetings). Some councillors took time off, Stintz went to BC, I'm sure Doug Ford is in Florida. Also, regarding the photos above, I believe they were taken when the news of his press secretary Amin Massoudi's hospitalization broke which might explain his appearance (or maybe that on top of the other stuff). According to the Lisi ITO, Massoudi and Ford are close.

That news "broke" for us. Wouldn't Ford have known about it earlier?
(did they ever release any kind of statement wishing him well, btw???)

 

[the lemur]

I've always assumed TPS did manage to intercept one of the packages. IIRC from the ITO, they went into Lisi's vehicle and had cameras installed across from his house, so I can't imagine them not getting into at least one of the envelopes.

If they did that, would they want to continue amassing evidence to establish that there was a pattern of envelope-exchanging involving similar contents?

 

[the lemur]

Exactly, but what's keeping him afloat is that brand, and perception that he stands for cutting waste, reducing taxes, etc. Hence all the taxi drivers that people here have talked to that still think he's the best, "did what he said he would do" even though he hasn't. Whenever ardent supporters are asked for examples of him doing those things, they can't come up with anything beyond the VRT and the "bag tax" and when his actual performance is explained, they still seem doubtful that it hasn't been made up by the Star or something. That's what the other candidates have to hammer away at is that perception, and reveal him to be a charlatan and faker.

Right. Maybe the best way would be for them to keep talking about what Ford actually did do, in terms of voting record vs statements and also in terms of what he got up to when he was on business hours.

 

[the lemur]

I think its obvious he knows the jig is up. Something changed this week for sure. I think received some very bad news. When he appeared at City Hall on Tuesday he looked like a truly haunted man, almost unrecognizable.

Haunted ... or hunted?

Almost looks like the remnants of a shiner over the left eye as well.

 

[Dubster]

I've spoken to several lawyers who work in the criminal justice sphere who said it would be unheard of for the OPP to take a dud case off the hands of another force, particularly in a situation like this where the political fallout would be massive if charges were never laid. One criminal defense lawyer (who did not claim inside information), said that it seemed possible that the police were going to lay some sort of charge of murder, given the pace of the investigation and the public statements made by police thus far. Another remarked that the OPP views itself as the best police force in Canada, and wouldn't take on such a high profile case if it were not to enhance the image of the organization.

This. If this was a dud investigation, the TPS would have stopped commenting on it ages ago, and certainly wouldn't have leaked details to the press or made it seem as if it was "on going." It was in the power of the TPS to quash any public perception the mayor may be implicated. They've instead gone out of their way to keep it in the public. Why?

 

[tiffer24]

Yep, he's in it to win it...

reporterdonpeat 1:08pm via Web
"I didn't see it" Mayor Rob Ford to @CP24 on Olivia Chow's speech.

 

[the lemur]

It's funny if you really look at RoFo's "waste cutting" commitments, they amount more to smoke and mirrors than to any actual beneficial systemic change. More impressive to me would be a candidate who promised to improve accountability. For example, why can't we know more about our counsillors and their staff? It's my understanding that counsillor's records are off-limits for FOI requests (correct me if I'm wrong) and that they don't have to disclose their staff salaries. So we don't know what Dougy, for instance, is paying his convict friend/newest staffer. Also, it should somehow be mandated that mayors have to disclose their schedules. Obviously some of it would be confidential but I would, in general, like to know how a mayor is spending their day. Maybe it's just me, but I would strongly consider voting for someone who came in and said, not "I'm gonna slash budgets by 10%" but "I'm going to make sure you get ALL the info you need to be sure your money is being put to good use." RoFo is not transparent, and to me being fiscally responsible means you can demonstrate how you're getting me value for money, and I hope that his lack of accountability can be used against him.

Rob Ford is indeed not about transparency at all. Just the appearance of it. He profiles himself as the guy who tells citizens (sorry, 'taxpayers') the way it really is, focusing mostly on what plays to their sense of 'tax dollars at work', without any real context to the figures or the utility/necessity of spending. Braying about the cost of paperclips and plant-watering plays well, and maybe he's scored some (small) quick wins there, but he really hasn't delivered otherwise, or at least he hasn't been convincing about it.

It goes back to something I suspected about him when he was running in 2010: he doesn't really have a vision for the city. It's all about symbolic gestures to appeal to the kind of angry voter who sees city hall as a vacuum that sucks up tax dollars and delivers waste and red tape in return, and about sticking it to a nebulous enemy that stands in the way of his everyman posturing: the nuanced, sensible, even-handed 'downtown elite' (councillors as well as voters).

He didn't deliver on his ideas for cutting the size of council.

He did virtually nothing to deliver on his ideas for transit and traffic efficiency.

He didn't say what the money would be used for that was saved by killing the VRT, ripping out Jarvis, contracting out waste collection, etc.