Admiral Beez
Superstar
If there isn't a candidate capable of beating this loud mouthed, violent guy, then we're screwed/./
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Rob Ford - Why the Supervillian?
- Thread starter T-Bor
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King of Kensington
Senior Member
Including the Toronto Sun!
ShonTron
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- Ward 13 - Toronto Centre
I don't think he represents a full reflection of the attitude of Torontonians, but he is striking a chord with a loud minority who are fed up, reading a lot of Sue Ann-Levy and a bit of Royson James. Ford has been exploiting the best cases of Council making either silly, dumb decisions and/or decisions that would get the right-wing and centre-right riled up. There's a lot of people who want spending cut, a lot of people who believe in the "war on the car", though it's not a majority.
But then he goes wildly off-message. To be honest, I don't think he's a hateful guy at all despite every stupid thing he's said - but has a dreadful lack of tact. I would even go as far to say that Rob Ford is a sincere man, who genuinely believes in what he stands for, even if I disagree strongly with much - or most - of his platform. But there's a lot of baggage, and there's just too many times he shoots his mouth off. He's not mayoral material.
But I think Ford has peaked, and peaked too soon. I'd give Ford 5-1 odds of winning.
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MetroMan
Senior Member
^ Nail. Head. Hit.
tkip
Active Member
I was talking with a friend last night. Brillant woman and she made some good points on immigration and Ford' comments.
Basically that there are 3 main destinations for immigrants to settle in this country. Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto. Toronto takes the lions share. Keeping this in mind we have to acknowledge that our population explosion over the last several years of the region is mostly fuelled by immigration, we now face some very serious challenges with sustaining this population growth and the services and infrastructure in the region.
So a leader or potential leader of a city like Toronto has some valid poiints when they question out loud whether we should take more immigrants and allow the region's population and sprawl to continue spinning out of control. There is a good deal of debate regarding the flow of immigration and the sheer numbers of people living on this planet. Canada might be underpopulated compared to other nations but cities have limits to what they can handle.
Ford might have a big mouth and at times is his own worst enemy but therre is something to the issue of whether we can or should allow another million people to relocate here while we have serious problems now.
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nfitz
Superstar
I fail to see the serious problem that we have ... other than the serious problem some white people have becoming a minority.
If we eliminate the growth that drives the Toronto economy (you might have noticed that our manufacturing sector has vanished ... and we aren't doing that great on farming or mining in Toronto either), then we do have a serious problem.
Why do you want to destroy Toronto?
If we eliminate the growth that drives the Toronto economy (you might have noticed that our manufacturing sector has vanished ... and we aren't doing that great on farming or mining in Toronto either), then we do have a serious problem.
Why do you want to destroy Toronto?
GraphicMatt
Looking forward to a FRESH START for Toronto
No one of any reasonable intelligence could in good faith argue that freezing a city's population could have economic or societal benefits. Seriously - I don't like blanket statements, but I'm not sure how else to argue this one.
tkip
Active Member
Fail to see the serious problems we have? How about how insane it is to travel across this city due to congestion? I'm going off track for a moment.
I've been in this city my entire life and the infrastructure is woefully insufficient to handle the level of population we're trying to handle. There are well documented debates on the issue of sustainability when it comes to population growth. And there is growing concern over us trying to grow the economy forever with finite and declining resrources. We're hitting a wall with regards to the number of people on this planet.
Cities and regions also have limits.
Pretending that cities can grow forever and just make quiet transitions isn't based in reality. My brother has a biology and zoology background and preached over 15 yrs ago that we're facing some very dark times ahead due to the number of people. We're beginnging to see examples of this with various reports from parts of the world on hunger, fish stocks collapsing and the collateral damage done by human activity.
We're stripping resources everywhere, we're having trouble keeping up with demand and behind the scene, there is real concern over where future energy that powers our entire civilization will come from. Especially since oil production has peaked and no one knows what to do about it. There are people inside the oil industry that have said that reported reserves from OPEC countries such as Saudi Arabia have been enormously exaggerated.
The list goes on and on.The signs are everywhere if you know pay attention of a planet that's screaming under the demands of a species whose numbers are spiralling out of control.
I've been in this city my entire life and the infrastructure is woefully insufficient to handle the level of population we're trying to handle. There are well documented debates on the issue of sustainability when it comes to population growth. And there is growing concern over us trying to grow the economy forever with finite and declining resrources. We're hitting a wall with regards to the number of people on this planet.
Cities and regions also have limits.
