So, I was arguing with an imbecilic -- and totally typical -- Rob Ford supporter on the wall at CAPP. She put up a link to Ford's Facebook page with the comment: 'Don't like Rob Ford? Go tell him.' (She removed it soon after.)
I went there and put up a link to Chris Hume's story titled: Rifts would only deepen under Mayor Rob Ford. He calls it right -- this election is about anger.
That, of course, is anger, anger at everything, but especially Toronto City Council and “Toronto elites.”
I added to the link: 'I earn under $35,000, am a tenant and don't own a car, but I must be a Toronto "elite", because I wouldn't vote for Ford if you held a gun to my head.'
It stayed up long enough to garner three comments -- all, as you might imagine, unfavourable -- and then the whole thing disappeared.
Rob Ford is a big fat coward. In addition to all his other horrible characteristics, of course.
Torontonians, wake the fuck up!
He's in the lead by a long shot. But Pantalone is gaining and 25 per cent of us are undecided. I wish Rocco Rossi would bow out and throw his support to someone else -- probably Smitherman.
I'd prefer Joey Pants, but if I had to, I'd vote for Smitherman (with a clothespeg on my nose).
Join in the despair at the Anybody but Rob Ford Facebook group.
BONUS TRACK: Dr Dawg's Toronto elites poised to apologize to the rest of Canada.
15 comments:
Smitherman is worse than Ford. They share the same policy positions. Ford will just be embarrassing, Smitherman is dangerous.
Is it not the case that a bunch of right-wing pols have tapped a pool of anger mongst voters - fanned a embers of envy up into a victory flame using claims of fiscal resraint.
Harris, Mulroney, Harper (and his insurance-claim weasel, Flaherty) - each has spent more than their predecessor and reduced services to the relatively vulnerable.
This time it will be different? I doubt that.
Not Smitherman. No fucking way. Guy starts out with a huge lead and a nauseating sense of entitlement, and now he's just trying to out-Ford Ford in a desperate attempt to make up lost ground. Hypocrite, blowhard and apparently a prick to work for too.
You want to stop Ford, George? Pull out and go work for Joe Pantalone.
You know, the comforting thing is that the mayor has really very little power. Ford won't be able to accomplish any part of his platform. He will just be a gigantic (ahem) embarrassment and a drag on any kind of progressive agenda for four years.
I've decided. I'm going to vote Pantalone and if Ford wins, I'm gonna sit back and laff.
Rob Ford will be a MASSIVE embarrassment.
If he wins, people will remember Mel with great fondness, as Ford will make Lastman's gaffes seem like benign goofs, in contrast to his own.
It is interesting that I just blogged about this yesterday and received some rather heated and personal comments in response. It made me truly question intellectual sanity.
Unable to make an intellectual argument as to why I shouldn't vote for Rob Ford, or why I should vote for any other candidate Janet resorts to Ad hominem abuse and points to a ludicrous piece in which the bigoted Hume can't come up with one logical reason not to vote for Ford so he reduces this election, and the will of the majority to being all about "anger, anger, anger" at 'Toronto Elites and Toronto City Council-- and then to prove how he is utterly incapable of making a cogent argument against voting for Ford, insults Canadian Conservatives AND right wing populists in US--- as if what is happening in the US has any bearing on a Toronto Mayoral Race. What utter crap. But hey if that's what you have to reduce yourself to because you can't make an intellectual argument for not supporting Ford ---- have at it! Desperation is so unbecoming. Ford has won this race hands down because of the Humes and Janets of this city. And I for one,thank you and your ilk, including the editors at the Toronto Star, for ensuring Rob Ford's win. I welcome Rob Ford as Mayor. He deserves to win when the best his opponents and haters can do is result to ad hominem attacks on him, his supporters, and now, US populism.
News flash. The majority of Americans are populists and it was left wing populism that secured Obama's win during the US General Election. Note how populism isn't nasty unless it comes from the right in the bigotted mind of Hume.
Oh goody. The Rob Ford braindead trolls have found us.
I'll respond later. I got hockey players learning how to figure skate to watch.
"'I earn under $35,000, am a tenant and don't own a car"
Perhaps you should aim higher.
Anonymous: perhaps you should mind your own business. My point is that I am not an elite. Well, except intellectually.
As goes Toronto so goes the nation .. Ford -> Harper .. are your ready, Canada ???
Observant: if that were true, we'd have had an NDP federal government for decades.
"Unable to make an intellectual argument as to why I shouldn't vote for Rob Ford, or why I should vote for any other candidate Janet resorts to Ad hominem abuse"
I have to agree... I keep reading how Ford is the devil but none of the Toronto "elitists" who oppose him have provided any reasoning other than fear-mongering and personal attacks against Ford himself. The truth is he has an impeccable record of voting against pay increases and other perks; has donated back his pay increase to the city; and helps out any Torontonian who asks - even if he/she is not in his ward. The only other candidate available is George Smitherman (I discount Joe Pantalone not just for his poll ratings putting him a distant third but also for being a David Millerite). Ford has spent the last 10 years practising what he preaches as an Etobicoke councillor whereas George, formally one of McGuinty's cronies, is only interested in furthering his career. I believe actually it is this dedication and consistency that drives a lot of Ford's supporters rather than simply anger. (And why shouldn't Torontonians be angry? Councillors spend $12,000 for a party while Miller threatens to close libraries?) Moreover, George's platform and campaign have been nothing more than "Ford-lite", echoing Ford's campaign message.
I'm making this comment because I am disgusted by how his opponents, especially the media is focussing instead on him vs. the issues. E.g. Putting Ford down for being fat. I'm a follower of the fat acceptance movement and I was digusted when a doctor suggested that Ford was "unfit" to be mayor because of his size. Just another example of fatphobia. Imagine if the doctor had asked if George, an out gay man, had HIV/AIDS (as if it is any of our business or that HIV and gay should go hand in hand as poor health and fat) and claim its not homophobic but rather pertinent as it's about the mayor's health, as he implied with Ford. In fact I'm rather disappointed that a feminist blog* wouldn't pick up on that. (Maybe you have in the past?)
Also, don't make assumptions about Ford's followers either. I live in the downtown core and also don't own a car but I will be voting for Ford.
*FYI, I found this blog through looking for Canadian feminist blogs vs. looking for Rob Ford comments.
I used the phrase 'big fat coward' as kids do, calling anyone -- fat, thin, in-between -- a 'big fat whatever'.
Fat isn't the issue for me, though he certainly is sloppy-looking. His rage issues, his racism, his hatred of bicycles and public transit, his simple-mindedness, his alleged wife abuse -- those are issues for me.
Even the Sun says his financial 'plan' makes no sense.
But I've become resigned. The mayor doesn't actually have much power. He needs to persuade and convince other councillors to go along with his hair-brained ideas. And I have no faith in his ability to persuade anyone with more than one functioning neuron.
He will be comedy gold for bloggers like me.
I and 35 other people on my Facebook will be voting for Smitherman. We need progressive change. Of all the times I've met Ford and see him come out of his limo and only chat up the rich in the Forest Hill neighbourhood, and have his driver put his coat on.......I'd rather move than have him as our mayor. He obviously doesn't have our interests at heart.
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