Rob Ford's Toronto

[adma]

Really though, Malvern's "point" was not substantive and not worth responding to.

And just generally, his posts are getting weaker and more tuckered-out lately--and perhaps, showing the strain of someone who, for all we know, might be getting 100-buck stipends from the Fords for posting in UT.

But, look: he brings up "weakest links". So, I'm just throwing the spotlight back on his own weak-link manner of self-expression. No different from turning the "sleeping on the job" thing back onto Ford....

 

[adma]

You say that like there's something wrong with that. Sure beats someone who lives downtown and pretends to drive a few blocks to the Eaton's Centre because of some pathological fear of the TTC.

I reckon he said that tongue-in-cheek.

 

[adma]

Vaughan is very comfortable in his Council position. I doubt he'll ever make a run for mayor. And Stintz has apparently thrown her support behind Olivia Chow. So your right of centre options are either David Miller's former Budget Committee Chair, David Soknacki, or John Tory.

Or, in case Ford *doesn't* run again due to death or imprisonment or whatever, a (much more) reasonable proxy like Michael Thompson.

Incidentally, I may (or may not) have been the first here to speculate on whether the robocall was Ford's Waterloo--that is, it may be "little things" that trip up his popularity, not the big stuff...

 

[DtTO]

Olivia Chow as mayor would be almost as bad (worse?) as Rob Ford. She might try to get her friends in the Queens Quay Neighbourhood Association a few council seat (definitely not serious!)

 

[salsa]

I can't imagine that anyone could possibly be worse than Ford.

 

[JWBF]

I can't imagine that anyone could possibly be worse than Ford.

Dougie Ford.

 

[TorontoDoh]

Dougie Ford.

Tim Hudak

 

[salsa]

Ok fair enough, but definitely not Olivia Chow

 

[pattycakes]

Where is David Price? He hasn't been spotted in a couple of weeks. Cayman Islands? Jail?

 

[adma]

I can't imagine that anyone could possibly be worse than Ford.

Back in 2010, there was even a left/progressive POV that speculated Smitherman would be worse, insofar as he'd be *competent* at imposing a right-of-centre agenda...

 

[adma]

Olivia Chow as mayor would be almost as bad (worse?) as Rob Ford. She might try to get her friends in the Queens Quay Neighbourhood Association a few council seat (definitely not serious!)

I know "not serious"; but that makes no sense, because...where would those council seats be? And besides, given the nature of Queen's Quay (Bathurst aside), said "friends"'d more likely be disgruntled *right-of-centre* challengers to Adam Vaughan or whomever. (And if she were to parachute her downtown buddies into the heart of Ford Nation; well, political orientation aside, that's a tinpot tactic worthier of Ford than of Chow.)

Sounds like you're speaking from the POV of politically uninformed bile.

 

[dforthandbview]

Rob Ford vs. Don Andrews.

Discuss.

 

[NormEron]

The employee in question should just say "It's actually no one's business what happens in my office".

If I'm the union rep I jump all over this... Since when is press release and public shaming the way an employer reprimands an employee for poor performance? I'd sue my employer, Ford, and Mammoliti's ass off for destroying my career.

What I find interesting in all of this is that Ford seems to have broken his rule about never discussing personnel issues.

"I don’t want to get into personnel issues—I never get into personnel issues as you know" Rob Ford: May 26, 2013

"I don’t get into personnel issues but maybe they can answer your questions better than I can" Rob Ford: May 29, 2013

"If this is the case, I'm going to ask for the manager and the employee to be dismissed…. I don't want to hear these excuses — that he's on break, or that he's sick, or that he's at lunch or whatever." Rob Ford: October 17, 2013

Also, Ford himself has been documented sleeping on the job during public deputations on his second budget.

 

[hawc]

Speaking of Olivia Chow, take a walk through Toronto Necroplis in Cabbagetown and you'll notice lots of famous graves:

Joseph Bloore

William Lyon Mackenzie - Toronto's first mayor and leader of the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion

George Brown - One of the Fathers of Confederation and founder of what is now The Globe and Mail

John Ross Robertson - founder of the Toronto Telegram

Wilson Ruffin Abbott - successful Black Canadian businessman and landowner

Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott - first Canadian-born black surgeon

Ned Hanlan - world-champion oarsman

Thornton Blackburn - former slave who made his way to Canada on the "Underground Railroad" and established the first cab company in Toronto (1890)

Ainsworth Dyer - a corporal in Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and died in Afghanistan in 2002

Senator John Macdonald (1824-1890) - Canadian merchant, churchman, philanthropist, and politician

Kay Christie (1911-1994) - Canadian Nursing Sister in Hong Kong during the Japanese Invasion during WWII. One of two Canadian Nursing sisters to have been held as a Prisoner of War

And...

Jack Layton (1950-2011) - politician (Toronto city councillor, later leader of the New Democratic Party)

You'll notice Jack's grave because it's the only one in the cemetary with a very prominent podium and bust of the the person's head. It's so incredibly tacky in an otherwise beautiful setting.

William Lyon Mackenzie, George Brown and the rest just have normal tasteful headstones. Jack has a huge monument to himself. It's brutal.

A generation from now he'll be forgotten and people will walk thorugh the Necroplis and say who's this guy and why does he have a bronze bust of his head?!

 

[blearghhh]

Jack Layton (1950-2011) - politician (Toronto city councillor, later leader of the New Democratic Party)

You'll notice Jack's grave because it's the only one in the cemetary with a very prominent podium and bust of the the person's head. It's so incredibly tacky in an otherwise beautiful setting.

You do realise that Jack was dead when the headstone was put up, right? I mean, aside from the tackyness of it, he didn't put up his own headstone. That would be weird.