I can't help comparing "the crisis in Toronto"
To-day , yesterday and the day before, the local frenzy has been that Toronto's Mayor has nothing more to add to the first three statements he already made on the Star's assertion of a video .
compromising the Mayor, and offered for sale for $200,000 by an American blog named "Gawkers"
At the same time, the Mayor, it could be argued is either the victim or the subject of the story, is held to be responsible for the city making it to the late night American comedy circus and not good for the city's image.
How can the person with nothing more to say be responsible for everything being said.?
Val Sears ,a local communications expert says Doug Ford's defense of his brother is the worst example of public communication. He says, it throws down a challenge to The Toronto Star to respond .
A marketing expert from the faculty of Queen's University who lives in Kingston, also had something critical to contribute to the high level media discussion of the Ford Brothers style of communication.
So the Ford brothers are not sophisticated in the ways of big city political communication.
Would that make them typical or atypical of the people they represent, I wonder?
Could they be favorably or unfavorably compared to former Mayor David Miller or previous to former Mayor , Mel Lastman in that regard ?
What more can the Toronto Star do now that they haven't been doing since the term began.
The video they do not have or profess to authenticate but confidently refer to, is the worst but by no means the first story they have told. that reflects badly on Toronto's Mayor.
Even news from Ottawa and Peru about a senate spending scandal involving two former media stars and the Prime Minister's refusal to answer questions has not been sufficient to divert them from their path.
We watched the Prime Minister yesterday morning share with the Senate how "upset"he is about the conduct in the Senate and his own office.
He said anyone who believes he should profit from public service should "leave the room now"
Wow,that was a scary moment.
But we all know that's al he could do. A senate appointment is good for life until age seventy-five.
Not like an elected office at the municipality or any other level of government .An election holds until the next election.
But not if you can make an elected member's life so utterly miserable they will be forced to quit.
We are not unfamiliar with that scenario.
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14 comments:
I think we have to take this day-to-day & see what is in store. But I would suggest that possibly everyone is climbing onto the two great scandals of the hour to divert themselves from the ongoing police investigation into the killing of Tim Bosma.
As for you, young lady, take some time off & get healthy. We need all of you- not just your head.
The Star has miscalculated the reaction. I have spoken to a # of people who have pulled the plug on their long-term home-delivery. They really didn't need the paper anymore & this was the deciding factor. Everything is on the Internet & you can trade items when you reach a limit with any publication. They are gone & won't be replaced.
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton - 1887.
The word "power" should be struck from the lexicon and replaced by "responsibility."
There is absolutely no sense of the latter in what has been transpiring in our federal (Senate), provincial (Ontario gas plants) and municipal (Ford morons) governments these past few weeks.
Despite the Senate Conflict of Interest Code stating gifts over $500 must be reported within 30 days, Senator Duffy now admits to having received a "gift" in excess of $90,000 to permit the repayment of housing expenses incorrectly claimed. He originally stated in February that he would arrange this repayment, which apparently was made in March. This is well over the 30 day reporting period required. And, it turns out that the gift-giver was none other than the Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister. Nigel Wright, despite having two law degrees, did not find it necessary to research the Senate's rules relating to gifts. Nor did he advise the Prime Minister. But he did the "noble" thing, he resigned.
He should have been charged with something - let the lawyers figure that out.
Harper came across as some sort of slithery sidewinder during yesterday's "emergency" caucus meeting. He said he was disappointed and upset about the conduct of some Senators and his office. His apparently clear message was that any Conservative MP's and Senators who want to use their status for their own benefit should "leave this room."
WOW!
Kathleen Wynne apologizes for the several hundreds of millions of dollars for cancelled gas plants and is applauded for her honesty and candour.
WOW!
And the Brothers Ford, soon to be an X-rated TV docudrama, continue to provide fodder for American evening comedy shows.
WOW!
These people should all have to start over in life, scrubbing floors and cleaning toilets.
That might teach them about the responsibility that goes with their jobs.
Hey @ 7:36 PM, We know you don't like The Toronto Star, we got it. But the problem that Rob Ford faces isn't that newspaper. He is a bumbling idiot doing irreparable damage to Toronto's reputation. Now he's between a rock and a hard place. If he did crack which everyone believes, then he should fall on his sword and resign. If he didn't do it then why the cone of silence. He should be going after his accusers, there is no better time to silence them unless the proof really exists, he knows it and doesn't have leg to stand on.
And Evelyn, your ongoing defence of this jerk isn't doing your reputation any good at all.
9:01...
Perhaps your preception of Rob Ford is based on what is printing in the Toronto Star?
Before you say it, I am not the same person as 7:36pm.
