Rob Ford's Toronto

[W. K. Lis]

Here is an article with some quotes from the Twinmayor(s) regarding what you were talking about.

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1151706--mayor-rob-ford-seeks-slate-in-next-election#article

Some gems from the article...

Be careful, Rob. Campaigning before the next election could be against the rules. I would check with your lawyers. (You know, the ones who are experts at this sort of thing.)

Don’t you have to get off CFRB before you start campaigning. CFRB would have to give equal time to the other (40+) candidates.

 

[Tulse]

Be careful, Rob. Campaigning before the next election could be against the rules. I would check with your lawyers.

One thing at at time...they're currently busy defending his violations of the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act.

 

[RC8]

That's precisely how the last mayoral election vote broke down -- literally none of the wards in the old City of Toronto voted for Ford, and almost all of the wards in the amalgamated suburbs did. The separation was a stark and near-perfect correlation between city vs suburb.

See this very revealing map for the truth of this.

Precisely.

Torontonians VOTED NO to amalgamation. Then they VOTED SMITHERMAN. Those who put Rob Ford at TORONTO City Hall are people whose voting rights for the area covering the old city of Toronto were granted undemocratically and unilaterally by the Harris provincial government.

Those of us in proper Toronto don't deserve Rob Ford. If a mayor gets elected only by downtown voters in the next election I would also believe it's unfair that the people of North Etobicoke will have to put up with someone who might want to build bike lanes down their horrendous highways.

The amalgamated city of Toronto is an incoherent voting area. It'd be like getting Burlington and Hamilton to elect a single mayor. Even people who just moved to Toronto can tell where the old city ends and wonder why it would ever be forced to deal with problems so alien to its own.

 

[jje1000]

One thing at at time...they're currently busy defending his violations of the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act.

Interesting Note from Josh Matlow- I hope it's true!

Rob Ford is illegally using the mayor's office to draft candidates to run against Tory, Liberal, NDP & independent councillors he dislikes.

I also submit Mr. Ford's use of the mayor's office for election-related purposes does not comply with Toronto City Council's code of conduct

See items 6 and 7 of the City of Toronto's Member's Code of Conduct: http://www.toronto.ca/city_council/pdf/members_code_conduct.pdf

Then comes the inevitable gadfly:

@JoshMatlow You're wrong. We're not in an election so technically no one is campaigning. You're just being intellectually dishonest.

http://twitter.com/#!/joshmatlow

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Interesting Note from Josh Matlow- I hope it's true!






Then comes the inevitable gadfly:



http://twitter.com/#!/joshmatlow

I don't it think rob ford cares about the law. Someone in the supermarket came up to him and told him to "stay the course" so that gives him permission to do whatever he likes.

 

[nfitz]

Pam McConnell wants to live in her own ward? Blasphemy! She needs to take a page from the Ford's and live outside their wards.

Where does Doug Ford live, BTW. Don't need the address ... just curious which neighbourhood.

 

[adma]

The amalgamated city of Toronto is an incoherent voting area. It'd be like getting Burlington and Hamilton to elect a single mayor.

Actually, the Burlington/Hamilton comparison point is redundant. It's how Hamilton *already* elects a single mayor, now that the former Hamilton-Wentworth region is one unicity. (And ditto for Ottawa--thus its own recent ultra-con dud-mayor debacle)

In fact, the Toronto situation arguably makes more sense, since it doesn't include exurban/rural/farm-country hinterland like Ottawa and Hamilton.

 

[RC8]

Actually, the Burlington/Hamilton comparison point is redundant. It's how Hamilton *already* elects a single mayor, now that the former Hamilton-Wentworth region is one unicity. (And ditto for Ottawa--thus its own recent ultra-con dud-mayor debacle)

In fact, the Toronto situation arguably makes more sense, since it doesn't include exurban/rural/farm-country hinterland like Ottawa and Hamilton.

I take your point, The City of Burlington does include and awful lot of rural area, as does Hamilton. However in small cities amalgamation might make matters significantly more efficient than it did here in Toronto. One doesn't have to look beyond the state of repair of important Toronto streets to realise that a very rich city is being hijacked by someone.

Burlington's downtown is better kept than Toronto's, and its suburbs remain impeccable. Everyone there drives a car to do whatever they do, so the interest of their communities resemble one another more than those we see in Toronto.

