Toronto "Walks Like An Egyptian"

Having, for all intents and purposes, just deposed its elected Mayor in a palace coup for reasons that appear, on the surface at least, mainly cosmetic, Toronto has now joined the ranks of those places around the globe where simply being elected is no guarantee of serving a full term of office.

The reason that Mayor Rob Ford has been all but stripped of his office is carefully explained in today's Toronto Star by the new spokesman for the latest fad down at City Hall, the "Emily Post" school of government.

That person, former mayor John Sewell, "Red" John Sewell, often called "Mayor Blue Jeans" from the time he regularly used to give the sartorial finger to convention in city politics back in the late 70s has, like many an old firebrand, many an old rebellious youth, many an old defiant populist, many an old leather jacketed townie, grown up to be polite and stuffy and forgetful.

He doesn't seem to remember how the police were trying to get rid of him when he was in office.

Sewell gives his take on the Ford affair in an opinion piece in the Toronto Star:

www.thestar.com...#

I'm not going to rebut this piece line by line, but it does outline for us a list of criteria for governing in a democracy that might come as a shock to people who thought that the right to govern in a democracy followed upon coming in first at the polls.

Sewell, in other places, has lamented the loss of collegiality and consensus building at City Hall and the advent of "political party-style" adversarial politics, yet he supports the removal of an elected Mayor. Isn't the ouster of Rob Ford the thin edge of a party political wedge being driven into politics at City Hall?

Why are the people of Toronto voting for a Mayor, as opposed to a political party, if the mayor can be removed by Council?

This new phenomenon at City Hall is the advent of a parliamentary style procedure imposing itself on city government.

I just don't understand John Sewell's position on this at all.

Rob Ford has been convicted of precisely nothing. The scandal in Toronto has been stoked for a long time by the Toronto Star, a newspaper that didn't want Ford elected in the first place and has been doing its darndest to get him out of office ever since.

And now we have the Premier of the province pondering whether to create the legislative tools to enable the removal of elected civic officials.

As one old radical to another, you should be ashamed of yourself John Sewell.

One more thing. Here's a question for you John, "Have you ever smoked dope?" lol.

Oh Canada, glorious and free....thank you so much for mayor Ford.

reply to post by ipsedixit


As an outsider to Canada I'm just asking. Did this mayor while in office:

Smoke crack and get caught on video
Use all his power as mayor to cover up and suppress the video
Threaten to kill someone and get it caught on audio(?)

If true sounds like he should be thrown out to me. Just saying.

reply to post by ipsedixit

do you not believe fords integrity has been compromised?..he admited all(convicted himself) i couldnt care less if the guy smoked pot at some time..doing crack, hanging aroung drug dealers and binge drinking that he doesnt remember what he did..cmon.. yup thats the guy i want making decisions. one day he may owe a favor to these people..if ford would of admited from the start and got help this thing would of blown over but no ford is his own worst enemy..and a sociopath as well..his brother comparing him to jesus for @#$%^ sakes, delusional
a emergency vote should be held and let the people make their decision.
what a train wreck of denial.

vonclod
reply to post by ipsedixit

 

do you not believe fords integrity has been compromised?..he admited all(convicted himself)

Ford has made an ass of himself, but Toronto's citizens voted for him. He is their ass and they are the only ones who should be removing him from office, at the next election.

i couldnt care less if the guy smoked pot at some time..doing crack, hanging aroung drug dealers and binge drinking that he doesnt remember what he did..cmon.. yup thats the guy i want making decisions.

Ford's political decisions should be the ones by which he is judged. The other stuff is not something I would do. I'm more of a strippers and weed guy myself, but what people do on their own time is not my concern.

one day he may owe a favor to these people

This is a very good point in Ford's favor. Fortunately the sort of low life imbeciles that Ford spends his spare time with are not likely to ever ask him to do anything more than hold their stash for them while they are in stir. Other more respectable politicians, who move in more elevated circles, are far more likely to owe big favors to people who ask big favors.

247 million dollars completely disappeared during the last G8/G20 conference. None of Ford's pals are in that league.

..if ford would of admited from the start and got help this thing would of blown over but no ford is his own worst enemy..and a sociopath as well..his brother comparing him to jesus for @#$%^ sakes, delusional
a emergency vote should be held and let the people make their decision.

That would be expensive but democratic.

what a train wreck of denial.

The Auditor General says that more than 3 billion dollars of federal money is completely unaccounted for. That's one hell of a choo choo train off the track and the press is not asking for those guys' heads.

Bassago
reply to post by ipsedixit

 

As an outsider to Canada I'm just asking. Did this mayor while in office:

Smoke crack and get caught on video
Use all his power as mayor to cover up and suppress the video
Threaten to kill someone and get it caught on audio(?)

