News   Jul 12, 2024
199 Church Showcases Heritage Facade and Artwork at Street Level
 1.2K     0 
News   Jul 12, 2024
Six Points Plaza Redevelopment Advances With 36-Storey First Phase
 1K     1 
News   Jul 12, 2024
Trading Spaces: Can Real Estate Conversion Help Boost Housing Supply?
 376     0 

Rob Ford's Toronto

Status
Not open for further replies.
lesouris said:
Back to the topic at hand (finally!), is anyone else feeling as conflicted as I am over the Etobicoke Centre vacancy? I generally prefer to err on the side of the people whenever it comes down to an election v. appointment scenario, but this time is proving uncomfortable. I just don't like agreeing with His Worship even if I disagree with his motives. Has anyone heard who council might be mulling over for an appointment? Can we expect anyone in particular to jump into the race if a by-election is called? Can we start talking about relevant things again?
Click to expand...

I don't feel especially conflicted over the issue itself. I agree with John Mascarin's comments on CBC earlier this week that either way is 'democratic', but a by-election seems to be the preference of the people in question, and I think that the selection of an appointee could turn into a very nasty fight in council that we really don't need to have.

However, I am bothered by the way Ford has used the issue to cast himself as the defender of democracy - it seems like he's doing his best to turn the question of by-election vs appointment into another left-right battle when it isn't and really shouldn't be. (Is it true that he misrepresented both Holyday and Del Grande as being in favour of a by-election at the public consultation last week?)
 
I think that it's pure gravy (as Ford & Co. would say) to hold a by-election for a position that will be filled by an election in a year.
 
kicked it in the sun said:
see, i would submit that demonstrating one's ability to master and adhere to an arbitrary convention of the written language actually suggests something opposite to what you're onto here. i work in tech here in san francisco and the culture is very much oriented toward dispensing with the unnecessary, the rote, the barriers to communication and creativity and commerce. what you see as dumbing down, i see as de-cluttering, stream-lining and, to a certain extent that we could discuss in a different forum, making more elegant; parsimony and clarity, not convention and adornment. and the jokers that say they'd "fire" people for internal communiques in the lower case, i just roll my eyes, as if anyone with that sort of inflexibility and narrow-mindedness would ever succeed in my field to the extent where that they'd occupy any sort of position of authority.

anyway, this topic is as far removed from rob ford's villainy as any i can think of, so i'll just leave it there. sorry for the drift, i just couldn't believe the bizarre hate i was seeing for a thing i see as pretty much standard.
Click to expand...

You're just ditching one arbritary convention and adapting another equally arbitrary convention. Keep up the good work and you'll find that elusive lowest common denominator in no time. Perhaps we can also get rid of those pesky white lines which are cluttering up our highways.
 
Last edited:
jusbokeh said:
I am a 4th year politics student at ryerson and will be writing a research paper in regards to 'Rob Ford' machine.
I will be outlining various topics such as demographic voting patterns, suburbs vs core, populism vs. Left/right and media failure.
Click to expand...

Ford's win was a middle finger from the working class, masquerading as a victory for fiscal conservatism and executed perfectly by one of the best retail politics teams in the business.

Ford was propped by the (large-C) Conservatives because they knew he was their best hope, but he was elected by a swath of folks on the wrong side of Toronto's wealth divide. This small-government coalition included Bay St. lower-taxes types, but its heart was service workers and taxi drivers struggling to make ends meet and sick of the City wasting money on stupid shit instead of fixing the damn roads. Throw in a backlash against Miller (particularly his fucking up of the garbage strike), Ford's extremely disciplined approach to retail politics and a slate of decidedly uninspiring opponents and you end up with the perfect storm that elected (and will probably re-elect) Ford.

If you are looking for political reasons for his victory you will be disappointed, because Ford's win was a decidedly anti-political act.

Demographics, media, the urban/suburban divide and left vs right are merely symptoms of the populist class battle that is the primary reason why our illustrious mayor smokes crack in his friend's basement rather than doing lines of organic coke off the tits of high class hookers lying on overstuffed leather settees in the private rooms of sherry-drenched Bay Street social clubs like his esteemed establishment predecessors.
 
Last edited:
Amin Massoudi, the mayor's communications director, said today that the mayor "has been clear in his position: A by-election is the only open and transparent way to fill the vacancy in Ward 3". You know, there are many words that should not be used and "transparent" is one of them. Rob Ford hasn't exactly been the most transparent mayor despite his campaign pledge to bring transparency to government. What a crock of shit.
 
Silence&Motion said:
Welcome. Great topic. I brought up this issue back on post #18410.

Most of the writing I've seen on Ford's victory has been based on neighbourhood-level data (of which the best example is probably Zack Taylor's work). The big weakness with neighbourhood-level data is that it leads to ecological fallacy. Since voting is an individual act, neighbourhood data doesn't tell us exactly who in the neighbourhood voted for Ford.

I also found an opinion poll that broke down approval of Rob Ford by certain demographic characteristics such as gender, income, education, etc. The sample size is much smaller, but it's at least based on individual-level data.

More generally, I think it's very important to get past all of the politically-charged stereotypes of both Ford's supporters and detractors that have dominated public discussion. Good data would be a way to do this.