The for or against debate is mostly a 'pedestrian friendliness and community building' vs. 'car friendliness and everyone on their own' issue. Toronto is more polarised in this regard than any other city in Ontario.

 

[jeff316]

I take your point, The City of Burlington does include and awful lot of rural area, as does Hamilton. However in small cities amalgamation might make matters significantly more efficient than it did here in Toronto. One doesn't have to look beyond the state of repair of important Toronto streets to realise that a very rich city is being hijacked by someone.

Burlington's downtown is better kept than Toronto's, and its suburbs remain impeccable.

Actually I would say that Burlington-Hamilton electing a single mayor could make a lot of sense - if the amalgamation had included only Stoney Creek, Burlington, Hamilton and the developed portion of the mountain, and not the super rural parts like Binbrook, Flamborough, etc.

It's just that partisan politics got in the way of amalgamating the two neighbours.

It was supposed to happen in 1974 under Bill Davis but the PCs held Burlington and didn't want to deal with thebacklash. So they promised to amalagate Aldershot (now the west end of Burlington) into the Hammer but in the end dropped the proposal and Vic Copps the mayor of Hamilton went nuts about it.

If it weren't for the fact that Burlington was such a reliable PC voting riding, it could have also happened in 1997 under Harris.

Burlington's rural area is deceptive since much of it is taken up with protected land under the NEC. Burlington is one of the first GTA suburbs to be approaching total greenfield build out.

And yes, Burlington's downtown is also better kept than Toronto's, which is not surprising considering it is made up of about eight blocks and three streets.

 

[RC8]

Why would you want to amalgamate it to anything, though? It works quite well on its own and serves its citizens.

The current layout at the City of Toronto clearly doesn't serve the interests of people downtown, and Ford would argue doesn't serve the interests of people in the suburbs.

Plans to amalgamate Burlington to Hamilton back then were a terrible idea for Burlington.

 

[rm20010]

Back on topic: expanding on Josh Matlow's tweets as posted above,

http://www.thestar.com/news/cityhal...for-using-mayor-s-office-for-campaigning?bn=1

Councillor Doug Ford, who co-hosts the Sunday afternoon radio talk show with his brother, said Matlow is just upset because he had previously hosted the show but was replaced by the Fords.

“Josh Matlow is ticked off because we took his radio station,” Doug Ford told reporters, adding that relations with Matlow have turned frosty.

“He doesn’t say hello to me, he doesn’t say goodbye to me, he doesn’t acknowledge us. Over what? We took a radio station spot. That’s the reason.”

Matlow said he has spoken to the city’s integrity commissioner but before filing a complaint, he is asking the mayor to stop asking friendly candidates to call his office.

“The members of council code of conduct clearly states that our office resources are not to be used for election-related purposes,” Matlow said.

“To suggest that potential candidates should call the mayor’s office, and advertise the phone number in the context of running against councillors the mayor dislikes is clearly a violation of our code of conduct.”

Notice the first line. Clear demonstration of the Brothers Frod's pettiness.

Also the letter in question.

 

[canmark]

Josh Matlow has posted his letter to Ford on his website: My letter to Mayor Ford regarding his violation of the Members' Code of Conduct

 

[adma]

I take your point, The City of Burlington does include and awful lot of rural area, as does Hamilton.

But even Burlington makes more sense than Hamilton, because it's merely an old-school city-township amalgamation, not an entire county/region turned into one municipality. (In fact, the amalgamation of Burlington and Nelson Township in the late 50s may qualify as Ontario's first "megacity"--a few years later, Oakville followed suit, then Whitby, and then it became par for the municipal course with regionalization in the early 70s.)

But honestly, this brushing-over of other Ontario megaamalgamations (and I'm talking about the Harris-era variety a la single-unit Hamilton and Ottawa, not to mention Chatham-Kent, Kawartha Lakes, et al; as opposed to the Davis-era regions) strikes me as terribly myopic. After all, both Ottawa in '06 and Hamilton in '03 squandered the likelihood of a genuinely "progressive" mayor on behalf of an ethically-challenged right-winger as a result of the urban-suburban/rural divide, as well. The same concerns exist there; maybe even amplified. It's just that as Torontonians, you're more "aware" of Toronto's issues. They have "immediacy" in the way that Hamilton's, Ottawa's, et al haven't--and of course, the immediacy's amplified by Rob Ford being Rob Ford...

