Videodrome
Senior Member
Don Peat @reporterdonpeat 3m3 minutes ago
Rob Ford update: Ford has finished his 2nd round of chemotherapy, was "in good spirits" & starts 3rd round of chemo on Dec. 14 #TOpoli
An update.
Don Peat @reporterdonpeat 3m3 minutes ago
Rob Ford update: Ford has finished his 2nd round of chemotherapy, was "in good spirits" & starts 3rd round of chemo on Dec. 14 #TOpoli
Or, maybe more amongst the followers than the ringleaders, LaRouche.
... plus the fact Tory 'endorsed' Doug in 2010, Ma Ford's assertion that the family would 'let' Tory be mayor and then it would be 'Robbie's turn', etc.
Family Compact is completely different. This isn't a network of business and political elites running the province - the current iteration of the FC is people like Tory/Richardson/Pritchard/Mcguinty/Navigator etc...Yes, quite the similarities, especially since Lyndon was in his 30's in the 50's.
Exactly. There are also shades of the "Family Compact".
It seems anyone who ever undergoes treatment for something is in "good spirits" afterwards.An update.
Family Compact is completely different. This isn't a network of business and political elites running the province - the current iteration of the FC is people like Tory/Richardson/Pritchard/Mcguinty/Navigator etc...
At best the Fords were the poor man's Koch Brothers, using fund raising to push a neocon agenda.
The Family Compact wielded real power in 19th Century UC/CW. No true analogies in today's world, but probably fair to say there are a multiple overlays of politically powerful networks. However, I don't think the Fords were ever close to the decision-making centres of any of them. At most Momma Ford terrorized everyone within throwing distance, but she raised enough money that any aspiring conservative was forced to sit on the plastic-covered furniture and take in a lecture.You should investigate the connections of the Conservatives to big business through the history of Ontario, anyway, as I said, shades. Basically the Fords have been trying to be part of the whole "made man" situation since Doug Sr. was kicked out of being a MPP and his death (and of course Flaherty's more recent death.) The Ford Fester meet and greets are just a part of trying to revive the glory days of the political power the Conservatives have ceded. The Liberals may be taking the lead at the moment, however, the game is the same and the players have not changed, just their visibility.
I have no problem with this fact, however, as stated, the Fords don't really belong to the elite, just dubious connections.
I wonder if attending council is an option now.
The Family Compact wielded real power in 19th Century UC/CW. No true analogies in today's world, but probably fair to say there are a multiple overlays of politically powerful networks. However, I don't think the Fords were ever close to the decision-making centres of any of them. At most Momma Ford terrorized everyone within throwing distance, but she raised enough money that any aspiring conservative was forced to sit on the plastic-covered furniture and take in a lecture.
The Family Compact wielded real power in 19th Century UC/CW. No true analogies in today's world, but probably fair to say there are a multiple overlays of politically powerful networks. However, I don't think the Fords were ever close to the decision-making centres of any of them. At most Momma Ford terrorized everyone within throwing distance, but she raised enough money that any aspiring conservative was forced to sit on the plastic-covered furniture and take in a lecture.
In other news: I'm just finishing up Mark Towhey's book and must say that it is actually quite rivetting in places, fills in some gaps, and gives a different point of view on events I used to think we'd already figured out.
The best bits by far involve Doug, who turns out to dumber and meaner and more self-serving than we've ever even imagined here. Just one example: He literally believed that, should Rob die in office, he should become mayor…since the people of Toronto had voted for the Ford family to lead them. There are turns in the narrative where you have to wonder if it might've been Doug who tipped Rob over the edge.
Towhey has his failings—objectivity being one of them—but some of the best bits of the book are when he forgoes the self-aggrandizement and reveals some real feeling. He may be a con, but I can at least imagine sitting down with him and enjoying a beer or two .
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/1202-na-kidnappingDavid Potts, the Oshawa city solicitor, disappeared from his driveway more than three years ago, snatched at gunpoint after a city council meeting in an incident as frightening as it was bizarre.
On Tuesday, Potts watched from the gallery as Robert Lutczyk, a former city councillor, admitted in Ontario Superior Court to the kidnapping, putting an end to perhaps the strangest story in Canadian municipal politics this side of Rob Ford.
Long before he kidnapped a bureaucrat, Lutczyk had a reputation for oddity. He served as a city and regional councillor on and off for 10 years in 1994-2010, earning headlines for unusual ideas, like annexing the Turks and Caicos Islands, and erratic behaviour, including a long, quixotic battle over the name of the local university.