Toronto the Good

Well, this is some shitty mayoral campaign we've got going here in Toronto.

Rob Fucking Ford is all lies all the time. David Sockacki has ideas and position papers but is dull as dishwater. And the other supposedly front-runners are depressingly namby-pamby.

For a great and recent example, read Matt Elliott on what the candidates have to say about finances and inflation.

Even worse, all (except Soknacki and Ari Goldkind) are running on the current understanding and practice of populism.

The biggest disappointment is Olivia Chow. I endorsed her back on March 13.

I still like her and think she'd be a good mayor, but her campaign is driving me -- and all the progressives I know -- nuts.

Yesterday, a tweeter named Karen Geier grabbed my attention and that of a bunch of others with her criticisms of Chow's campaign.

Here's the first tweet that arrested me.

.@oliviachow consider that you're being beaten in the polls by a corporate shill who was a fundraiser for the mayor. It's inconceivable.

— Karen Geier (@karengeier) August 15, 2014

She continued to point out the many deficiencies in the campaign, including this one.

.@oliviachow the fact remains that Kinsella was LEGITIMATELY SURPRISED when Horwath lost. You can't afford a delusional campaign

— Karen Geier (@karengeier) August 15, 2014

She, like many of us, really doesn't want to vote for another middle-/upper-classs white male, but Olivia is not making it easy for us.

Geier put her tweets together in a Storify titled Dear Olivia Chow. It's had more than 6500 views since yesterday, and going by Geier's (do follow her by the way) tweets today, she's taking some crap for it.

Toronto under the Fucking Fords has lost a ton of ground. Toronto used to be a leader in things like transit, inclusiveness, and the environment.

So many of us are longing not just to get rid of the bloated, lying, criminal fool we have as mayor but to return to Toronto the Good.

Toronto the Good
• on transit and transportation in general
• on affordable and innovative housing
• on parks and public spaces
• on libraries and community centres and programmes
• on the environment
• on the arts and creativity.

And on prudence and planning and the acceptance of the really rather simple idea that THINGS COST MONEY.

Olivia could be a leader if she'd set her own narrative, be her own person, and boot all the delusional advisors who are telling her to play the Populist Game.

Olivia would have my vote if she could pull it off.

There's still time for her to do it.

But not much.

My vote, like Geier's, is up for grabs.

UPDATE (August 20/14): Today's Kinsella idiocy. Note non-apology and Chow camp's attempt to distance themselves. Kinsella is "just" a volunteer. Yeah, right. A volunteer whose company has been hired to do media work.

A Few Facts (ahem) about John Tory

Most people who've been around for a while know this one.



Watch for young sprog Tory starting about 2:19. Ending with Kim Campbell and we know how her campaign went.

Here's Wiki:

The decision to launch the ads was taken mainly by PC campaign director John Tory along with Allan Gregg. . .

Arguably, the modern age of vicious attack ads was launched with that beaut.

Now, courtesy of a John Tory parody account, two stories you may not know (I didn't).

The Missing Years in John Tory's Resume, aka The Cable Guy.

From 2001 until 2009 John Tory was a director of Charter Communications, at the time it was America's 3rd largest cable and internet company. He was also a member of Charter's audit committee. It looked as though he was going to do the right thing and resign when he became PC leader and an MPP.
. . .
Long story short, Charter Communications filed for Chapter 11  bankruptcy protection on April 1, 2009. Under John's watchful eye as a director and member of the audit committee, Charter which was then America's 4th largest Cable TV company had amassed $20 billion of debt that it couldn't repay.
. . .
Charter had collapsed under a huge debt, but it also never made a penny of profit in all of the years John was there. 
. . .
John Tory's run with Charter Communications came to sad ending in 2009.  John takes credit for successfully leading, managing and obtaining results from large, complex organizations.
. . .
He may have stabilized the CFL, and he still is intimately involved in the Oligopoly that is Rogers, but in the real world of business he presided over one of the largest bankruptcies in America, #14 on Forbes list link

So why is this significant?

It is omitted from his resume (and only mentioned in arcane references buried deep inside corporate filings) even though Charter Communications was 3 times the size of Rogers' cable and internet businesses.
. . .
Pretty much all of John's business life he has been in companies his dad either owned or had great influence over.  Charter Communications was different. It was an American company and it was big. When John closed the door behind him at Charter, the company was unable to pay its debt and its shareholders were wiped out.

No wonder he excluded Charter from his resume.

Some business man, eh?

And now for some very recent prevarications. Watch Tory make shit up.



And now for my fave photo (so far). Anyone for cricket?

ADDED: More extensive fact-checking of the bogus humble beginnings fable.
Just a regular guy. Much like Rob Ford, in fact, with a bit of gloss.

Yo! Torontonians!

I'm getting bloody sick of all the election talk about Toronto being broken and dysfunctional.

Toronto is a great place and One Toronto has the facts.




Back here I said I was going the 'anyone but Rob Ford' route.

I've changed my mind. I'm voting for Joe Pantalone.

Simply, he's much the best choice out of a poor lot.

Besides, having thought about it, I can't vote for Smitherman. He has disgusted me since the adult diaper episode.

