why Torontians 'love' Rob Ford

[madchives]

i'm kidding with the title - guy is a dingbat.

for fun read this --- i dare you
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Ford
(ok i know it is wiki but still,,,,)

there have been a few mayors/premiers here i've been unamused by
(brother still likes to make mike harris's chocolate cake yet is tasty)

but how the heck rob ford ended up the mayor here is embarrassing - could never type how many reasons why.
however:

[Darth Penguin]

TCDSB

[FallenPixels]

Honestly, some of the stuff he does is done by plenty of politicians that it proves there is a witch hunt against him - this is the reason we get bad politicians, only the ones who don't care or truly believe they are whiter than white are willing to go through it and the 'real people' don't bother

[Patty Smyth]

Honestly, some of the stuff he does is done by plenty of politicians that it proves there is a witch hunt against him - this is the reason we get bad politicians, only the ones who don't care or truly believe they are whiter than white are willing to go through it and the 'real people' don't bother

Your guy is a crackhead, big deal, ours is a mafia bagman.

[Patty Smyth]

They do seem to love to hate this guy, I saw the John Stewart gig the other night it was hilarious. Come on Canadians have the best comics!!!!

[madchives]

picking out a few bits of rob ford's history

On April 15, 2006, Ford (a sitting councillor at the time) attended a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game at the Air Canada Centre. Visibly intoxicated and belligerent, he began to insult a couple seated behind him, who were visiting from out of town. Two security guards escorted Ford out of the building. When confronted about the episode three days later by a National Post reporter, Ford initially denied having been at the game. He later told the Toronto Star: "This is unbelievable, I wasn't even at the game, so someone's trying to do a real hatchet job on me, let me tell you", but later on said: "I reflected on it last night, and talked to my family. I came forward and admitted it. That's all I can do. I mean, I'm not perfect," said Ford. "Being in politics, you're in the spotlight all the time. I made a mistake. I made a major mistake. I really regret it.""^[14]


In June 2006 Ford came under fire for making a controversial remark during a Council meeting. During the meeting Ford spoke out against the city donating $1.5 million to help prevent AIDS. Ford argued that most tax payers should not be concerned with AIDS because "If you are not doing needles and you are not gay, you wouldn't get AIDS probably, that's bottom line...those are the facts."^[28] After then Mayor David Miller pointed out that women are the largest growing demographic of people contracting AIDS, Ford responded that it must mean 'they are sleeping with bi-sexual men'.^[28] Ford publicly apologized for the comments in May 2010 during his mayoral campaign after his opponent, George Smitherman, called Ford's character into question over the remarks.^[29]


On March 7, 2007, Ford made controversial comments about cyclists' use of the roads, saying, "What I compare bike lanes to is swimming with the sharks. Sooner or later you're going to get bitten... Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks, not for people on bikes. My heart bleeds for them when I hear someone gets killed, but it’s their own fault at the end of the day."^[30] On May 25, 2009, Ford said, "It's no secret, okay. The cyclists are a pain in the ass to the motorists."

[madchives]

so this and the alleged wife beating would want you to have him as your mayor?

[FallenPixels]

He isn't my Mayor - instead I have one that has actually been censured by his own Council and will likely be again since they are looking into a scandal with him telling lies and bullying the city manager

I have worked in politics, very few of them are sweet and innocent - it is just a matter of how well they hide those skeletons. Loook at Patty's comment - Canada has some terrible mayors

Here are some excerpts from stories on Canadian Mayors just from the last year:

These ones are all done for misuse of public funds - they did not only impact themselves, but our pockets:

London Mayor Joe Fontana is facing criminal charges over allegations he used federal funds to help pay for his son’s wedding reception. Mr. Fontana was charged with fraud, breach of trust and uttering a forged document on Nov. 21. The charges date back to 2005, when Mr. Fontana was a Member of Parliament.

