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Rob Ford's Toronto

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Blovertis said:
I'm with Riverdale Rink Rat on this one. A "Nixon going to China" moment would have occurred had Miller (the lefty union-sympathizer) maintained a hard line with the garbage collectors.
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The strike involved about 24,000 city workers. Garbage collectors were only a small part.

Given that supposedly pro-Union Miller did maintain a hard-line with the unions, and managed to obtain a relatively low pay increase, and eliminate the banking of sick days, I fail to understand why those that claim to have supported him seem to think the caved. It was quite clear that after a month the people of the city didn't have the stomach for much more of a strike, and it was clear from the union that they weren't about to cave on either the job security and seniority issues that the city had also sought concessions on. It's not even clear that the City actually wanted to gain much on those issues ... one doesn't go into a negotiation and expect all that you ask for. One asks for a lot of thing one doesn't really expect to get, or else you'll never get to what you really want.

The union clearly values the job security/seniority issues very highly, evidenced that they've offered to accept a 3-year (or was it 4) pay freeze in order to avoid touching those issues.
 
k10ery said:
Actually, it's an awesome analogy ;-) . Let's put aside the part about credibility in negotiating with the enemy. Here's all the ways Rob Ford reminds me of Nixon.

foulmouthed drug addict - check
paranoid mistrust of political colleagues - check
did he beat his wife? - check
Nixon and Bebe Rebozo = Bob and Doug
resigned in disgrace before his term was up - we'll see
Click to expand...

Then again, to be fair, Smitherman might have been "check" on a lot of that, too, maybe with the Nixon + Bebe Rebozo thing conflated into the wifely part...
 
k10ery said:
It's different in some ways but similar in all the important ways. That's why it's a GOOD ANALOGY.

Actually, it's an awesome analogy ;-) . Let's put aside the part about credibility in negotiating with the enemy. Here's all the ways Rob Ford reminds me of Nixon.

foulmouthed drug addict - check
paranoid mistrust of political colleagues - check
did he beat his wife? - check
Nixon and Bebe Rebozo = Bob and Doug
resigned in disgrace before his term was up - we'll see
Click to expand...

...starring Rob Ford as Nixon, Nick Kouvalis as Bebe Robozo, Bill Blair as J. Edgar Hoover, Giorgio Mammoliti as G. Gordon Liddy, Karen Stintz as Rose Mary Woods and featuring Gordon Chong as Dr. Henry Kissinger and Denzil Minnan-Wong as Gerald Ford.
 
^Tried to think of the most vacuous of the inner circle, a person on whom (Rob) Ford could depend for a pardon in exchange for a few months in office. I suppose Tim Hudak would also fit the bill.
 
Rob Ford claimed in the past he was 300 lbs of fun. Well it seems we got 10% more Rob Ford than advertised. He comes in at 330 lbs for the Cut the Waist challenge.

He has set a lofty goal for himself, to lose 50 lbs by June 18. Methinks that's a tad much though, since that's about 10 lbs a month. I'll be impressed if he gets himself to below 300.

Doug Ford came in at 275 lbs.
 
Eug said:
Rob Ford claimed in the past he was 300 lbs of fun. Well it seems we got 10% more Rob Ford than advertised. He comes in at 330 lbs for the Cut the Waist challenge.

He has set a lofty goal for himself, to lose 50 lbs by June 18. Methinks that's a tad much though, since that's about 10 lbs a month. I'll be impressed if he gets himself to below 300.

Doug Ford came in at 275 lbs.
Click to expand...


when someone is that fat, 50 lbs should be easy to lose in 5 months because it's a matter of changing one's poor diet and lack of exercise.

cut out Tim's, McD's (which he's readily admitted are his best friends) and the rest of the 'gravy' in his diet, and add an hour of daily exercise, he'll see the lbs shed off quickly.

if he was 230lbs and wanted to lose 50 lbs, that would be a slightly different matter.
same idea but chances are one's diet would not be as bad as someone at 300+, 400+ lbs.
 
Regardless of the weight, a 50 lb loss in 5 months is never "easy", even if it were not as hard as for someone who is 200 lbs.

BTW, off topic but... An interesting movie to see is The Machinist, if even just for the creepy diet aspect of it.

christian-bale-machinist.jpg
 
Eug said:
Regardless of the weight, a 50 lb loss in 5 months is never "easy", even if it were not as hard as for someone who is 200 lbs.

BTW, off topic but... An interesting movie to see is The Machinist, if even just for the creepy diet aspect of it.
Click to expand...

Christian Bale did the same thing again for "Rescue Dawn"
 
^^Agreed. But he's got to start somewhere. Maybe he'll catch the fitness bug and keep losing. Setting a series of shorter, more achievable goals is more likely to result in success than going after a big goal.

I'm not counting on him doing it, because I don't think he's got the personal drive or commitment to see it through, but I do wish him luck and would be glad to be wrong.
 
I don't much like the way he's trying to publicly sloganeer this as a real-life symbol of his election jingle, or the way he's trying to make this publicity stunt virtuously flavour what he's doing to the city right now.
For the symbol to be honest of his regime so far, we should see him begin a possibly fatal crash diet, be forced to sell off a kidney and half his liver, endure a splenectomy and staple his stomach - while being peppered with gung-ho coach-isms to 'stay the coarse' (sic).
 
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