If true sounds like he should be thrown out to me. Just saying.

You're partially right.

He admits to "smoking" at a party where he was videotaped in the act.

He used all his power to try to find and obtain the video, if it existed, which he says he wasn't sure of. (He was "smoking" at the time, remember.)

I'm not sure about the threat. I know he threatened war on his enemies but I think he meant it figuratively. Threatening to kill someone is an arrestable offense, but Ford wasn't arrested, so maybe people thought he was just being rhetorical.

If he should be thrown out, I think the voters should do it at the polls.

He seems to be one of those guys who actually can run a city while "smoking" in his off hours.

reply to post by ipsedixit

weed and strippers..im there with ya man..lol
seriously though alot of what your saying is correct regarding missing monies and the g8/20..that kind of stuff, how favours work..etc
however i doubt for 1 minute that if an election were held next week he would still be mayor despite that he may of at a time been a good one..he has completely lost his mind and credibility and obviously cannot be trusted..trust is key, not that any of them can be trusted. i highly doubt anyone in municipal govt and whomever his office has to deal with on the provincial level want to deal with him.
i think it should be like when the sitting fed govt fails to get a budget approved, a vote of non confidence and have a general election
in general i get what your saying but he did it to himself every step of the way..could of manned up at the start and been a hero in the end.
is there any polling indicating the people of to. still want him?

reply to post by vonclod

I know there was a poll that indicated at one point after he admitted smoking that he still retained a lot of his support, but what the very latest figures are, after his declaration of war, etc., I don't know.

I see your point of view and I am sure it is shared by many.

I think Ford should be dealt with at the polls. The storm around him has been largely whipped up by the press and granted, he has handled that development very poorly.

Ford is a very important mayor because Toronto is at a crucial juncture in its development as a city, particularly in the area of public transit. There is a deep ideological rift in the city between those who would like to concentrate on surface mass transit and those who want to put it all underground. Ford is with the underground group and I agree with that view. This is a huge issue.

Where I live, in the east end, people complain quite a bit about the street cars being irregular and a poor way to get downtown when compared to buses. Few people along Kingston Road prefer streetcars over buses, and fewer still realize that Toronto's policy on streetcars is affected by considerations that have nothing to do with transit efficiency. The federal government is a very important player in determining whether Torontonians are suffering in transit. There are international trade considerations that come into play in Toronto's transit choices and jobs in Thunder Bay and elsewhere.

Here's what Rob Ford said right after his victorious election campaign regarding streetcars and surface rail:

www.theglobeandmail.com...

During his campaign to lead Canada's largest city, Rob Ford said streetcars were not the answer to Toronto's transit needs. The right-leaning mayor-elect said he prefers to add buses and extend the subway system in time for the 2015 Pan-Am Games.

He also said he wants to halt the provincially funded plan to build light-rail lines from Toronto's downtown to the suburbs.

But on Wednesday, Mr. Ford backed away from his plan to phase out streetcars. If cancelling the order "is going to cost the taxpayers an arm and a leg, then obviously we can't do it," he said.

These kinds of debates are very high stakes intensive and there is a tremendous amount of pressure on city planners to make certain choices.

I think there are interests, represented by the Toronto Star and other "stakeholders", who don't like Ford's direction and who consider him a threat to their plans. I may be very naïve but I think Ford is putting the citizens of Toronto first and tailoring his decisions in their interests and not in the interests of national and international stakeholders.

I think that is the reason that "smoking" at a party blew up in his face in the press, while another fair haired favorite of a different political faction got a pass on a spectacular vehicular fatality in our city.

I think quite a few people have seen the Chris Farley/Rob Ford connection.

Oops, wrong thread.

I don't believe a paper, or vested political interests should be able to push the eject buttons on politicians, judges and police officers. BUT I DO BELIEVE IT SHOULD BE A BUTTON THAT THE MAJORITY OF THE CITIZENS CAN PUSH! There must be an eject button, and there must be a way to take them to court and penalize those who sell out the country and people. However, when a politician breaks the law, I believe an election has to be called, for they no longer have the mandate to govern.

In this case, any time bad guys want something, ie they want him out, don't think people should give them what they want. First the people should investigate why they want him out so badly and expose them.

With the hidden classified trade agreement that is treason, puts foreign corporate tribunals over the sovereign rights of countries, amongst other things. Maybe this mayor was standing in their way for this plan or others?

You never give them what they want, people need to talk to the guy, hire PI's and get to the truth of all matters.

People should vote to remove him or keep him, not another political member. This guy is dumb as hell but he did lot of work for Toronto.

-Torontonian!


This what happens when you mess with the rich.