Rob Ford's Toronto

[SunriseChampion]

Well...the teachers would go on about how the strikes were the fault of Harris.....how it was all for us. Etc.


I swear, Catholics are the zaniest of commies sometimes.

 

[RogerD]

Besides, we are losing sight who the real victim is in this story...Stinz. She thought she was the one who was going to bring down Ford AND she thought she was the hottie too. But no, Doolittle has upstaged her on both counts.

Haha wow. This thread becomes unreadable on a slow news day.

 

[Tulse]

The Brazil/Canada Chamber of Commerce is disputing claims by Michael Thompson that the Rio/Toronto "friendship agreement" that he spent two weeks in exotic Rio negotiating is in jeopardy because of Fords personal problems

And they would know this...how exactly? They aren't an official branch of the Brazilian government, are they? Aren't they just a business association?

Convicted drunk driver Ana Bailao joined Thompson on the junket

You do know that Ford has a DUI conviction too, right? As well as admitting to smoking crack cocaine, and smoking pot, and associating with murderous drug gang members, and misuse of public staff for private errands, and appearing at public functions intoxicated, etc. etc. etc. Do you really want to pit Bailao's behaviour against Ford's? Seriously?

Honestly, Peepers, turn around, because the exit from the rabbit hole you've gone down is way behind you.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Reposting myself from a reddit thread;

The one thing that worries me most is how uninformed and how out of touch with the facts many Torontonians are. And I am not talking about the "Ford Nation" or our little piece of crazy America who have been supporting him throughout all this, I am speaking of the droves of people who have usually paid little to no interest in municipal politics until the Rob Ford saga broke headlines daily for the past few weeks.

I've heard on the subway more than once people discussing Rob Ford and from what I gathered, they are definitely not the typical slice of crazy that we've come to see from Ford Nation supporters over this time, they definitely don't defend the guy's personal life and might not even care for neo-liberal economics and saving the taxpayer dollars like Ford Nation's suburban voting base. However, I've heard way too often phrases and comments on the lines of "Yah the guy is an atrocious human being, but isn't he doing a fantastic job running the city? He's saving the city millions of money, right? That's a good thing, right?".

I'm afraid that this Ford saga has brought his populist rhetoric and lies into the public headlines in small clips and headlines on CP24 and elsewhere, which are unfortunately, all that a significant portion of the electorate are ever able or care to see and all that they have available to formulate their opinions and maybe even voting patterns.

This is simply Ford (and brother Doug) at their effective best, cranking out the same one-liners over and over again at every opportunity. For those who don't dig for information on the interwebs or follow Ford closely (and that's not their fault, people have busy lives), they come to believe it.
Whoever the front runner turns out to be next year that challenges Ford, they better have a damn good strategy in place to not only refute these claims in sound-bytes but offer the citizenry something better than Ford.

 

[freshcutgrass]

Haha wow. This thread becomes unreadable on a slow news day.

Really?

"This thread" has 35 thousand replies!

To put that in perspective, that's like the number of phone calls Rob Ford returns in like... a week.

 

[basic]

Throw my vote in for Oxys.

 

[adma]

This is the one thing Chow will have to contend with. A "One Toronto" slogan does nothing to explain your platform, how you'll manage the city's coffers, what you think about transit. Ask a Torontonian what Ford's election planks are: "Respect for taxpayers. Cut the gravy. Subways."

I think Olivia Chow is in danger of running a campaign similar to that of Barbara Hall back in 2003. For most of 2003 Barbara Hall was the odd's on winner with a healthy 20%+ lead over the other no-name candidates like a conservative insider (Tory), High Park councillor (Miller), and two disgraced egos (Jakobek and Nunziata). I worked in the Miller campaign and saw first hand how Barbara Hall went from 45% polling in the summer down to 9% on Election Day. She was unable to brand herself. She was too wishy-washy on specifics and took no firm position on the big issues of the time - notably, new powers for the city and the island bridge. Even her election signs were confusing with six uniquely coloured signs meant to embrace the various shades and differences of the city. She got squeezed out by the issue-heavy, slogan-driven Tory and Miller campaigns.

