Rob Ford's Toronto

[jje1000]

RRR,
"I expected better of you."

"You know this to be the case."

Thanks for the patronizing tone, gramps.


A gem of a comment from the Toronto Sun. Mental gymnastics!

- good natured, honest,
___________________________________________________________________
Ok, see, this is what I don't get. Ford is a proven pathological liar and yet people like you still describe him as honest. Why?

Good natured? He's hardly good natured. He's flipped the bird to citizens, he's ignored the rules of the road trying to pass a streetcar then gets into an altercation with the streetcar driver and calls Byford to cover his butt.

he sounds pretty human to me. So what's the problem? Oh, right, the mayor is open to bald-faced hatred because the left, primarily, hate his guts for outing them for being wasteful, disingenuous, slugs.

Also- consesus-building is weaseleze!

The reason Miller didn't have the daily thrusting of knives in his back is because he and his lefty pals knew how to work the system, knew all the little gotcha clauses, knew all the right people to make things happen his way (he would approve of a Paul Madger on the sidelines). Ford, in contrast, innocently muddles though his day much like my old Labrador Retriever - good natured, honest, often clumsy, but always loyal (read taxpayers). I'll take a bumbling yellow lab over a weasel anyday.

 

[Riverdale Rink Rat]

RRR,
I expected better of you.

The money is under the same bed as the $700,000,000. David Miller committed the City to for streetcars



Rob Ford did not order a bus for his team. The police ordered a bus and the TTC specified which bus, you know this to be the case.

Spider - I get you're a Ford Nation zealot, but did you seriously just try to bring up Miller again? It's Ford's record that he's running on, not Miller's. It's a by-election built on the premise that the anti-corruption Mayor had a proven conflict of interest. Ford should be crucified by whomever is running against him. I was proposing two gambits along those lines.

And does the 'police called' narrative REALLY meet your smell test? Seriously? I'd be hammering on that bus ride in every stump speech.

 

[jje1000]

Walkom: Why Toronto council should appoint Rob Ford to replace Rob Ford
Published on Wednesday December 05, 2012
By Thomas Walkom

Here’s how to solve the problem of who will be Toronto’s mayor. City councillors should ditch the idea of holding a byelection. Instead, as allowed by law, they should choose someone to fill the last two year’s of Rob Ford’s term.

And the person they pick should be Rob Ford.

This isn’t as nutty as it might sound. Almost half of Toronto’s voters opted for Ford in the last municipal election. By respecting their wishes, this decision would be democratic.

It would certainly be cheaper than a $7-million byelection.

And it would adhere to the essence of the judicial ruling that ousted Ford.

Justice Charles Hackland did indeed find that Ford broke Ontario’s conflict of interest legislation by voting on an issue that affected his personal finances. But the judge also made it clear he thought the only penalty open to him under law — kicking the mayor out of office — overly harsh.

Hackland underlined that point when he ruled that nothing in his decision bars Ford from replacing himself — either through a byelection or council appointment.

Here it’s worth noting that none of Ford’s adversaries on council argued that the mayor was in a conflict of interest when he spoke and voted last February on whether he should refund $3,150 to lobbyists who had donated to his football charity.

If councillors were willing to overlook his behaviour then, they should be able to forgive him now.

But the real reason to put Ford back in the mayor’s chair is that this strange and interesting experiment needs to play itself out.

I say strange because Ford seems particularly unsuited to the mayor’s job. By all accounts, he was a hard-working ward councillor — a champion of the people who could be counted on to rail against unfeeling authority.

But now that he is that authority, he can’t get much done.

He did ram through partial privatization of garbage collection at the beginning of his term. Yet since that brief honeymoon he’s been unable to forge the compromises that, for an undisciplined body like Toronto city council, are necessary to advance a coherent agenda.

He is criticized by some for skipping city business to coach high school football. But the truth is that he’s not much missed at city hall.

In effect, Toronto is trying out what it would be like if we had no mayor at all. So far, we’re doing OK.

To interrupt the experiment would be premature.

A byelection would allow Ford to reprise his familiar role of aggrieved outsider. It would not focus on his performance as mayor. Instead it would revolve around his ouster. Was it justified? Was it part of a plot by the sleek, left-wing establishment to remove a maverick tax-fighter?

Such a contest would be tailor-made for Ford. It would allow him to do what he does best, which is complain — about the elites, the fancy-pants lawyers, the media.

In this kind of situation, Ford would be well-positioned to win. Those on council’s so-called left who are itching for a byelection should seriously consider that possibility.

So why not simply avoid all of the hassles by letting him carry on — perhaps with the proviso that he acknowledge and apologize for the conflict of interest that got him into trouble in the first place?

In 2010, Toronto voters overwhelmingly chose as mayor a candidate whose only real appeal was visceral. All most of us knew about him was that he was the guy who would derail the gravy train.

We chose him. We deserve him.

If he does better over the next two years, then maybe we can congratulate ourselves and vote him in again. If he doesn’t then he will become an interesting historical footnote and perhaps — just perhaps — we will have learned a lesson.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...l-should-appoint-rob-ford-to-replace-rob-ford

 

[ttk77]

I have two main points against this article:

1. Sure, it wasn't a huge deal with council before the court case, but now that a judge has ruled him in conflict of interest council should take it much more seriously.

2. If they appoint him back as mayor it would be hypocritical to then not support him. I think the optics would be terrible to appoint a mayor who you have no intention of supporting on council.

 

[Juan_Lennon416]

BREAKING NEWS: Mayor Rob Ford is granted a stay until next year

 

[Electrify]

I think there was a mix up there, and that was supposed to be published in the Sun. Art the steady he says that her was elected with nearly half the vote, yet at the end he turns that into an "overwhelming majority."

