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Rob Ford
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Jeanne Douglas
May 17, 2013, 8:42:14 PM5/17/13
to
How'd Toronto end up with a loon like this:
<http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2013/05/17/tor-rob-ford-crac
k-allegations.html>
or
<http://bit.ly/10VpYr6>
<http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/rob-ford-crack-video-toront
o-mayor.html>
or
<http://nym.ag/12Akqke>
But is he any good at mayoring the city?
--
JD
"Osama Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive."--VP Joseph Biden
<http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2013/05/17/tor-rob-ford-crac
k-allegations.html>
or
<http://bit.ly/10VpYr6>
<http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/rob-ford-crack-video-toront
o-mayor.html>
or
<http://nym.ag/12Akqke>
But is he any good at mayoring the city?
--
JD
"Osama Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive."--VP Joseph Biden
Christopher A. Lee
May 17, 2013, 9:16:58 PM5/17/13
to
On Fri, 17 May 2013 17:42:14 -0700, Jeanne Douglas
<hlwd...@NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote:
>How'd Toronto end up with a loon like this:
>
><http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2013/05/17/tor-rob-ford-crack-allegations.html>
>
>or
>
><http://bit.ly/10VpYr6>
>
>
><http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/rob-ford-crack-video-toronto-mayor.html>
>
>or
>
><http://nym.ag/12Akqke>
>
>
>But is he any good at mayoring the city?
It's Marion Barry all over again.
<hlwd...@NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote:
>How'd Toronto end up with a loon like this:
>
><http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2013/05/17/tor-rob-ford-crack-allegations.html>
>
>or
>
><http://bit.ly/10VpYr6>
>
>
><http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/rob-ford-crack-video-toronto-mayor.html>
>
>or
>
><http://nym.ag/12Akqke>
>
>
>But is he any good at mayoring the city?
Personally, I view crack cocaine like alcohol, tobacco and cannabis -
it's his own business as long as it doesn't impact anybody else.
But it _is_ illegal, which makes him an idiot for thinking somebody in
his position could get away with it.
%
May 17, 2013, 9:23:24 PM5/17/13
to
arjay
May 18, 2013, 9:07:59 AM5/18/13
to
"Jeanne Douglas" <hlwd...@NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote in message
news:hlwdjsd2-7CC23A...@news.giganews.com...
oft-quoted thing attributed to Lincoln about fooling people -- Ford fooled
_enough_ people that one time.
> <http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2013/05/17/tor-rob-ford-crac
> k-allegations.html>
>
> or
>
> <http://bit.ly/10VpYr6>
>
> <http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/rob-ford-crack-video-toront
> o-mayor.html>
>
> or
>
> <http://nym.ag/12Akqke>
>
> But is he any good at mayoring the city?
That depends on who you ask.
More often than not, so far, Ford has been very good at playing the system
and maintaining a loyal following within his base constituency. He has an
ally and wingman, his brother, who, like Rob the Blob is just rich enough
from the family business to have the leisure to dabble in politics and save
the world, or their small corner of it, from the disease of <shudder!>
liberalism. Brother Doug is a Toronto City Councillor representing Rob's
former Ward, elected when bro Rob became Mayor.
Ford's approach has been divisive, and deliberately so.
Toronto in its present form exists because a right-wing Provincial
government decided to impose its will on six existing municipalities
(against the overwhelming opposition of the populace, as expressed by a
referendum held in all six). The original City was surrounded by five
Boroughs, in their beginnings independent municipalities, which by the 1990s
had morphed into a Metropolitan area with the five satellites functioning
largely as dormitory areas for people who worked in the City. The
Provincial Gov't created by fiat a mega-city (mocked by some opponents by
deliberate mispronunciation, 'megacity' rhyming with 'mendacity'). Those
five boroughs lost their civic identities and what remained of their
autonomy.
It's a peculiarity of our national politics that the rest of the country has
long identified "Toronto" as a great, homogeneous mass and a target for
resentment -- it's the city the rest of Canada has loved to hate since early
in the last century. And with that as a continuing factor, many people
living in one of the five former Boroughs hate the central core, the 'old'
City.
Rob Ford's family home is in one of the former boroughs. He speaks for the
malcontents who want to be able to drive their SUVs into the central core at
will, to work or shop or play, and not be inconvenienced by slow-moving
public transit vehicles only the core-dwellers use. Nor will the
malcontents agree to contributing to the cost of anything which, in their
eyes, benefits the core-dwellers but not, as they see it, themselves.
Rob Ford makes a big deal of not using the car or driver provided by City
funds and instead driving himself in the family-owned SUV -- often enough
using his cell phone while driving, in open violation of a Provincial law.
