Rob Ford's Toronto

[Kat_YYZ]

@DanielBrownLaw 24m24 minutes ago
Congrats @johntoryTO. Now let's close this sad chapter in #topoli history.

I like the cartoon.

 

[Paleo_gurl]

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/10/27/rob-ford-i-will-run-again-for-mayor

From Wormington. But keep in mind:



There will be a Ward 2 by-election.

I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV but RoFo will not beat his cancer. He will be so weakened and sickly from more chemo, the radiation, and surgery that he won't be spending much time in council. It's an aggressive cancer and he is not the picture of health.

 

[PinkLucy]

I hope with a sane person in charge, interest in municipal politics and political figures dies down to what it was pre-crack-smoking-mayor era, and the Fords are somewhat forgotten. There is simply too much attention paid to the Fords. Ford nation will lose interest and dissolve. Ahhh, if only...

I disagree. I hope that interest in municipal politics continues and grows. The Fords can go hang for all I care, however.

 

[DufferinMallrat]

I disagree. I hope that interest in municipal politics continues and grows. The Fords can go hang for all I care, however.

Maybe I should phrase it better: I hope any legitimate interest in municipal politics grows, but interest in it as a circus /celebrity clown show dies down.

 

[Videodrome]

I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV but RoFo will not beat his cancer. He will be so weakened and sickly from more chemo, the radiation, and surgery that he won't be spending much time in council. It's an aggressive cancer and he is not the picture of health.

My thoughts exactly. Rob can tell Wormington that he is running in 2018, but a visit to the doctor can change that very quickly.

 

[CalgarianExOntarian]

I'm not so sure. See, for example, Calgary's MPs.

Roger that.

At least Rob Anders's political career appears to have been slain (I'll be sick if he somehow slimes his way back into office), and there's hope that the CPC will lose Calgary Centre to Liberal Kent Hehr.

But: Harper, Kenney. Not exactly progressive, and not exactly in danger of losing their seats.

Plus, MLAs. I'm scared to even look at tonight's provincial by-election results.

 

[tiffer24]

Who's next? Rob's kids? The family dog? The basement sofa?

goldsbie 11:29pm via Twitter for Android
Also, asked if he'd consider running for office himself, Randy Ford told @EnviroPunk that he wouldn't rule it out.

 

[typezed]

I disagree. I hope that interest in municipal politics continues and grows. The Fords can go hang for all I care, however.

What good is interest in municipal politics if it solidly returns all incumbents no matter how useless or horrible many were in the last session? And which beyond that regularly rewards with the few open seats that become available the sons and daughters and siblings and spouses of those that held the seats in the past?

 

[johntauren]

What good is interest in municipal politics if it solidly returns all incumbents no matter how useless or horrible many were in the last session? And which beyond that regularly rewards with the few open seats that become available the sons and daughters and siblings and spouses of those that held the seats in the past?

It could really be the Ford factor...people were too focused on Ford and not the councilors.

 

[CalgarianExOntarian]

I like the cartoon.

So do I! But I'm scared that it's not really over ...

Now the bricks lay on Grand Street
Where the neon madmen climb
They all fall there so perfectly
It all seems so well timed
An’ here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end ...

--Bob Dylan, "Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again"

 

[CalgarianExOntarian]

Who's next? Rob's kids? The family dog? The basement sofa?

Sandro Lisi for Mayor, and some mysterious envelopes for City Council and School Board.

 

[adma]

Too close for comfort. The 22% voting for Chow almost cost us 4 more years of a Ford as mayor.
I know many on here were against strategic voting but this is exactly why many voted strategically.

Though, my usual caveat/inkling that were one to factor Ford out, given their respective campaigns there'd have been roughly the same kind of differential, anyway: Chow with anywhere between half to 2/3 of Tory's vote, etc.

Whatever my own voting inclinations, I was loath to offer predictions or to join in the Ford-underperform/Chow-outperform chorus that was building t/w the end; because I knew that was high risk and it could well go the other way--as it did. But, look at it this way: even if she lost, Chow held her own. Doubled Joe Pants. Held the share she was hanging on to t/w the final stretch. And Tory in the end won, anyway--even if it looked like a nailbiter at first.

In principle, I prefer 3-or-more-way dynamism to straight 2-way yawn; or if it has to be the latter, let it be through electoral reform--ranked balloting, runoff votes, etc.

 

[adma]

So discouraging. How could people actually vote for an invisible 21year old, no experience candidate like Mikey? And how is it possible that Andre Domise didn't at least come close?

Well, confidentially, I had the feeling from ventures through Ward 2 that Domise's campaign had a bit more overidealistic Potemkin to it than he was letting on. The lack of lawn signs, for one--and not just because Fordsters were snatching them; really, second-place Larocque *was* more front-lawn visible. It was all urbanite-pleasing organic airy-fairy, not enough real Steak Queen meat and potatoes.

Think of it as the 2014 version of City Idol in 2006, where all the winners flopped at the ballot box except for the shunned Etobicoke outlier. And as such, take a breath and grasp where you all *really* failed to grasp Ford's enduring resonance. To be Lester Bangs about it, you can't be James Taylor in a Troggs world, lest you be marked for death...

 

[adma]

I'm calling it a day, but I'll leave you with this:

Daniel Dale @ddale8 · 55 secs 55 seconds ago
Another 2018 thing to remember: the provincial government has promised ranked ballots. If Toronto adopts them, no chance for any Ford.

Uh, actually, if ranked ballots were in place for 2014, Rob Ford would have won Ward 2 outright without reallocation of the other votes.

*Mayorally*, of course, it's another matter.

 

[adma]

So no more Chow in politics for at least 4 years? She lost her mayoral bid, she doesn't have a council seat, she can't go back to being and MP. She's well and truly out of it. She'll have to get a real job for the first time in many, many years.

Did you ever stop to think that her experience to date makes for a pretty hefty and convincing resume? A "real job", or some such high-earning position, ought to come quite easy for her--she's got a robust parachute.

OTOH had *Mammoliti* lost (or should he be booted by the courts), *there's* a likely "well and truly out of it" case to consider. (I'd vote him "likeliest to be reduced to driving taxis".)