News   Jul 17, 2024
Don Valley Floodway
 90     0 
News   Jul 16, 2024
Minto Submits Modifications to Grand Park Village Plan in Mimico
 715     0 
News   Jul 16, 2024
News Roundup for July 16, 2024
 613     0 

Rob Ford's Toronto

Status
Not open for further replies.
a revisit of what it was like basically right before the crack scandal broke...

Wed May 15, 2013

Rob Ford has checked out

With council devolving into the rudderless, undisciplined mess he always claimed it to be, the mayor is abandoning city business while he focuses on his next election campaign. But if he refuses to lead the city now, why would he want to run it in 2014?

http://www.thegridto.com/city/politics/rob-ford-has-checked-out/
 
CalgarianExOntarian said:
Almost certainly not. Google Joseph McCarthy alcoholism and check out the cornucopia of hits, including some that suggest also an addiction to opiates.

Mention of McCarthy's name puts things in perspective for me. Rob Ford is terrible, repulsive, a serious impediment to progress, a grievously demoralizing force, and possibly a hideous inspiration to ambitious pols who don't care at all about the public good. But Rob Ford has got to work a lot harder if he hopes to get into a list of most heinous N. American politicians ever.
Click to expand...

Yeah, even as I was typing that up, I was like "This feels a little too kind to McCarthy." Then I wiki searched him and got to read about some of his early electoral antics and god lord the guy seems to be what Doug Ford aspires to but could never actually be.
 
smalltown said:
I don't think this is Rob's first attempt at drying up. Rob has a pattern of acting up then hiding. I mentioned in my first post on this thread that in Dec 2012 my wife and (4yr old) daughter were flying out of Pearson and bumped into Rob Ford walking around the terminal by himself. He had a Florida ticket. A friend and writer at Toronto Life suggested he was seeking rehab down there near the family condos.

From Goldbie's recent NOW article:http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=197931
"In mid-December 2012, Ford was spotted in line at Pearson airport headed for places unknown. He was not seen or heard from for a week and a half afterward, and upon his return, his office confirmed rumours that he’d been in Florida. There was speculation he’d been shuffled off to rehab, but no particular indication that was the case."

So unconfirmed of course but "Two weeks prior, Ford was booted from office by a judge who ruled that he had violated provincial conflict-of-interest legislation." It does fit the dig a big old messy hole then hide in it pattern. If Rob's been doing this since childhood, a 30 day paid holiday won't do a thing.
Click to expand...

Could be the opposite of rehab. Some people go on drug vacations where they hide out in a room somewhere and pump their bodies full of garbage for a week or two before staggering back to work and family. If they live, of course. Some, like Philip Seymour Hoffman, don't.
 
Last edited:
I edit a news website for healthcare professionals. Here's a column by one of my coworkers that tries to take a scientific approach to examining what goes on in the minds of Ford Nation. Only physicians, etc can access the site and read the responses, but I can tell you it's hilarious to read doctors and all these bright minds commenting and soundling like your average Ford Nation member.

The science behind Ford Nation
Rob Ford bleeds like an ink stain on Toronto, yet his support continues to rise. Why? Voter decisions about leaders are not rooted in evidence or actual track records but rather in other factors.

Rob Ford bleeds like an ink stain on Toronto, yet his support continues to rise. Why? Unable to come up with an explanation, Science-ish looked to science.

Turns out Torontonians are like most electors. Research on voter behaviour shows that decisions about leaders are not rooted in evidence or actual track records but rather in such factors as gender, age, party affiliation, facial expressions and likability.

Harvard Kennedy School professor Dr. Matthew Baum (PhD) calls these shortcuts and says they are no different from the ones we use to decide where and when to cross the street or what cell phone to purchase.

“People have limited time and they have their priorities,” Baum said. This doesn’t make voters irrational, he cautioned, even those who would still cast a ballot for a crack-smoking mayor. “If they are not that interested in politics, it’s not a very good use of time to learn all the nuances of a candidate. So instead they rely on shortcuts: likeability, the opinions of other trusted elites.”

So the mayor’s conservative rhetoric and everyman appeal might be the shortcuts people rely on when judging him. Still, that doesn’t answer the question of why some Torontonians would not prize other shortcuts—like the fact the mayor has smoked crack.

Political psychology research offers some clues. Constituents can be “primed” by political campaigns to vote based on key messages—no matter a politician’s actions. As long as Ford is perceived to be giving people what they want—no tax hikes, “stopping the gravy train”—his poor personal record may not matter at the polls. “If (Ford) is seen as a champion of the working class . . . delivering the things (people) care about,” Baum added, “the fact that he’s a lunatic in his personal life is much less important.”

That’s probably why Ford’s first line of defence is to cite his record on taxes and the city budget—even if his numbers don’t add up.

Communications expert Dr. Alexandre Sévigny (PhD) had another explanation for the mayor’s popularity. “Framing theory says that an effective mode of persuasion is to focus on the essence of an issue rather than on specific facts,” he said. “There has been consistent framing of the media as ‘liberal’ and willing to stop at nothing to get rid of Ford.” So the mayor’s fans may believe he has been victimized as a result of this framing by the conservative movement.

But at some point, shouldn’t the mayor's track record overcome framing and priming?

It didn’t in Washington, D.C. Marion Barry, the notorious former mayor, became more popular as allegations of adultery and crack use mounted. Baum said that it’s because the mayor was viewed as a victim of the establishment. “The more the authorities trashed him, the more wrong-doing he was accused of, the more popular he got.”
Click to expand...
 
pud99 said:
Well, I'm thinkin' that I should start carryin' a can o' beans at all times, just in case. (Is there a suitable ankle holster?)

BTW, do you happen to know - lima, romano, garbanzo, kidney, or...?
Click to expand...

At least if RoFo followed suit we'd know what kind of beans - baked, of course...
 
Jimmi T said:
Ya I think it was only for a month though around the time of Fords Kimmel appearance.
Click to expand...

So while Rofo's kids were with his In-laws (presumably) he went on Kimmel? Yeah, I'm sure CAS must have really been impressed by that... can't wait for the divorce hearing discussing that one.
 
evvabeing said:
a revisit of what it was like basically right before the crack scandal broke...

Wed May 15, 2013

Rob Ford has checked out

With council devolving into the rudderless, undisciplined mess he always claimed it to be, the mayor is abandoning city business while he focuses on his next election campaign. But if he refuses to lead the city now, why would he want to run it in 2014?

http://www.thegridto.com/city/politics/rob-ford-has-checked-out/
Click to expand...

I remember that story! Thought it was so incredibly damning at the time. Amazing that was a year ago.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top