His supporters cheer him for such stunts.
Divide-and-conquer works. For a while.
Is he any good at mayoring the city? IMO -- no. He plays to his
constituency and sulks every time he doesn't get his way on City Council.
Former supporters on Council are now saying that all the noise made by him
or _about_ him is getting in the way of finding practical solutions to civic
problems.
news:hlwdjsd2-7CC23A...@news.giganews.com...
> How'd Toronto end up with a loon like this:
He ran an effective campaign and got elected. Call it a variation on the
oft-quoted thing attributed to Lincoln about fooling people -- Ford fooled
_enough_ people that one time.
> <http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2013/05/17/tor-rob-ford-crac
> k-allegations.html>
>
> or
>
> <http://bit.ly/10VpYr6>
>
> <http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/rob-ford-crack-video-toront
> o-mayor.html>
>
> or
>
> <http://nym.ag/12Akqke>
>
> But is he any good at mayoring the city?
More often than not, so far, Ford has been very good at playing the system
and maintaining a loyal following within his base constituency. He has an
ally and wingman, his brother, who, like Rob the Blob is just rich enough
from the family business to have the leisure to dabble in politics and save
the world, or their small corner of it, from the disease of <shudder!>
liberalism. Brother Doug is a Toronto City Councillor representing Rob's
former Ward, elected when bro Rob became Mayor.
Ford's approach has been divisive, and deliberately so.
Toronto in its present form exists because a right-wing Provincial
government decided to impose its will on six existing municipalities
(against the overwhelming opposition of the populace, as expressed by a
referendum held in all six). The original City was surrounded by five
Boroughs, in their beginnings independent municipalities, which by the 1990s
had morphed into a Metropolitan area with the five satellites functioning
largely as dormitory areas for people who worked in the City. The
Provincial Gov't created by fiat a mega-city (mocked by some opponents by
deliberate mispronunciation, 'megacity' rhyming with 'mendacity'). Those
five boroughs lost their civic identities and what remained of their
autonomy.
It's a peculiarity of our national politics that the rest of the country has
long identified "Toronto" as a great, homogeneous mass and a target for
resentment -- it's the city the rest of Canada has loved to hate since early
in the last century. And with that as a continuing factor, many people
living in one of the five former Boroughs hate the central core, the 'old'
City.
Rob Ford's family home is in one of the former boroughs. He speaks for the
malcontents who want to be able to drive their SUVs into the central core at
will, to work or shop or play, and not be inconvenienced by slow-moving
public transit vehicles only the core-dwellers use. Nor will the
malcontents agree to contributing to the cost of anything which, in their
eyes, benefits the core-dwellers but not, as they see it, themselves.
Rob Ford makes a big deal of not using the car or driver provided by City
funds and instead driving himself in the family-owned SUV -- often enough
using his cell phone while driving, in open violation of a Provincial law.
His supporters cheer him for such stunts.
Divide-and-conquer works. For a while.
Is he any good at mayoring the city? IMO -- no. He plays to his
constituency and sulks every time he doesn't get his way on City Council.
Former supporters on Council are now saying that all the noise made by him
or _about_ him is getting in the way of finding practical solutions to civic
problems.
Jeanne Douglas
May 18, 2013, 7:48:35 PM5/18/13
to
In article <FIednZ0Qfuqy4ArM...@supernews.com>,
Thank you for this wonderful explanation, including the history of the
city. The geographer in me loved that.
city. The geographer in me loved that.
Irreverend Dave
May 19, 2013, 11:57:09 AM5/19/13
to
where they were from they would more than likely say Toronto.
As for Rob Ford, he's like a whiny frat boy, used to getting his own way,
easy to goad into a tantrum. He's got a list of gaffs and goofs including
driving while talking on his phone (illegal in Ontario), reading while
driving, leaving council meetings to coach a high school football team,
using city resources to promote his football team, fondling a woman's
butt at a gala (which he denies), and now this.
Then there's this.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SJ1k4vhz10I
--
Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe,
but in proportion to their readiness to doubt - Ambrose Bierce
arjay
May 20, 2013, 5:14:34 AM5/20/13
to
"Irreverend Dave" <revere...@ministerpants.com> wrote in message
news:XnsA1C57BB59...@78.46.70.116...
That was probably done simply to save time or avoid confusion. ;)
Today, if someone from the NYC Borough of Staten Island meets the archetypal
(and mythical) little old lady from Peoria, does he say he's from Staten
Island? Or from New York?
The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, as it was formally known, took
shape in 1954 and lasted until 1998.
As a schoolboy I lived in "Toronto" between 1945 and '49, before Metro was
established, then later -- as an adult -- during Metro's heyday.
