Rob Ford's Toronto

[TheTigerMaster]

John Tory runs for office.
Toronto votes for the other candidate.
Everyone regrets their voting decisions.
Repeat.

The cycle continues.

Fun game.

 

[Tulse]

I wouldn't vote for him either - I was willing to give him the time of day in 2003 but the faith-based schools proposal turned me off and his reasoning for giving police more money (despite a continually declining crime rate) was just populist claptrap ('People don't feel safe. Do you feel safe? I don't feel safe', etc.).

I completely agree -- when he got desperate, Tory ran as a social conservative panderer, completely out of keeping with his alleged position as a moderate.

I honestly don't understand why Tory seems so attractive to some voters -- he has no track record to speak of, and was primarily a backroom boy. Is it just because he's a conservative who wears nice suits and isn't obviously insane?

 

[bobbob911]

Is it just because he's a conservative who wears nice suits and isn't obviously insane?

Yes - pretty much. Minus the nice suits.

 

[Adaax]

Interesting to read the comments in the Sun article (with audio of Dave's call to The Sun).

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/06/2...s-staffer-dave-price-over-call-to-toronto-sun

Many staunch Ford supporters are questioning, and even making fun of Rob on this one. I've never seen that before.

I noticed that as well, though to be fair a lot of commenters had already jumped ship. But the tide has really turned on this one. It's really just a fact that a lot of these people simply do not trust anything the Star reports to be point where they can't see the forest for the trees. If/when a video surfaces, the last few die-hards will melt away.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

I wouldn't vote for him either - I was willing to give him the time of day in 2003 but the faith-based schools proposal turned me off and his reasoning for giving police more money (despite a continually declining crime rate) was just populist claptrap ('People don't feel safe. Do you feel safe? I don't feel safe', etc.).

Cut faith based school funding to $0.01 (Constitution doesn't allow full elimination for Catholics). Faith based school funding is one of the most blatantly discriminatory government programs I've seen.

 

[Eug]

Is it just because he's a conservative who wears nice suits and isn't obviously insane?

Well, he sometimes seems like a righty that's moderate enough that even the centrists could embrace... until he panicks and does something incredibly stupid like that whole faith-based school funding fiasco.

I really have to question the abilities of any candidate who would even consider running on that platform. Even the righties were calling him an idiot on that one.

 

[bobbob911]

Well, he sometimes seems like a righty that's moderate enough that even the centrists could embrace... until he panicks and does something incredibly stupid like that whole faith-based school funding fiasco.

I really have to question the abilities of any candidate who would even consider running on that platform. Even the righties were calling him an idiot on that one.

I agree it was a dumb political move, but it was a completely defensible moral position - why publicly fund only one faith? Either fund all or fund none. He chose to support the former. I agree with either position.

Clearly(!) Tory is not a good politician, but IMO you have to give him some credit for sticking his neck out like that.

 

[PinkLucy]

Wonder what brilliant words of wisdom Rob will have:

Mayor Rob Ford and City Manager to update media on provincial funding withdrawal

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and City Manager Joe Pennachetti will update the media on the recent funding withdrawal announced by the Province of Ontario.

Date: Wednesday, June 26
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Location: Protocol Lounge, Mayor's Office, Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen St. W.

 

[Eug]

I agree it was a dumb political move, but it was a completely defensible moral position - why publicly fund only one faith? Either fund all or fund none. He chose to support the former. I agree with either position.

Clearly(!) Tory is not a good politician, but IMO you have to give him some credit for sticking his neck out like that.

Well, the position I would agree with is to eliminate the Catholic school board, as I find its whole idea fundamentally discriminatory. However, that's not easily done, so I'm fine with a politician steering clear of the issue.

P.S. Catholic school administrations are still trying to force religion classes on all its students, but my understanding is that current Ontario education laws actually state that such classes cannot be mandatory.... which illustrates just how ludicrous the whole publicly-funded separate school system is in Ontario.

So, one position that I would support would be for a politician to keep the Catholic school board, but also to enforce exemptions from religion classes in those schools.

 

[guitarchitect]

Well, the position I would agree with is to eliminate the Catholic school board, as I find its whole idea fundamentally discriminatory. However, that's not easily done, so I'm fine with a politician steering clear of the issue.

P.S. Catholic school administrations are still trying to force religion classes on all its students, but my understanding is that current Ontario education laws actually state that such classes cannot be mandatory.... which illustrates just how ludicrous the whole publicly-funded separate school system is in Ontario.

So, one position that I would support would be for a politician to keep the Catholic school board, but also to enforce exemptions from religion classes in those schools.

I went to catholic school my whole life. I was never forced to take a religion class, but they were part of the curriculum. In high school, you pick your classes... there was never a requirement to take a religion class, and I didn't.

So I'm not sure what you're on about here.

 

[animated]

I went to catholic school my whole life. I was never forced to take a religion class, but they were part of the curriculum. In high school, you pick your classes... there was never a requirement to take a religion class, and I didn't.

So I'm not sure what you're on about here.

I went to a catholic highschool, and was made to take religion class. TDCSSB.
I graduated in the mid-'90s.

 

[the lemur]

I'm against Olivia Chow's leanings too, and her opposition to the Centre Island bridge really turned me off. Now she opposes jets there, and that turns me off too.

BTW, I used to live in her ward, relatively near the airport (Front and Bathurst), and my sister lives right beside the airport with a view of the runways.

And yeah, being significantly left of the Liberals is a negative for me for Toronto, and I come from a hard-core NDP family. Of course, her being female and Asian has nothing to do with it, despite the pathetic attempt by some out there to bring gender and race politics into it.

Do you mean the bridge to the island airport? I really wish some of its opponents could understand that a fixed bridge is pretty much out of the question: it's a good idea to have a second entrance/exit to the inner harbour for the sake of shipping, plus the yacht clubs would have a bird about it. So it's either a tunnel or a movable bridge, because a ferry is not sustainable.

Do you mean that you have moved away from your family's NDP leanings, or is there something about Chow herself or the current NDP that puts them out of contention for you?

It's not really surprising that her riding votes the way it does federally: the Tories aren't interested (because appearing to care about Toronto, much less downtown, is ballot-box poison elsewhere) and as for the Liberals, well, under Tony Ianno constituents had an MP who was conspicuously absent from the area, asked virtually no questions in Parliament and communicated only by means of newsletters to the effect that 'yeah, I voted for that bill too'.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

I agree it was a dumb political move, but it was a completely defensible moral position - why publicly fund only one faith? Either fund all or fund none. He chose to support the former. I agree with either position.

Clearly(!) Tory is not a good politician, but IMO you have to give him some credit for sticking his neck out like that.

Funding all religious schools is still hugely discriminatory. Its a huge slap in the face to the quarter of us who are either athiest or agnostic.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

I went to catholic school my whole life. I was never forced to take a religion class, but they were part of the curriculum. In high school, you pick your classes... there was never a requirement to take a religion class, and I didn't.

So I'm not sure what you're on about here.

You need a religion credit to graduate. This is government funded religious indoctrination.

 

[tdotdaver]

I attended French-Catholic school. HS 'religion' requirement could be filled with any number of theology courses. Mine was 'Religions of the World' - we didn't even talk about Catholicism although the teacher was a devout Catholic.