I also found it interesting that you used the term "machine" to describe Rob Ford. If you're referring to the political science concept of a political machine (which is generally used to explain the dominance of the Democratic party in US cities), then I don't think it really fits in this case. Canadian cities have tended not to have the same machine-based politics that occur in the US. Having almost zero support among the traditional "establishment", Ford is about as un-machine like as you can get. Not even the leadership of the Ontario PCs and Federal Conservatives are willing to stick their neck out for him.
Click to expand...

I think someone earlier talked about the "spite" vote. The idea that "since you voted for Miller and McGuinty, we will support Ford". I doubt that most of Ford supporters think he is the best leader out there, but they will continue to support him. Maybe if provincially we turfed the Liberals it would cause Municipal voters to move away from Ford.
 
Silence&Motion said:
I also found it interesting that you used the term "machine" to describe Rob Ford. If you're referring to the political science concept of a political machine (which is generally used to explain the dominance of the Democratic party in US cities), then I don't think it really fits in this case. Canadian cities have tended not to have the same machine-based politics that occur in the US. Having almost zero support among the traditional "establishment", Ford is about as un-machine like as you can get. Not even the leadership of the Ontario PCs and Federal Conservatives are willing to stick their neck out for him.
Click to expand...

Machine is exactly the right term. The C/PC leaders may have kept their mouths shut (as they had to) but "Team Ford" is really a municipal extension of the federal and provincial Tory election teams. Kouvalis and Ciano are Conservative operatives. Their focus groups, tele-town halls, robocalls and micro-fundraising tactics were all executed using C/PC assets. Didn't find any direct references after a cursory search, but I assume that Ford's voter database was either the Tories' CIMS or based on CIMS data. One of the reasons Ford beat the field is because his ground game was far more advanced - and that's because the Tories already had his election infrastructure up and running.

There's a good article by Macleans on the subject.
 
Someone just posted this on the Toronto reddit page: Rob Ford just checked in alone @ the Eaton Chelsea. Was cutting through the lobby as a shortcut and saw Ford checking in with no bags. He looked a little out of it.
 
dforthandbview said:
Someone just posted this on the Toronto reddit page: Rob Ford just checked in alone @ the Eaton Chelsea. Was cutting through the lobby as a shortcut and saw Ford checking in with no bags. He looked a little out of it.
Click to expand...

Ryan Maguire ‏@rmaguire1701 1h
Just passed by Toronto Mayor Rob Ford here in my hotel. Wow, this man clearly hasn't missed too many meals.
Click to expand...

Will Castillo ‏@IWill_Travel 2h
Rob Ford #torontomayor #toronto pic.twitter.com/yKVltbHAhg
Click to expand...

Looks like he was wandering around Yonge-Dundas Square. Check the lobby to see there's anyone in fishnets and 4" heels waiting for their pager to buzz.
 
Last edited:
He went to Buskerfest again tonight?? He was there last night. Actually, if he's drunk then it makes sense for him to check in at a hotel near City Hall. He's gotta work tomorrow morning!
 
dforthandbview said:
Amin Massoudi, the mayor's communications director, said today that the mayor "has been clear in his position: A by-election is the only open and transparent way to fill the vacancy in Ward 3". You know, there are many words that should not be used and "transparent" is one of them. Rob Ford hasn't exactly been the most transparent mayor despite his campaign pledge to bring transparency to government. What a crock of shit.
Click to expand...

If he's so eager to eliminate Councillors "down at City Hall" why not start here? The Ward can be redrawn so that Councillors Luby & Milczyn can absorb neighbouring Ward 3 into their portfolio.
 
animatronic said:
Machine is exactly the right term. The C/PC leaders may have kept their mouths shut (as they had to) but "Team Ford" is really a municipal extension of the federal and provincial Tory election teams. Kouvalis and Ciano are Conservative operatives. Their focus groups, tele-town halls, robocalls and micro-fundraising tactics were all executed using C/PC assets. Didn't find any direct references after a cursory search, but I assume that Ford's voter database was either the Tories' CIMS or based on CIMS data. One of the reasons Ford beat the field is because his ground game was far more advanced - and that's because the Tories already had his election infrastructure up and running.

There's a good article by Macleans on the subject.
Click to expand...

Having political consultants and party connections doesn't make you a machine, it just makes you a professional politician. The quintessential machine politician of contemporary times is Chicago's Richard M. Daley who won six consecutive elections, usually with over 70% of the vote. Daley basically ran the city unchallenged for over two decades straight. He had the support of all of the major political forces in town from the unions to the business community to the city council. During his tenure he was essentially able to mould the city as he saw fit and further consolidate his power by talking control of various government functions (e.g. the school board), and handing out patronage appointments.

Ford, who won a single election with less that 50% of the vote, who has had a negative approval rating for most of his tenure, who can rarely get council let alone the business community or the unions to support his agenda, who's own police chief refuses to dispel rumours that he's tied to a criminal investigation, who will likely face the toughest reelection campaign in the history of the mega-city (including challenges by fellow conservatives), is not even in the same universe as a machine politician like Richard Daley. Ford simply doesn't have a machine. He has daddy's money and a lot of good will built up in his own ward, and some weak support from the C/PC who have essentially ignored Toronto in their own campaigns (and thus probably have poor data on the electorate). But no machine.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top