Rob Ford's Toronto

[jje1000]

I think we really need to see how much money the Feds are ponying up here before we determine if this is an actual "win", or just politics.

Very true indeed- another two incredible turn of events for Ford. This is certainly not necessarily a bad thing when pork barrel spending goes your way, of course. Scarborough gets their subway, I get a subway to my front door and we get to bury that one complaint about Scarborough being underserviced once and for all.


An interesting note from Twitter and Reddit:

Dolittle says police don't have the video. One persistent rumour has been they seized it as part of Project Traveler. #topoli #wotsTO

https://twitter.com/jeffjedras/status/381820250955608064

Now convinced crack vid is gone baby gone. No way RCMP et al would've let @pmharper do avail with Ford otherwise. Sorry, @TorontoStar. Fini.

https://twitter.com/kinsellawarren/status/381917261231304704

I saw her at the Word On The Street festival and what she said was that she doesn't know but her feeling is that they don't have it. I don't think she knows for a fact that the cops aren't in possession. It was just her opinion. Same goes for the story that Mohamed Siad's lawyer has the video. She said she thinks that's not true.

She also said that it's very likely that Ford will get reelected.

Also, she said there are and have been many, many rumours floating around about Ford and the majority of them are not true. But David Rider (another Star columnist) did say that Ford's alcohol and potential drug abuse is common knowledge inside City Hall (which we all knew anyway). He also said his gut feeling is that the video will leak eventually (but he underlined that by saying that his gut feelings are almost always wrong).

http://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comments/1mwgxs/twitter_jeffjedras_torstar_reporter_robyn/

 

[CalgarianExOntarian]

How many real differences are there between Republicans and Conservatives anymore, other than a country?

Whoa there, there are some serious differences. I say this as a guy who has never ever voted C or PC (except once to help Joe Clark beat a Reform candidate), and who is still really bitter about how vote-splitting allowed the C candidate to win the recent Calgary Centre by-election.

Republicans are doing all they can to repeal Obamacare (I do not see any Canadian elected officials working furiously to ensure that millions of us have no health insurance at all), have apparently managed to scale down the food stamps program, have done all they can to make sure that as many Americans as possible are carrying loaded handguns and semi-automatic rifles, and so on. I have no love at all for Harper and his team and the provincial equivalents, but the Canadian conservatives are seriously failing to promote the same level of crazy.

Maybe it's a testament to the relative sanity of Canadian voters that our right-wing pols know they can't go as far right as they would like without facing electoral destruction.

 

[CalgarianExOntarian]

Very true indeed- another two incredible turn of events for Ford. This is certainly not necessarily a bad thing when pork barrel spending goes your way, of course. Scarborough gets their subway, I get a subway to my front door and we get to bury that one complaint about Scarborough being underserviced once and for all.


An interesting note from Twitter and Reddit:


https://twitter.com/jeffjedras/status/381820250955608064


https://twitter.com/kinsellawarren/status/381917261231304704


http://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comments/1mwgxs/twitter_jeffjedras_torstar_reporter_robyn/

Jeebus.

I would have liked to be a fly on the wall in Ottawa in the meeting room where the debate between the "there is so much potential unexploded scandal with this guy" team and the "yeah but we're totally effed in the next federal election if we don't appeal to that portion of the Metro TO and 905 voters who totally love this guy" team took place.

 

[Gavin]

Very true indeed- another two incredible turn of events for Ford. This is certainly not necessarily a bad thing when pork barrel spending goes your way, of course. Scarborough gets their subway, I get a subway to my front door and we get to bury that one complaint about Scarborough being underserviced once and for all.


An interesting note from Twitter and Reddit:


https://twitter.com/jeffjedras/status/381820250955608064


https://twitter.com/kinsellawarren/status/381917261231304704


http://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comments/1mwgxs/twitter_jeffjedras_torstar_reporter_robyn/

I'm gonna rage.

 

[Johnny Au]

Whoa there, there are some serious differences. I say this as a guy who has never ever voted C or PC (except once to help Joe Clark beat a Reform candidate), and who is still really bitter about how vote-splitting allowed the C candidate to win the recent Calgary Centre by-election.

Republicans are doing all they can to repeal Obamacare (I do not see any Canadian elected officials working furiously to ensure that millions of us have no health insurance at all), have apparently managed to scale down the food stamps program, have done all they can to make sure that as many Americans as possible are carrying loaded handguns and semi-automatic rifles, and so on. I have no love at all for Harper and his team and the provincial equivalents, but the Canadian conservatives are seriously failing to promote the same level of crazy.

Maybe it's a testament to the relative sanity of Canadian voters that our right-wing pols know they can't go as far right as they would like without facing electoral destruction.

...and Republicans are also pushing creationism to be taught in public high schools in lieu of the much more irrefutable evolution, as well as saying that violent media is responsible for gun deaths rather than the lack of gun control.

 

[CalgarianExOntarian]

...and Republicans are also pushing creationism to be taught in public high schools in lieu of the much more irrefutable evolution, as well as saying that violent media is responsible for gun deaths rather than the lack of gun control.

Yeah, exactly. You and I and others could go on regarding sex education and birth control, how much to regulate banks and other too-big-to-fail financial institutions, and a bunch of other issues. Things are worse to the south.