What a 'Man of the People,' eh, 9:11 AM? We can only presume that he puts his hand in his pocket when he (allegedly) buys crack.
Re: 9:01 am today
Evelyn:
For some unknown reason(s) you seem to have been defending Rob Ford and castigating The Star. This does not make sense.
I am going to quote from a column in today's Globe and Mail (not The Star) by Margaret Wente, one of that paper's top columnists:
"The mayor is a hostile, belligerent man with a persecution complex, dubious companions, a history of substance issues and an inc lination to shave the truth. During the 2010 mayoral campaign, he denied he'd been arrested in Florida in 1999 for driving under the influence and marijuana possession. Eventually he owned up to the DUI conviction but forgot about the marijuana charge (subsequently dropped), which he was finally forced to acknowledge. In 2006, obviously drunk, he was expelled from a Maple Leafs game after hurling insults at a couple sitting near him. When they complained, he denied he'd been at the game at all. "someone's trying to do a real hatchet job on me," he groused. He later confessed and said he'd made a "mistake."
Mr. Ford has been surrounded by enablers who have never reined him in. Those days are over. Time to throw him overboard and get on with it."
This man is a disgrace not only to the office he holds, to politics in general, and even more general to his species.
How would our society survive if there were thousands of Rob Fords, not in public office, not in politics, but in real life? The holding tanks at the various police stations would be over-flowing.
One last thought: Can you picture yourself sitting at the same Council table with this man, even a small one in Aurora?
I doubt that your apparently patient understanding would tolerate much of his CRAP!
To quote a word uttered by the Conservative leader in the Senate, Marjory LeBreton, only directing it toward the present, but hopefully not for long, mayor of Toronto:
he ain't nuthin' but a "lickspittle."
Don't recall seeing this word before. Thanks, Senator.
FWIW, I have never interpreted Evelyn's comments on the Mayor of Toronto to be an endorsement of the man per se. Rather, my take on it is that she respects the fact that he was elected by the people of Toronto in a fair and democratic purpose, and, like him or not, he operates in an "honest" way, which is to say that he has remained true to his stated political principles, and, tragically, his character as well. This is not to say that he should not suffer the political consequences of his actions - au contraire. It is just that the appropriate consequences, barring any criminal behaviour (nudging up against that one now, isn't he?), come in the form of the next election.
BTW, you could argue that Mel Lastman was every bit the buffoon that the current mayor is, and in some ways, worse. Even though he was right of center, the media did not not tear him to shreds in anything like the same way they are attacking Ford. There is something personal in this.
SEnator LeBreton has a problem defending the Senate investigation of the Senate because it basically gave Duffy a pass while threatening two other senators. His original report WAS cleaned up before release.
Since Ms LeBreton was appointed Senator after campaigning for the PM, an examination of her expenses might be very interesting.
Because, if you are going to check some of the senators out, you simply have to deal with all the ret equally.
Is any other lowly taxpayer like myself totally disgusted with all levels of government? The one silver lining for me in the 3 scandalous levels ofgovernment is that I am not a taxpayer in Toronto and therefore the Ford saga does not affect me directly... not that Aurora hasn't had more than it's share of scandal associated with town politicians.
But the other lot do affect me directly!
I have watched the provincial lot spend away more than $500 million dollars purely for political gain and for months claimed that everything wasabove board.
Now I watch aghast as the federal scandals unfold with an even greater effort on their part to sweep the truth under the rug by playing word games and semantics.
How stupid do they really think we are? How dare they insult my intelligence this way?
We have an MP who takes up space in the paper regurgitating verbatim official party lines that we have already read in the paper or heard on the news. We have a federal government that spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on flogging the so-called success of the economic action plan when we lost 56000 jobs in March alone. Not to mention the ridiculous amount of money spent on disgusting attack ads.
Is anyone else jaded by the politicians that surround us?
Where are the statesmen/women who conduct themselves above the gutter? Where are those who actually approach debate or political competition in positive statements and positions rather than grovelling in the grime trashing the opposition?
Surely there must be some decent, honest politicians or candidates with integrity somewhere out there.
Where are those who would treat the electorate with respect rather than looking at us as a meal ticket or an opportunity to scam us?
There has never been a time in my life when we have need them more than now!
@ 9:01 AM
I also believe that the Star is leading a lynch mob with potentially dangerous possibilities. Are you going to snap my head off too?
Yes 10:42, I did read about him in the Toronto Star. Also the Globe and Mail and the Washington Post.
The skit on Jon Stewart's show also improved Toronto's image, to say nothing of the 120,000 plus hits on YouTube for the Jimmy Kimmel interview.
Mayor Ford continues to prove that there are more horses asses in the world than there are horses.
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