Pretending that cities can grow forever and just make quiet transitions isn't based in reality. My brother has a biology and zoology background and preached over 15 yrs ago that we're facing some very dark times ahead due to the number of people. We're beginnging to see examples of this with various reports from parts of the world on hunger, fish stocks collapsing and the collateral damage done by human activity.
We're stripping resources everywhere, we're having trouble keeping up with demand and behind the scene, there is real concern over where future energy that powers our entire civilization will come from. Especially since oil production has peaked and no one knows what to do about it. There are people inside the oil industry that have said that reported reserves from OPEC countries such as Saudi Arabia have been enormously exaggerated.
The list goes on and on.The signs are everywhere if you know pay attention of a planet that's screaming under the demands of a species whose numbers are spiralling out of control.
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GraphicMatt
Looking forward to a FRESH START for Toronto
Debates about global overpopulation aren't really relevant. We're not talking about adding to the worldwide population and, indeed, in our part of the world the population would start to decline without immigration.
Growth is critical - without it, businesses stagnate, new projects are not developed and the city's revenue base does not grow.
The City needs to be smart with immigration, of course, providing infrastructure and support while also ensuring that new migration is going to the right place within the city. Putting 50,000 more people at Jane & Finch isn't a very good idea, for example, unless significant effort is made to address the issues facing that area. But building dense, urban neighbourhoods with a mix of affordable and market housing can provide a platform for immigration and growth that's a net benefit for all involved.
As Rossi said during the debate, the mayor needs to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time - welcome immigrants while at the same time expanding necessary programs and building new infrastructure. If this seems like a challenging thing to do it's because it is. But that's the job.
Growth is critical - without it, businesses stagnate, new projects are not developed and the city's revenue base does not grow.
The City needs to be smart with immigration, of course, providing infrastructure and support while also ensuring that new migration is going to the right place within the city. Putting 50,000 more people at Jane & Finch isn't a very good idea, for example, unless significant effort is made to address the issues facing that area. But building dense, urban neighbourhoods with a mix of affordable and market housing can provide a platform for immigration and growth that's a net benefit for all involved.
As Rossi said during the debate, the mayor needs to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time - welcome immigrants while at the same time expanding necessary programs and building new infrastructure. If this seems like a challenging thing to do it's because it is. But that's the job.
nfitz
Superstar
Which is exactly why TTC, Metrolinx, GO, and other agencies are looking at those 50 or so infrastructure projects. The people are coming whether Rob Ford likes it or not. Unfortunately, it's his backwards thinking that could result in us not being ready. Ford is a Harris Tory ... and it was Harris who scuppered the previous attempt to build transit infrastructure in this city.
tkip
Active Member
They are relevent when there is serious talk about adding another million plus to this region with signs that we're already having problems handling the current population and its demands. Seems pretty straighforward to me. Look, we have outdated models on how we view population growth and always trying to grow the economy without taking a closer look at what this ultimately means regarding resources and sustainability.
Cracks are forming.
What the governmet should be looking at is redirecting these people to other regions of the country where they can be more easily asorbed instead of always trying to locate them in regions that are strugglying with what they already have and providing for them. This isn't rocket science. Canada is underpopulated but 3 cities continually being used as dumping grounds is going to cause more problems down the road. We're already seeing signs of this.
Cracks are forming.
What the governmet should be looking at is redirecting these people to other regions of the country where they can be more easily asorbed instead of always trying to locate them in regions that are strugglying with what they already have and providing for them. This isn't rocket science. Canada is underpopulated but 3 cities continually being used as dumping grounds is going to cause more problems down the road. We're already seeing signs of this.
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picard102
Senior Member
Considering that we wont be seeing another million people added for another 30 years I'm not sure Rob Ford is going to be able to do anything about it, if he even could.
SlickFranky
Active Member
Managing the challenges of growth is a mandatory part of running a successful city in our socio-economic system. If our current infrastructure can't handle the current load, we need to improve that infrastructure. Toronto will grow, and there's nothing Rob Ford can do about that.
SlickFranky
Active Member
I do happen to agree with your brother, to a certain extent. Perpetual growth is a ludicrous goal. But come on...that's not what Ford was talking about, and you know it.
GenerationW
Senior Member
George Washington!
I accept Paypal.
That hypocrite Gore is worse than Bush. With his close ties to the nuclear energy industry, Gore's Global Warming crusade has hardly been altruistic. He is/was just another s***head politician trying to get rich.
And say what you want about Bush, but he wasn't a philandering creep like Gore was.
Unless you were cleaning his office!