And let's remember, too, that in 2010, neither Hall's erstwhile campaign manager Smitherman nor Joey Pants had memorable slogans, bytes, memes a la Miller's broom, etc. It wasn't just that Ford had "respect for taxpayers", "stop the gravy train", etc--it's that it was versus a void. Pants stood for left-Millerite status quo; Smitherman stood as an all-things-for-all-people centrist frontrunner type--that's it. In fact, it's saying something that the most successful (if fleetingly so) non-Ford positioning that year came from a different kind of outsider: Sarah Thomson.

So, it'll take more than "not Ford" here.

 

[adma]

I guess George hasn't been reading lately about Rob's drug exploits...

Or, for that matter, reflecting lately on any possible telltale Ford-family connections re his own sons' drug exploits. (Which is why, at this point, any Ford/Chuvalo photo-ops are looking *really* weird; basically, Chuvalo's family tragedy was our grand introduction to Etobicoke drug-culture casualties, long before Lisi, the Bassos, etc etc)

 

[SunriseChampion]

Where did 'junket' come from, anyway?

And why are you still on about this junket? I've already told ya that they partially paid for it themselves.....being taxpayers and all.


Who qualifies as a taxpayer these days anyway?
Do I? Or am I just a "downtown" (I wish I could afford to live there) "elite" who doesn't pay taxes...somehow.

This "taxpayer" talk makes me want to vomit.
Seriously, it's a false dichotomy.

Sorry...I'm all Saturday'd.


No, not done yet....as a taxpayer and driver I demand road tolls. Yeah, it's because no one ever asks me.

PS: I think I shall soon go on another self-funded junket. Barbados.

 

[kbdid]

Re Ford Sweat - if there's any truth to him quitting alcohol, sweating can be part of withdrawal.

 

[themarc]

I will make a prediction. In a year from now Robyn Doolittle will not be at the Toronto Star - she will have a job working in front of the camera somewhere. From her appearances on CNN it is clear to me that the camera loves Robyn and from the way she vamps in front of the camera the love is clearly reciprocal. I wouldn't even be surprised if she makes her TV debut on an American network such as CNN since that is obviously where the money is. There is really no limit to what she can do if she plays her cards rights.

And she has an iconic last name...

 

[themarc]

Or, for that matter, reflecting lately on any possible telltale Ford-family connections re his own sons' drug exploits. (Which is why, at this point, any Ford/Chuvalo photo-ops are looking *really* weird; basically, Chuvalo's family tragedy was our grand introduction to Etobicoke drug-culture casualties, long before Lisi, the Bassos, etc etc)

And the Ford kids and the Chuvalo kids "knew" each other. "Came from same neighborhood" if recall reading that correctly (It was published shortly before Rob became Mayor - blogged from a photscrum?). It was dismiss-able at the time. Plausible.

 

[adma]

Honestly, the teacher-led indoctrination of Harris hate was very disconcerting.

And with this in mind, I wonder if there's a different, even more "empathetic" perspective on Ford Nation vs Ford Hatred among millennials, i.e. viewed through the filter of the insufferably, obtrusively overexpressed pathologies of those who taught them. Sort of like them teechur types are loathing Ford/Harris like they're booing electric Dylan at Newport.

Note: I said "empathetic". I didn't say "supportive". (And it's through such empathy that threading the needle that actually leads to Ford defeat may be possible.)

 

[adma]

And the Ford kids and the Chuvalo kids "knew" each other. Same neighborhood if recall reading that correctly.

That's why I brought it up. (I think the Chuvalos were/are up on Golfwood Heights--basically around the corner from the Lisis.)

 

[freshcutgrass]

reflecting lately on any possible telltale Ford-family connections re his own sons' drug exploits. (Which is why, at this point, any Ford/Chuvalo photo-ops are looking *really* weird

This isn't lost on the elder Ford fans like Cherry and Chuvalo, where I'm sure they see the optics as taking him under their wing sorta deal. They see themselves as helping, rather than just being "haters". I doubt any of these echo chamber inhabitants are even aware of their enabler roles.