VTB
Active Member
Looks like he made it there. Must have had handlers babysitting him all night!
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Rob Ford's Toronto
- Thread starter MetroMan
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Looks like he made it there. Must have had handlers babysitting him all night!
TinyTiny
Active Member
Personally I think he is a moron because he's an idiot.
Shanee
New Member
DeathSilver
Active Member
TinyTiny
Active Member
As an outsider (American) looking in, one aspect of the Ford mayorship is truly baffling to me.
I find it most fascinating that Torontonians were willing to elect two mayors. It appears to me through this whole sordid saga that from a functional standpoint, Doug Ford is actually Toronto's mayor. Why is it that people have been so complacent as to cede that much power to a mere councilor? How is it not a massive conflict of interest for a councilor to act as the mayor's mouthpiece/chief of staff on a daily basis??? Why do Torontonians put up with this?
I find it most fascinating that Torontonians were willing to elect two mayors. It appears to me through this whole sordid saga that from a functional standpoint, Doug Ford is actually Toronto's mayor. Why is it that people have been so complacent as to cede that much power to a mere councilor? How is it not a massive conflict of interest for a councilor to act as the mayor's mouthpiece/chief of staff on a daily basis??? Why do Torontonians put up with this?
DeathSilver
Active Member
The City of Toronto Act is full of loopholes and lacks any form of rules that make any councillor or the mayor accountable for anything. Th integrity commissioner also has no means of really punishing/dismissing people like Doug and Rob. It's a sad state of affair.
Shanee
New Member
They are wildly amusing? There is no controlling Doug and for me, I love watching him step in dogshit all the time.
expat
Active Member
very much agree.
i'm also on the outside looking in, and - though i've said it before - it seems to me that despite all the ford's (abundant) assholery, the people of toronto come in for some blame here too. the city seems to suffer from an outrage deficit, and i think in some cities you would have seen substantial public protest by now.
Videodrome
Senior Member
Rob is doing some fine camping during work hours!
tiffer24
Senior Member
DD13
Active Member
So a U of T think tank releases a report that says "Toronto doesn't have a spending problem, it has a revenue problem" and Rob Ford holds a press conference to say "see, we don't have a spending problem", ignoring the fact that the report contradicts his entire raison d'être (not raising taxes). I always thought post-scandal he would run into serious fundraising problems (no corporation would risk the public knowing they were funding him) but he doesn't need to fundraise. He can just call a press conference and get his message out that way. No one wants to risk not being there when he confesses to some new over the top thing, and they end up just amplifying his talking points. It's very frustrating and I'm starting to doubt his political oblivion.
Greg Banks
Active Member
Almost made it through the presser without long nosing it....however as with Old Faithful he never fails...."1000 cranes in the sky"....there probably more exaggerations but that's the one that jumped out particularly considering it was part of his closing comments...
Tea
New Member
I don't quite see it this way. From a functional standpoint, Doug is in no way like a mayor. He has no power in municipal affairs except for his one vote on council. Rather, he is a major player in the Rob Ford soap opera/debacle that is happening. He puts on a show and gets a lot of media attention.
The mayor doesn't really have much power in Canadian cities. It's really a role that depends on leading city council with, well, good leadership. Rob Ford had some victories early on in council (getting rid of a car tax, privatizing garbage collection) but once he burned through his political capital, he didn't have enough support to get anything done.
To me it seems like the city has no mayor, and things are just in a holding pattern until the election. If Ford gets elected again, I can't imagine what the next four years will be like. We'll have a mayor with no leadership skills who is completely incapable of getting the votes to do anything.
Scarberian
Active Member
This is just from my own imperfect human memory. It wasn't immediate that Toronto had a "Co-merryl" in Doug Ford, at least at first. The first few days after Rofo won, I hoped that due to our 'weak mayor' system Rob would be repeating his lone wolf schtick only louder, and since the mayor is only one vote of many, council would just do the actual work without or around him. Doug was at first, seen by some people as the smarter one, but Rob was the more charismatic one. Bluntly speaking, if not for Rob's name recognition, I doubt Doug would win a councilor seat. Rob actually did manage to bully his agenda for a while, and he was able to threaten others even the premiere, with siccing Ford Nation on them, a more credible political threat back then. I'd say if it wasn't for Doug's "I'll take it from here Rob" meddling, Rob may have gotten more mileage out of his bullying merrylship longer.
It might have been the librarian strike \ Doug's feud with Margaret Atwood. Or maybe Doug's plan for the Waterfront, the "are you friggin kiddin me" giant ferris wheel etc. But I think that was the start of the decline of the belief that the Fords was an invincible political juggernaut, and Doug was the smarter one of the two. Doug seems to have the reverse midas touch when it comes to co-mayoring with Rob from what I've seen.
TL,DR version: Toronto at least from most of what I've seen, did not knowingly elect 2 mayors, at least not at first. I did talk to a few pro-Ford, or rather very anti-Miller voters that thought well, maybe Rob is not as polished, but he's real and that's why we like him. And Doug, well I haven't heard about him much but he seems more polished and smart so that's a plus. Granted this was before Doug opened his mouth and inserted his foot at a more frequent pace, and before the dranken driving, stuporing and crack smokening scandal hit big time.
SFO
Active Member
So the moral of the presser is that it's not Rob's fault he can't push through his awesome agenda---blame all these jerk councillors who won't play ball with him. And he needs about 15 new councillors who support him 100% to push through his agenda if and when he's re-elected.
So not only is this longshot scenario his only chance to see any success in a new term, but: he already HAD this longshot scenario in place in 2010, and systematically alienated the many councillors who started out on his side.
So not only is this longshot scenario his only chance to see any success in a new term, but: he already HAD this longshot scenario in place in 2010, and systematically alienated the many councillors who started out on his side.
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