During that first period the family home was in an area outside the legal
boundaries of the old City of Toronto. The area was little more than a
large working-class neighbourhood that had originally sprouted without any
sort of planning -- or civic services -- around a handful of industrial
sites. Local government, such as it was, had been an afterthought and the
senior elected official was a Reeve. That's right -- it wasn't grand enough
to be called a Town, or to have a Mayor. But it had an identity, and a
name -- Mount Dennis.
If the family went a-travelling in that period and met new people one of us
would be asked 'Where are you from?' And we quickly learned that it took
several minutes to explain the notion of 'Mount Dennis' but no time at all
to say 'Toronto.'
(Mount Dennis retained its identity for a while after Metro was established.
You could find it, and its name, on maps of the area. Then in the 1960s the
Borough officially known as theTownship of York became the City of York,
flexed its muscles, and swallowed little Mount Dennis.)
For Jeanne, the geographer --
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/York_locator.png
The map highlights the former City of York but also shows the original City
and all the component Boroughs of Metro. The present megacity has the same
boundaries as the old Metro Toronto. Bottom-right insert shows the 'Greater
Toronto Area,' known locally as the GTA. Where once the Boroughs were
largely dormitory areas for the old City, now the GTA serves much the same
function for the megacity.
> As for Rob Ford, he's like a whiny frat boy, used to getting his own way,
> easy to goad into a tantrum. He's got a list of gaffs and goofs including
> driving while talking on his phone (illegal in Ontario),
... and giving the one-finger salute to a driver who honked in protest at
his use of the phone while driving ...
news:XnsA1C57BB59...@78.46.70.116...
> Jeanne Douglas <hlwd...@NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote:
>> In article <FIednZ0Qfuqy4ArM...@supernews.com>,
>> "arjay" <ar...@hobbiton.net> wrote:
>>> "Jeanne Douglas" <hlwd...@NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote in message
>>> news:hlwdjsd2-7CC23A...@news.giganews.com...
>>> > How'd Toronto end up with a loon like this:
<......>
>> In article <FIednZ0Qfuqy4ArM...@supernews.com>,
>> "arjay" <ar...@hobbiton.net> wrote:
>>> "Jeanne Douglas" <hlwd...@NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote in message
>>> news:hlwdjsd2-7CC23A...@news.giganews.com...
>>> > How'd Toronto end up with a loon like this:
Today, if someone from the NYC Borough of Staten Island meets the archetypal
(and mythical) little old lady from Peoria, does he say he's from Staten
Island? Or from New York?
The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, as it was formally known, took
shape in 1954 and lasted until 1998.
As a schoolboy I lived in "Toronto" between 1945 and '49, before Metro was
established, then later -- as an adult -- during Metro's heyday.
During that first period the family home was in an area outside the legal
boundaries of the old City of Toronto. The area was little more than a
large working-class neighbourhood that had originally sprouted without any
sort of planning -- or civic services -- around a handful of industrial
sites. Local government, such as it was, had been an afterthought and the
senior elected official was a Reeve. That's right -- it wasn't grand enough
to be called a Town, or to have a Mayor. But it had an identity, and a
name -- Mount Dennis.
If the family went a-travelling in that period and met new people one of us
would be asked 'Where are you from?' And we quickly learned that it took
several minutes to explain the notion of 'Mount Dennis' but no time at all
to say 'Toronto.'
(Mount Dennis retained its identity for a while after Metro was established.
You could find it, and its name, on maps of the area. Then in the 1960s the
Borough officially known as theTownship of York became the City of York,
flexed its muscles, and swallowed little Mount Dennis.)
For Jeanne, the geographer --
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/York_locator.png
The map highlights the former City of York but also shows the original City
and all the component Boroughs of Metro. The present megacity has the same
boundaries as the old Metro Toronto. Bottom-right insert shows the 'Greater
Toronto Area,' known locally as the GTA. Where once the Boroughs were
largely dormitory areas for the old City, now the GTA serves much the same
function for the megacity.
> As for Rob Ford, he's like a whiny frat boy, used to getting his own way,
> easy to goad into a tantrum. He's got a list of gaffs and goofs including
> driving while talking on his phone (illegal in Ontario),
his use of the phone while driving ...
Irreverend Dave
May 20, 2013, 2:36:24 PM5/20/13
to
I was renting a canoe near Atikokan years ago for a week in Quetico. My
drivers licence said Rexdale. The person renting me the canoe asked where
Rexdale was. Rather than explaining that it was at the north end of the
borough of Etobicoke I just said it was a Toronto suburb. I realized then
that Toronto was the quickest and easiest answer to give.
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