To play the devil's advocate, if Ford wasn't granted a stay (just announced), then he may have a point. A couple of months of timeout would be an adequate punishment, as highlighted by the judge's ruling. Now... not so much.

Also, the article states that he wasn't warned that he was in a conflict of interest, but didn't James' article a couple of days back say he was warned twice on the matter, not including the first time it came up to vote when he was a councillor?

 

[Electrify]

I think there was a mix up there, and that was supposed to be published in the Sun. Art the steady he says that her was elected with nearly half the vote, yet at the end he turns that into an "overwhelming majority."

To play the devil's advocate, if Ford wasn't granted a stay (just announced), then he may have a point. A couple of months of timeout would be an adequate punishment, as highlighted by the judge's ruling. Now... not so much.

Also, the article states that he wasn't warned that he was in a conflict of interest, but didn't James' article a couple of days back say he was warned twice on the matter, not including the first time it came up to vote when he was a councillor?

 

[MetroMan]

Meslin brings up a good point and opens up a Pandora's box in this tweet:

@meslin: Biggest winner in #FordCourt decision: @Kathleen_Wynne. By delaying a by-election, a door opens for her to run for mayor, post #olpldr race.

Very interesting. If so, why exclude every other OLP candidate? If Glen Murray or Gerard Kennedy don't get the provincial job, they'll be straight of a campaign and could easily step into another one. With a high profile, they could successfully contest a municipal by-election. I'd be very happy to have either Murray or Kennedy as Mayor.

 

[Ice_Burn]

I never really thought of Kennedy as a potential mayoral candidate, but now that it's been floated I think this is really the best possible arena for him.

 

[MetroMan]

Glen Murray is almost a near certainty now that I've thought about it. He was already Mayor of Winnipeg and moved to Toronto to get into politics here. He was highly speculaled to be running in the last election but opted to run Provincially instead. His goal is certainly on the top job. Should he not get it at Queens Park, the pieces would have fallen so perfectly into place for him to become Mayor of Toronto.

1 - New high profile name recognition
2 - A campaign machine assembled for the Liberal Leadership race
3 - Oh and there so happens to be a Toronto by-election immediately after... to replace an unpopular Mayor.

Meslin seems to think that Wynne is interested in the job and I'm just speculating about Kennedy but I'd be surprised if Murray goes back to being a mere MPP after losing the job he came back to Ontario to get.

 

[js97]

Glen Murray is almost a near certainty now that I've thought about it. He was already Mayor of Winnipeg and moved to Toronto to get into politics here. He was highly speculaled to be running in the last election but opted to run Provincially instead. His goal is certainly on the top job. Should he not get it at Queens Park, the pieces would have fallen so perfectly into place for him to become Mayor of Toronto.

1 - New high profile name recognition
2 - A campaign machine assembled for the Liberal Leadership race
3 - Oh and there so happens to be a Toronto by-election immediately after... to replace an unpopular Mayor.

Meslin seems to think that Wynne is interested in the job and I'm just speculating about Kennedy but I'd be surprised if Murray goes back to being a mere MPP after losing the job he came back to Ontario to get.

Wynne, Kennedy, or Murray would be above and beyond any of those clown candidates we currently have.

Kennedy would be top pick for sure. Murray would be seen as not enough 'roots' in TO, and would be a hard sell to the burbs. Wynne... tough call.

 

[MetroMan]

So now the focus is on the appeal. I don't think you can find anybody in the legal community who can see the panel overturning Justice Hackland's ruling. He's a respected Supreme Court justice, not some rookie prone to mistakes. He made very sound arguments against all points of Ford's defence. An appeals court is not meant to get a second opinion in the general sense. It's meant to hear the defendant's argument that there are issues with the ruling. There appear to be none so this appeal is just prolonging the inevitable. Ford will be out of office by late February at the latest, but as soon as mid January.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

BREAKING NEWS: Mayor Rob Ford is granted a stay until next year

We knew the ruling would not be in Ford's favour (the punishment was a surprise), we knew he'd be granted a stay and we know he'll lose his appeal. So as expected we have another two months of yet another Ford distraction but the game is on.

 

[PinkLucy]

Why was the punishment a surprise? It was the only choice of punishment for a guilty finding.

 

[MetroMan]

We knew the ruling would not be in Ford's favour (the punishment was a surprise), we knew he'd be granted a stay and we know he'll lose his appeal. So as expected we have another two months of yet another Ford distraction but the game is on.

Why was the punishment a surprise? It was the only choice of punishment for a guilty finding.

Exactly. I don't know how so many people here never understood that. I've always said that Ford would either be found guilty or not guilty, no in between -- and he was clearly guilty. I had my last minute jitters that he'd get away with this but when the verdict came through, it was just as I had expected all along.

The stay although unusual was also expected because turfing Ford would throw City Hall into chaos. The spirit of Justice Hackland's ruling is that Ford shouldn't be given further punishment so he should be able to appeal before leaving office. It's not like he's a dangerous murderer. The fact that a quick appeal hearing was granted solidified that he would get the stay.

The appeal itself, barring any surprises, will be upheld. Hackland solidly picked apart every single Ford argument. His ruling is pretty water tight. The only gap is that the sentence is too harsh for the crime but the appeals court isn't going to change the law retroactively. His only saviour could have been if Hudak had won the last election and was Premier today. Queen's Park could have hastened the change to the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act and made it retroactive. But the optics of that would have been awful. The ruling will be upheld and Ford will be forced to leave office.

City Council should start dusting off the voting machines. I think that at this point, everybody wants an election. The right wants their man back in and the left wants an opportunity to put their guy in. Everybody in between wants Ford to be shown the door the right away: by the voters.