Gilles Vaillancourt, Laval’s “mayor for life”, resigned his office after 23 years on Nov. 9. He became weakened by a succession of investigative news reports, sworn commission testimony and police operations, which cast a light on doubtful ethical practices. Construction entrepreneur Lino Zambito testified before the Charbonneau Commission that companies paid a 2.5-per-cent cut on construction contracts directly to Mr. Vaillancourt.

Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay stepped down under pressure on Nov. 5. The move came after construction entrepreneur Lino Zambito testified at the Charbonneau inquiry that he was part of a collusion system that gave 3 per cent of city contracts’ value to Mr. Tremblay’s party, with city engineers and the mob also getting a cut.

Personal issues, mayors have that covered too:

Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly announced in February that he would not seek re-election, saying public life had taken a toll on his marriage and personal life. The move came after criticism that city council under Mr. Kelly had become dysfunctional and secretive as well as allegations relating to his handling of the estate of a long-time elderly friend.

My Mayor was censured by his own Council after giving his assistant a huge raise when the city was cutting spending, lying to Council, another scuffle over United Way donations and a few other things

If that is the stuff that is public, imagine what skeletons they still have hiding

[Darth Penguin]

The sooner the Pengunocroty is enshined the better...

[vesper]

The sooner the Pengunocroty is enshined the better...

Oh no!!

---------

I'd take a drunken idiot who does his job well, over a squeaky clean person who is on great terms with big business, media and city social elitists. In fact, I think when all 3 hate you ala Ralph Klein, you are probably doing your job.

[madchives]

just info:
http://gawker.com/


and just for fun the ford brother's radio program
is back on the air today - 610 radio toronto
having a problem grabbing the link.
extra fun his brother denied he was a hash dealer
as a kid --- always find it fun to remember i was.
hey memory can be interesting as long as you have it
not sure about when you don't.

too bad the cbc ctv etc have not seen the video and shown it
and now the guy selling it has disappeared.

[Andit]

I'm one of the ones who voted for Ford. Quite frankly, he was the best choice of a very bad lot. Candidate 1 had links to scandals in another level of govt (& something about this individual seemed off). Candidate 2 (my original choice) made some remarks (& defended them!) that made me want to nominate C2 for the Darwin Awards. Candidate 3 had political views that I simply could never support (too far left for anyone who's witnessed Communism first-hand). Candidate 4 is a nasty piece of work (had interactions with this individual and heard first hand accounts of bad behaviour that border on criminal). Then there was Ford.

I'd met C3, C4 and C5 (Ford). Of the 3, Ford was the most polite.

Over the last decade or so, I've heard about local politicians who have had affairs with underage prostitutes, cost the taxpayers $$$ to undo a deal (supposedly signed a document without reading it because of being "visually impaired" - at the time my eyesight was considerably more compromised and I was doing desktop publishing!), killed a plan 10 yrs and hundreds of hours' of community input so that a crony could add his flair to it, been a nasty piece of work to constituents (while being all smiles in front of cameras). None of these stories was reported by the media. There is a scandal currently going on, involving a politico getting a great deal on a piece of real estate. If this individual were to the right of centre, this would be front page news in Timbuktu - instead, the only mention of this was a paragraph buried in the paper several months ago.

I fully support the media going after *all* politicians. Alas, the concept of ethics seems to be lost these days.

For the record, I get my news from a variety of sources I discovered a long time ago that the only way to get remotely accurate news is to watch coverage from a variety of sources and try to sift through the nonsense.

Hmm, I wonder how many votes Quincy cat would get if he ran for mayor?

[madchives]

hey andi we would always vote for the smart cat

link for cfrb --- thinking it could be a fun broadcast or not,,,

http://www.newstalk1010.com/News/loc...tryID=10549229

[Shwa Girl]

Your guy is a crackhead, big deal, ours is a mafia bagman.

Your post really put things into perspective.

[Shwa Girl]

too bad the cbc ctv etc have not seen the video and shown it
and now the guy selling it has disappeared.

The guy with the video has disappeared?!?!
Whaaa?!?
This is really fishy. This story really stinks-the video for sale and such.

And I don't even like Rob Ford too much.