Canada Ping!
Posted on 11/08/2013 6:08:21 PM PST by Squawk 8888
There is joy in Hogtown. The mighty Ford has struck out. They’re on their feet along the baseline out to left field, around the media tent and through the downtown Toronto core, where crowds gather to celebrate. Mayor Rob Ford, unbeatable as a relatively conservative politician, struck out against himself, felled by personal weakness rather than policy.
For all his foibles as a politician — uncouth, unsophisticated, brash and instinctive rather than calculating and intelligent — as mayor the man has never really been touched by his political and ideological opponents.
But now his enemies have something. In the wake of admissions and revelations over the last couple of weeks — he’s a drunk, he smoked crack, he’s an embarrassment to Toronto The Good — a righteous frenzy has gripped much of Toronto’s political class. To top it off, he lied — not about some kickback or corruption or genuine malfeasance along the lines of Montreal or Detroit or Chicago, but about the fact that he has an alcohol and drug problem that he refused to acknowledge.
That’s the best they can do. As a drinker who lied about crack, Rob Ford must go. What they really mean is that the mayor is a conservative and he must go, and thank God he’s on video as a drunk and crack user. The city’s statist intelligentsia is mobilizing, portraying one of the most successful cities on the planet as a dilapidated place in need of a whole new system of government, with more power to spend and meddle and intervene, to replace the rotten structure that produced a mayor like Rob Ford.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalpost.com ...
Canada Ping!
Somebody with those kinds of foibles needs to be carefully scrutinized for possible corruption.
If Ford was a flaming liberal, his actions would be down-played and he would be defended.
Having said that, I’m disappointed that Ford is not stable.
OK who’s packing more pounds..Ford or NJFatboy?
Why doesn’t Miami trade Richie Incognito to Toronto for Rob Ford?
Even if true, it doesn’t change the fact that, as a drug user, he is subject to possible corruption. You can’t tell me that hanging around with low lifes, even if only,on the most casual basis doesn’t put one at risk of being bought.
I wish that he had considered the possible ramifications of his political career before he allowed himself to get involved with drugs. He put himself at risk, by the unscrupulous, of trying something so addictive that he wouldn’t be able to shake it.
He might have made a good provincial or federal politician. An asset to the conservative cause.
Shame Chris Farley had to die before he could play Rob Ford in the biopic. He would been perfect!
Is that all that matters?
I agree with you. He’s not fit for office.
I don’t think he’s unstable because he’s a drug user. I think he’s a drug user because he’s unstable.
One could do worse—a stable liberal would consistently drive in the wrong direction—but character does count. The plus side is that with this out in the open, he is less subject to black mail. Hopefully he fills out his term in an ok fashion and does not run for re-election-—otherwise it will be Chow Time.
Olivia Chow is perhaps as left wing as you can get. which makes her right at home as a Toronto politician. She is the widow of another darling of the far left, the late federal NDP leader Jack Layton who was practically canonized by the media following his death.
Hieronymus's argument is that Olivia will win the next mayoralty contest unless Ford stands aside to make room for another fiscal conservative who does not have Ford's baggage.
I am not so certain. while there have been dips in Ford's polling with each disclosure, there have also been recoveries and increases following those dips. Perhaps the Toronto electors will look at his public performance and decide that it outweighs his private misconduct.
The Yanks did the same for Clinton following the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Also, Ford would not be making room for just one fiscal conservative to run, he would be making room for a contest among fiscal conservatives, actual or merely ostensible, which will split the vote in a multi-candidate election. Chow, on the other hand, will have the unified support of a unified left with strong NDP party discipline.
OTOH, recall this line from Mark Anthony's address in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
" "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones."
Clive—
Thanks for the explanation for the Yanks. (I’m actually a Yank as well, but I’ve spent most of the last 20 years in Ontario.)
You do make a good point that Ford would likely keep the conservative vote from being split—but he might not get it to show up either. His poll numbers weren’t looking to good against Chow even before he Cracked Up. http://www.threehundredeight.com/2013/11/ford-now-that-i-have-your-attention.html
I think Toronto will be in a bad spot no matter what—but you are right in that opting out of re-election is no guarantee of victory.
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