Anti-credit to Harper, though, on freedom of speech for scientists, sentences for criminals, and a lot of other stuff.

 

[adma]

I dunno; whatever even the Robyn Doolittles out there say, I'm still skeptical about Ford's prospects of reelection. Or at least, the key to defeating him isn't what a lot of high-minded may think, even if it's sitting there right in front of us.

Maybe what's most perplexing to critics is how surreally overinflated and...overcompensating?...the Ford juggernaut's gotten; I mean, where else in the non-tinpot democratically elected world has there been a spectacle of the absurd nature and scale of the Centennial Park Ford Fest? Even compared to past family-homestead Ford Fests, it's like we're entering a bizarro world whose bizarro-ness even supporters haven't completely digested. Never mind "the video" or Project Traveller or the Scarborough subway saga: it could well be that Fordlandia will fall simply by buckling under its own weight, a little like a Powerball winner who lives life to the max until--surprise!--the winnings are all gone.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall, remember. (Though the Ford cult may remain, much like the Mussolini run-the-trains-on-time cult in Italy.)

 

[JWBF]

Whoa there, there are some serious differences. I say this as a guy who has never ever voted C or PC (except once to help Joe Clark beat a Reform candidate), and who is still really bitter about how vote-splitting allowed the C candidate to win the recent Calgary Centre by-election.

Republicans are doing all they can to repeal Obamacare (I do not see any Canadian elected officials working furiously to ensure that millions of us have no health insurance at all), have apparently managed to scale down the food stamps program, have done all they can to make sure that as many Americans as possible are carrying loaded handguns and semi-automatic rifles, and so on. I have no love at all for Harper and his team and the provincial equivalents, but the Canadian conservatives are seriously failing to promote the same level of crazy.

Maybe it's a testament to the relative sanity of Canadian voters that our right-wing pols know they can't go as far right as they would like without facing electoral destruction.

Yeah, exactly. You and I and others could go on regarding sex education and birth control, how much to regulate banks and other too-big-to-fail financial institutions, and a bunch of other issues. Things are worse to the south.

Anti-credit to Harper, though, on freedom of speech for scientists, sentences for criminals, and a lot of other stuff.

There is a difference between promoting what you can get away with and what you are too afraid to promote in case you loose votes. I never said Conservatives and Republicans are the same thing, however, just look at Harper, Hudak, and Ford, in practice they may not be as extreme but if they are allowed then it will get worse.

Remember, the Conservatives are not the Progressive Conservatives, they are just another Populist party.

 

[Electrify]

I don't want to say too much, but that Ford video does exist and will be leaked sooner or later...

 

[GenerationW]

I don't want to say too much, but that Ford video does exist and will be leaked sooner or later...

Way to keep the thread alive!

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

This is the last I will say on the matter directly, until it surfaces (next August or September would be just perfect!).
As I stated here two or three months ago I have a friend who is very well connected in Canadian media and with Toronto Police Services. At a formal event early last summer he asked the question to someone at TPS who would definitely know, the answer was an affirmative. So unless this very high placed TPS contact lied to my friend (why?), I believe that they have - or had, a copy. Knowing my friend's solid relationships noted above, I firmly stand by what he was told. Could copies of the recording have been passed off to lawyers? Yes. But surely TPS would have a copy in evidence.

 

[syn]

I don't want to say too much, but that Ford video does exist and will be leaked sooner or later...

If the video never existed (I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't exist now), I'm not sure why the police would've been investigating potential attempts to get rid of the video in the first place. They're not going to investigate potential breaches of the law based on something that doesn't exist.

The amount of evidence released thus far makes it clear to me there is a video, or at least there was one at some point in time.

 

[syn]

I am always astounded when people praise Ford's honesty despite him having been caught out in lie after lie.

As long as there are no strikes and they feel they're getting what they want, none of that matters to them. The fact that he'll say hello in a mall is all they need to know he's a 'honest' person.

The sad truth is Ford's core supporters generally don't pay much attention to politics nor facts. They're willing to take whatever he says at face value because he's 'honest' and 'like the rest of us'. It's unfortuante because a quick Google search will demonstrate he's the exact opposite of honest and nothing like his supporters at all.

I recall listening to a radio talk show (can't remember which one) when they were discussing the Danforth drinking incident. Every single person who called to defend him mentioned the same thing 'the media is out to get him', 'he's allowed to have a few beers', etc. When the host would ask 'have you actually seen the video?', 98% of those supporting him answered no. Even when there is a video, they feel absolutely no need to watch it; in their mind, it's all just a media conspiracy to make him look bad.

 

[syn]

I think we really need to see how much money the Feds are ponying up here before we determine if this is an actual "win", or just politics.

Agreed. The fact there was absolutely no indication of how much they would provide should raise a red flag.

Harper and the Federal Conservatives come out looking like winners no matter what happens. If it goes through they'll be hero's to Ford and his supporters. If it doesn't go through Ford likely won't blame the Conservatives, even if it's their fault; he'll just blame the 'left', and Conservative supporters will just remember the news conference in which Harper told them how much he wants to fund a subway in Toronto.

In any case, I hope this doesn't go through. It's a colossal waste of resources.

 

[Adjei]

Wouldn't it be funny if the video was leaked just before the municipal elections?