 

[jje1000]

Interesting notes- get involved in local democracy by ousting the councilors I don't like! Also, Pasternak gets a little concerned about the early campaigning and hints at Kouvalis.

Mayor responds to accusations he jumped the gun on election call
ELIZABETH CHURCH
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Mar. 27, 2012 4:39PM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Mar. 27, 2012 11:03PM EDT


Mayor Rob Ford is responding to charges he is running afoul of the rules with his recent focus on the 2014 election, saying he encourages citizens from “all political stripes†to get involved in local democracy.

The remarks are contained in a statement from the mayor released late Tuesday by Mr. Ford’s office. They follow questions about the mayor’s impromptu proclamation of an early start to the election after last week’s transit loss and cries of foul over the use of his City Hall phone line to muster a slate of like-minded candidates to run with him.

“In recent days, colleagues have put forward concerns about the use of my office phone number as a way to get people involved in their local democracy,†the statement says. “It was my intent to provide my direct personal line.â€

The issue centres around musings by the mayor over the weekend on his weekly radio show about a possible slate to take on the 24 councillors who voted to resurrect a light rail network – remarks that were followed by Mr. Ford encouraging would-be candidates wishing to join his efforts to call his City Hall office, a number he gave out on air, as is his habit.

After meeting with the city’s integrity commissioner, Councillor Josh Matlow wrote to the mayor asking him to withdraw the comments, saying he had crossed a line.

“The mayor’s office is the mayor’s office, it’s not a perpetual campaign hotline,†Mr. Matlow told reporters. After a call from the mayor Tuesday night, Mr. Matlow said he was satisfied with his response. “He unreservedly apologized to me,†he said.

Earlier in the day, the mayor’s brother and radio co-host dismissed the charges as sour grapes caused by Mr. Matlow’s loss of the Sunday show to the Ford brothers.

“Josh Matlow is ticked off because we took his radio station,†Councillor Ford said. “Give me a break.â€

Councillor Ford defended the mayor’s remarks, saying all councillors are preparing for the next election. “It’s all part of politics, I guess,†he said.

But Councillor James Pasternak, a supporter of the mayor’s efforts to extend the Sheppard subway, said Tuesday the midterm electioneering is a problem that goes beyond the use of the mayor’s office number. Election rules make it clear, he said, that the campaign begins January, 2014.

“It is inappropriate. It is highly inappropriate,†Mr. Pasternak said. “We are elected to represent all Torontonians and it is essential that when we disagree we respect that disagreement and we don’t become vindictive. That’s what people in Toronto don’t what to see – the targeted vindictiveness. We’ve really got to rise above it.â€

For months, stories have circulated at City Hall about threats made to unseat councillors who do not fall in line with the mayor. While Mr. Pasternak won’t name names, he said just such a threat was made to him on Jan. 17 in the midst of the budget debate. “It was clearly stated to me that if I supported the budget amendment that I would have a rough time in 2014,†he said.

The mayor’s comments on the weekend also included Mr. Ford naming unsuccessful candidates that he’d like to see run again in the next election.

One of his on-air endorsements went to Jon Burnside, who ran unsuccessfully against John Parker, a fiscal conservative and member of the mayor’s own executive committee, but a vocal supporter of light rail.

“The mayor is a man of great passions, we all know that,†Mr. Parker said when asked about the remarks. “Right now I am not his favourite guy.â€

In his statement Tuesday, the mayor says in part, “One of my greatest passions is promoting and encouraging people to become involved with local government. It is no secret that I openly talk to individuals of all political stripes to take a greater interest in their community and city.â€

Mr. Parker dismissed the recent sparring as a part of politics. “I don’t think it is ever going to be a quilting bee around here,†he said. “We need to keep focused on the job we are here to do.â€

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...mped-the-gun-on-election-call/article2383149/

Also, a bit of Nenshi.

 

[ShonTron]

Last year, Ford was also expressing active support for Gus Cusimano in a push for a re-election in Ward 9, represented by left-leaning Maria Augimeri. As it later turned out, Cusimano had his own problems such casting a vote wrongly (if not illegally) and other campaign issues.