So, Torontonians, vote for Smitherman if you think he can beat Ford, but do get your butts out to vote. Election day is October 25, a week from this Monday.

This 'broken, dysfunctional' city has a dandy web page telling you everything you need to know. Just input your address and presto! your polling place, including advance polling place, pops up. Also all the info you need about ID and whatnot.

If you are going to be too busy or out of town, the last advance polling dates are today (Saturday) and Sunday.

And non-Torontonians, please encourage your Toronto friends and relations to get their butts out too.

Rob Ford Is a Big Fat Coward

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.

Wakey-Wakey, Toronto

I'm finding federal politics too depressing to blog about. So, let's turn to municipal politics, specifically Toronto, shall we?

We in Toronto have a major disaster looming, and I mean LOOOOOMING.



Rob Ford is running for mayor and at the moment -- early days yet, thank Gord -- is leading.

The inevitable Facebook group has been created: Anybody but Rob Ford for Mayor. From the info page:

This group is for those of us in the GTA who wish to spare ourselves the shame of having a man like Rob Ford representing our city. Polls show he has a slight edge over the other candidates. The goal is to watch for whichever non-Ford candidate is highest in the polls and offer them our support.

Here's a few choice quotes. Please feel free to contribute others.

Rob Ford on AIDS prevention...

"(AIDS) is very preventable, if you are not doing needles and you are not gay, you wouldn't get AIDS probably, that's bottom line." With respect to the increasing rates of women contracting the disease, Ford said; "How are women getting it? Maybe they are sleeping with bisexual men."

Rob Ford on bike lanes...

"I can't support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it's their own fault at the end of the day."

Rob Ford on why oriental people are taking over...

"Those Oriental people work like dogs. They work their hearts out. They are workers non-stop. They sleep beside their machines. That's why they're successful in life. I went to Seoul, South Korea, I went to Taipei, Taiwan. I went to Tokyo, Japan. That's why these people are so hard workers (sic). I'm telling you, the Oriental people, they're slowly taking over."

Rob Ford on G20 summit police brutality...

"I think the police were too nice. I would have had a zero tolerance approach."

Don't know about you, but I certainly don't want to see what Rob Ford considers an adequate amount of police brutality.

Some more choice 'colourful' comments from an excellent round-up at the Globe:

April 17, 2002: During a council debate on whether there should be homeless shelters across the city, rather than only downtown, Mr. Ford says: “This is an insult to my constituents to even think about having a homeless shelter in their ward. And you want me to have a public meeting to discuss this? Why don’t we have a public lynching?”

(There's video at the link.)

Yesterday, he called himself a 'family man' in a apparent swipe at married-with-child-but-gay George Smitherman.

Yeah, he's a family man all right (from Globe link).

March 26, 2008: After Mr. Ford’s wife, Renata, calls police to their home, Mr. Ford is arrested and charged with assaulting her and uttering a death threat. A month later, prosecutors drop the charges because inconsistencies in Ms. Ford’s accounts make a conviction unlikely. “It’s the happiest time in my life when my family’s all together. … That's all I wanted from the very beginning and that’s what I have now,” Mr. Ford tells reporters.

He also has truthiness and anger issues (Globe again):

April 15, 2006: Security guards remove a drunken and belligerent Mr. Ford from a Maple Leafs game after he shouts insults at an out-of-town couple. The attacks began after the man asks Mr. Ford to be quiet. Mr. Ford responds: “Who the fuck do you think you are? Are you a fucking teacher?” Failing to get a response, he turns his attention to the man’s wife: “Do you want your little wife to go over to Iran and get raped and shot?” The couple realizes the angry man’s identity after Mr. Ford leaves behind a business card. When reporters confront Mr. Ford with the couple’s complaint, he denies being at the hockey game. A day later, he comes clean, saying he lied because he felt “embarrassed and humiliated.” He also says: “I had one too many beers and I sincerely apologize.” Mr. Ford later e-mails the couple an apology, writing: “My complete lack of manners were unprofessional, immature, and do not in any way reflect my usual behaviour in public.”

And yesterday, there was the spectacle of his 'remembering' his marijuana bust in Florida. (Note that even the Toronto Sun is 'worried' about his truthiness.)

I don't give a shit about the marijuana. I do have a problem with the lying, anger, and general bottom-feeding mentality.

Wakey-wakey, Toronto. Remember how we laughed when Mel Lastman ran? Remember how gob-smacked we were when he won? Remember when he won AGAIN?

This can happen here.

The problem is the rest of the field. Smitherman is loathed by a great swath of the public. Rocco Rossi is a neo-con and wants to privatize a bunch of assets, including Toronto Hydro. Joe Pantelone is tarred with the Miller-crony brush and is running a dull campaign. There's also a woman named Sarah -- weeee! we get our own Sarah! -- with zip, zero, nada experience in politics but who is a self-made business woman. But this dolt wants to privatize -- wait for it -- the public library system. Really.

There may be others in this *yawn* race.

I can't think of any alternative to the Facebook strategy. Wait to see who's running strongest against him, then vote for him. (I will not vote for any ijit who wants to privatize my beloved library system.)

Any other ideas out there?