The woman in that pic (excised for space) is Maddie Di Muccio. She is a Newmarket Councillor that has been on the wrong side of two integrity commissioner reports in her first and only term, and had expressed an interest in the Newmarket-Aurora OPC nom to replace Frank Klees, Hudak killed her application personally due to some publicly critical articles in the Sun and some privately critical e-mails with a Klees staffer who's own interest in the OPC N-A nom were killed for some e-mails of his own. There is a not zero chance she will run for mayor in Newmarket. Two peas in a pod.
Yeah, it seems fair to call Maddie a Rob Ford of the North. Putting aside his, um, personal issues, just speaking politically, she enjoys being the council maverick who loses votes 10-1 (or whatever), calling out people for perceived injustices etc. As noted, she was looking like the presumptive favourite to grab the PC nomination when Klees stepped down, but for the fact that her maverickdom took some shots at Hudak too. The day she found out, reading Twitter, you'd think Hudak had taken the life of her first-born child, so great was the sympathy.
Newmarket's not Toronto but just as you wouldn't wish Ford on Toronto, you wouldn't wish her on that town.
As for Detroit - Ford (or another mayor) does not have the power to do that kind of damage any more than he has the power to create 57,000 jobs or put 5,000 cranes in the sky. If you want to worry that Toronto is about to slide into the abyss, look at the debate over revenue tools. IMHO, if we don't get over this pathological fear of taxes, bite the bullet and start building a true regional transit network, then it's only a matter of time until the economy here starts taking real hits. Even then, Detroit and other post-apocalyptic scenarios are a ways off....
