Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Nincompoopery":
I don't know why or how you continue to be in love with Ford.He was possibly the better of two bad choices.The Toronto press had a great love-in for him and Ford-nation.Such clap-trap.
He shoots off from his mouth without the semblance of a thought travelling through his mind.What has he actually accomplished for Toronto in the past 15 months?His fawning acolytes are deserting in droves, the press is out for his hide, and lots there is.
Do you still swoon for him?
The media these days are comprised of knuckleheads totally unqualified to perform the jobs for which they are hired.
And now the former Harper chief-of-staff, Ian Brodie, 2006 - 2008, refers to the robo-call scandal as on a scale he's never seen before and warrants a "huge investigation."
Politics has always been a dirty game. We are fortunate to have had as a part of our recent history the man with the obsession, Pierre Elliot Trudeau. You got this one right.
But spare the praise for the third rate mediocrity that comprises the majority of elected officials
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I publish the comment to indicate a shallow grasp of my comments on Toronto's mayoralty politics. Which continue to fascinate me.
Obviously I am not a Toronto voter. Clearly I do not discern good or bad between city policies. I 'm not even sure how the city council functions.
Last week I used the term alderman. Somebody pointed out it hadn't been used for years.This is just a conversation going on here.
Thanks for engaging, by the way.
I pick up bits and pieces of headlines. I have a scant understanding of Rob Ford's reputation. I think anybody who pays the slightest attention must know as much.
What I am talking about here is the reality of politics. Not the theory. Not the propaganda.Not the stuff people toss about who know naught of what they speak.
It's about how people respond to the deluge of impressions during an election campaign. Their amazing capacity to see through the swirling fog deliberately created by many forces in motion jockeying to promote their powerful separate and selfish interests.
Rob Ford is real.
Unlike David Miller,private school graduate and lawyer pretending to be one of the people.
On whose watch, the multi-million dollar computer scandal took place but no finger of blame ever attached. Spending thirteen million tax dollars on the Bellamy Commission of Public Inquiry, took him nicely off the hook.
Who expressed regret that Candidate Adam Giambrone was obliged to retire from the Mayoralty race because of lies and other conduct unbecoming.
Rob Ford is what he appears to be. There is no artifice. He is nobody's image of an erudite, intelligent, well-educated, lovable and charming rascal.
Toronto voters had a choice of candidates. I saw no signs of a love-in for Ford. Quite the opposite. I saw a red faced, perspiring candidate deal with the collective pig-sticking that went on around and directed straight at him.
Did he march in the Gay Pride Parade. No, he did not. And neither would I.
The Toronto Star went abroad to dig up dirt. In Florida, years ago, he was stopped for a traffic offence. In a search a doobie was found in his pocket.He wasn't dealing it. He wasn't smoking it. He wasn't charged with possession.
But Oh My Lord, there went that bad lad Ford again.
Any student of politics would turn their attention to the question of what his election said about the people of Toronto.
What did they see in him, they didn't see in other candidates. Especially, George Smitherman the only other real contender?
I think, since the election, they have seen a man humbled by having been chosen to be Mayor of a very important city,doing the best he knows how, to live up to that honour and trust.
I believe ordinary people in Toronto identify with Rob Ford. They are rooting for him to succeed. They will give him a fair chance.
In spite of, or maybe because of, the sophisticates who long ago decided he was not good enough. A man like that can't possibly be good enough to be the Mayor of Toronto.
Just who is it that is good enough?
Who are the "third rate mediocrity that comprise the majority of elected officials " in the "dirty game of politics"
Well bless your heart, they are people just like yourself, doing the best they can, in a tricky enterprise that nothing prepares you for until you dive in, fully clothed, head first, sink or swim.
I will certainly spare the praise. I know better than to urge anybody else how to come to my judgement I need my resources to account for my own decisions.
Sunday, 18 March 2012
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I think the ordinary people who voted for Ford are as dismayed as anyone else at the developing situation. It has nothing to do with job performance. An honest man is seldom a hero in his own town and they wish him well but cannot assist.
If you were the mayor, why wouldn't you march in the Pride parade?
If politics is about governing, then politicians are failing in their responsibility to those who voted, for or against....
We need look no further than our town.
Despite the fact that I have spent the first half of my life in Toronto, it has always struck me as a city without a heart or soul. It has grandiose thoughts about its place in the world ranking of major cities, all delusional. Toronto has one of the greatest god-given natural resources, its lakefront. And what has it done with it? Nothing.
Most great cities of the world have become so because of their location on water, a river, a lake, an ocean. This has made them attractive because of the relative ease to travel and transport goods to or from these cities. New York, London, Paris, Vancouver, even Chicago, have used the natural bounty of their setting to grow and enhance their populations.
You are fascinated by Toronto politics. I find them boring beyond words. The latest proposal to help salvage something from the multi-billion dollar wreck that is Ontario Place is to equip it with a casino. That will certainly advance Toronto in the world, another casino.
American politics is far more interesting than our own; after all, when has our Prime Minister ever been interesting? They say that Obama will spend $1 billion on what will likely be a successful incumbency, with the total spending in the U.S. possibly hitting the $8 billion mark. That would just about pay for Toronto's new rapid transit system, whatever that might be. The two Republican candidates are akin to Tweedle-Dumb and Tweedle-Dumber.
On the subject of the media, I would propose that our own Brock Weir has been doing a superlative job in reporting on our town, managing to remain relatively objective even when writing on political issues, something that many of us would find hard to do.
Your own writing has become almost poetic at times and it is a pleasure to read, regardless of occasional differences on content.
You have mentioned that the Toronto computer leasing scandal took place on "the watch" of David Miller. That would suggest it was during his term as Mayor. Surely the events of the scandal occurred when Mr. Lastman was Mayor and Tom Jacobek (he of the mysterious bank deposits) was his Budget Chief. Mr. Miller was a Councillor at the time and was a critic of what were alleged to be shady dealings. Tieing the blame to him might be comparable to blaming the worst of the Mormac events on a Councillor at the time who opposed them.
"...Tieing the blame to him might be comparable to blaming the worst of the Mormac events on a Councillor at the time who opposed them."
I think ALL coucillors during that time are to blame for what is now called MorMac. They did not operate in a vacuum.
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