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Rob Ford's Toronto

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I woke up this morning hearing helicopters over my house. It turns out that they were news copters surveying the damage from the (hopefully not fatal) fire at Dundas & Gladstone a few blocks away. Knowing that Dundas West is the main thoroughfare Rob Ford uses to get to work, I couldn't help thinking that Ford was having his "White Bronco" moment.


[video=youtube;HcyyCi2b2AY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcyyCi2b2AY[/video]
 
dforthandbview said:
I've never been comfortable with the fact that Rob and Doug don't use their office budget. That's what it's there for. I'm fine with my taxes being used to keep a mayoral or councillor's office functioning. But I'm not fine with not knowing where the money comes from if they chose not to use mine. For all we know lobbyists or the mob or drug dealers or some other organization are donating money for favours from Rob or Doug. I mean, there's no paper trail, right? From what I understand there are no receipts and therefore we have no idea where the money comes from, correct?
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I know that Ford was cited in 2007 for not reporting his personal spending on office-related expenses. In later years, he has reported some spending - but we have no way of knowing if it reflects the actual cost of running the Mayor's office (ditto for Doug Ford). The fact that it's so much lower than other councillors' suggests to me, at least, that either they're not spending what they need to spend to serve their constituents properly, or that they're not reporting what they actually spend.

Spending data are here: http://app.toronto.ca/tcer_web/Controller?action=1&selectedYear=2012
 
mjl08 said:
I woke up this morning hearing helicopters over my house. It turns out that they were news copters surveying the damage from the (hopefully not fatal) fire at Dundas & Gladstone a few blocks away. Knowing that Dundas West is the main thoroughfare Rob Ford uses to get to work, I couldn't help thinking that Ford was having his "White Bronco" moment.
Click to expand...

I couldn't get away from that thought either, until I walked out onto my balcony to try to figure out what was going on and saw the firetrucks on Gladstone. (I really hope that the two people injured in the fire are going to recover.)
 
tariqata said:
I know that Ford was cited in 2007 for not reporting his personal spending on office-related expenses. In later years, he has reported some spending - but we have no way of knowing if it reflects the actual cost of running the Mayor's office (ditto for Doug Ford). The fact that it's so much lower than other councillors' suggests to me, at least, that either they're not spending what they need to spend to serve their constituents properly, or that they're not reporting what they actually spend.

Spending data are here: http://app.toronto.ca/tcer_web/Controller?action=1&selectedYear=2012
Click to expand...

A couple examples from the above link that are all over the board:

Etobicoke North | Ford, Doug $ 0.00 - (Claimed Expenditures) / $ 1,158.50 - (Personal Funds)
Parkdale-High Park | Perks, Gord $ 13,027.48 - (Claimed Expenditures) / $ 0.00 - (Personal Funds)
Toronto Centre-Rosedale | McConnell, Pam $ 29,440.84 - (Claimed Expenditures) / $ 0.00 - (Personal Funds)

I find it hard to believe that across these 3 examples that their all of their constituents are being served evenly and properly.
 
Bill Blair has all but confirmed that Rob Ford is under investigation. His interview with Matt Galloway back in June, I think, was most telling:

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Local+Shows/Ontario/Metro+Morning/ID/2391325876/

Matt Galloway: Is Rob Ford under investigation?

Bill Blair:
“Again, I’m not going to comment on this or any other investigation. We will do our work, we will present our evidence in the appropriate forum. The truth will come out.

Galloway: Yesterday you could have very easily exonerated Rob Ford—you could have explicitly said the mayor has nothing to do with the investigation we’re involved in right now. Why didn’t you do that?

Blair:
I’m unable to answer your question without violating the terms of the law and the spirit of the law. All of the information, all of the evidence we have collected…will be properly disclosed in a court of law.

I wish Galloway had followed this up with "Am I under investigation" to see if he could get Blair to give him a flat no.

That said, Blair's statement was pretty clear.
 
Yes, I thought the same time at the time. Ask him "Is Lindsay Lohan under investigation regarding Project Traveller?" and wait for him to reply "What, don't be ridiculous" and then follow up by asking about Ford.
 
eastcoastanddown said:
A couple examples from the above link that are all over the board:

Etobicoke North | Ford, Doug $ 0.00 - (Claimed Expenditures) / $ 1,158.50 - (Personal Funds)
Parkdale-High Park | Perks, Gord $ 13,027.48 - (Claimed Expenditures) / $ 0.00 - (Personal Funds)
Toronto Centre-Rosedale | McConnell, Pam $ 29,440.84 - (Claimed Expenditures) / $ 0.00 - (Personal Funds)

I find it hard to believe that across these 3 examples that their all of their constituents are being served evenly and properly.
Click to expand...

Well, it wouldn't surprise me if many of the councillors aren't making particularly good use of their office budgets. It would be an interesting project to compare them in more depth and look at who is spending more in which categories. However, I do think that Rob (as both councillor and mayor ) and Doug Ford and Doug Holyday stand out particularly.
 
ttk77 said:
Somehow I think Blair is a little smarter than that.
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The point is not to outsmart him, it's to let readers know that in any other scenario the police chief would obviously want to calm citizens by ensuring them that their mayor was not involved in illegal activity.
 
ttk77 said:
Somehow I think Blair is a little smarter than that.
Click to expand...

Yes, Blair is smart. The reason he did this interview was because he wanted to give somebody a little hint (nudge nudge, wink wink) about what was to come.

Blair knew what questions were going to come in the interview. And he obviously planned what he was going to say. Him being as affirmative as he was when he said, " All of the information, all of the evidence we have collected…will be properly disclosed in a court of law.", wasn't a mistake. Any doubt that I had about whether or not Ford is being investigated by TPS has now been eliminated.
 
The chief would likely see right through that though, and when asked about Lindsay Lohan or any other ridiculous person would also reply that he can't comment about an ongoing investigation.
 
Don Peat ‏@reporterdonpeat 15m

"I just hope the police aren't working hand-in-hand with the Toronto Star" Cllr Doug Ford #TOpoli


lol what


Always blaming the Star, even when the Sun is reporting the same thing....with more details
 
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