[picard102]

There's simply no excuse for this. I don't care how bad times have been on Toronto, Rob Ford had NOTHING going for him. His platform was simple, he had no vision, his arguments defied basic logic, his image had been tarnished by the media, his personality is disgraceful.

True, and all it would have taken is one candidate to stand up and deliver something better then Ford was.

I guess all those immigrants that voted for Ford are self-hating and racist towards themselves

I doubt it. Probably more to do with the fact that they are not as overly sensitive about racial terms like oriental and being told they are hard workers. They also generally oppose people immigrating to Canada illegaly when they themselves had to work hard to do so through proper channels.

 

[Coltaine79]

Ouch! One of Smitherman's campaign cronies just basically blamed his defeat on David Miller.

Guess that ends the love affair UT progressives had with Smitherman... :/

 

[condovo]

Elaborate... else we may have to assume you're an anti-Palestinian Zionist or something.

I found nothing anti-semitic on her after 10 minutes of googling.

I'm pro-Palestinian and pro-Zionist, i.e. self-determination for both peoples, which is more than can be said for Wong-Tam and her bigoted allies. When you advocate dismantling the single largest Jewish community in the world, that doesn't make you an anti-Zionist; that makes you an anti-Semite.

 

[Roy G Biv]

Congratulations Mayor Ford. I support you.

As an aside, I find those who mistake Ford's ignorant comments regarding race as bigoted to be themselves ignorant. He has shown no racist behavior whatsoever nor homophobic. .

Like in the last 10 min?

 

[adma]

As usual, adma offends to the max. I'm sure a lot of so-called closet rednecks would be happy to see someone like him out of city council. Good riddance.

You don't seem to realize that I may be, in veiled fashion, admitting as much. Sometimes, a strategic "offending to the max" is necessary to illuminate the bigger picture.

Personally, I'd like to rip the genitals out of everybody who thinks the schlock-teardown-and-EIFS-ing approach to urbanism is desirable. Which may mean, I'd have a collection of several hundred thousand or more genitals. And if possessors of said genitals die, they die. Big deal;-)

 

[Calrissian]

I'm not saying subway is bad idea. I'm saying that Ford likely won't accomplish that task. He'd probably just decide it's too expensive to go subway now, and let the previous plans take their course.

+1.

This is funded and on its way. To change now, even in design stage would waste more millions. Ford is about saving $$. Metrolinx and province have no more money to add to this, and will move this forward as currently designed. Same goes for Sheppard. those two projects are not changing. No matter what anyone thinks.

 

[Eug]

You don't seem to realize that I may be, in veiled fashion, admitting as much. Sometimes, a strategic "offending to the max" is necessary to illuminate the bigger picture.

Personally, I'd like to rip the genitals out of everybody who thinks the schlock-teardown-and-EIFS-ing approach to urbanism is desirable. Which may mean, I'd have a collection of several hundred thousand or more genitals. And if possessors of said genitals die, they die. Big deal;-)

Veiled?

P.S. The bigger picture is they're voted out of city council.

 

[lafard]

BTW, did Rob Ford say who he wanted as Deputy? I'll be sick if it's Doug.

I'm not that worried about Doug. Doug is, from what I understand, the actual brains behind the family business and probably has some concept of the "big picture".

Even though superficially it sounds like Rob Ford squared, Doug may well temper Rob's less well-thought out ideas.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

I really don't think the Ford-supporting mentality goes that deep. Remember that most people don't pay attention to politics at the same level that we do. Ford offered simple solutions to complex issues.

It's a bit, like, and I understand this is a dumb and strained analogy, but remember the movie 'Armageddon'? Remember how Bruce Willis and crew had this big plan to carefully drill into the asteroid and then carefully detonate a small explosion to knock it off course? But then there was some evil astronaut guy who had an alternative plan which was simply to use a nuclear bomb to blow up the whole damn asteroid?

That I'm even saying this is weird because I didn't much care for Armageddon but I bet a lot of Ford voters loved it. But there it is: it's nuanced strategy versus just blowing shit up. Sometimes the latter is appealing, especially if you just lost your job, struggle to pay bills, and have to listen to politicians ramble on about boring shit like 'mill rates' and 'avenue plans' and whatever else. Ford offers a path to feeling engaged with politics that doesn't require a deep understanding of the issues.

I liked Armageddon too, it was entertaining eye candy and it made me cry near the end. Just like tonight.

 

[Eug]

I thought Doug Ford was going to stay out of high visibility positions.

 

[adma]

Veiled?

P.S. The bigger picture is they're voted out of city council.

But the bigger picture still is *who* is voting them out. Again: look at the "improvements" around you. And if you, too, think they're "improvements", you're part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Remember: sometimes it's fun to offend

...better than this kind of offense

(Ah, it's fun throwing "Metal Machine Music" into a response to a Eug post. It's like I'm using him as my canvas...)

 

[Eug]

Heh. Glad to be of service.

 

[adma]

But, in the end, one have to remember...when viewing the bigger picture, I'm not doing so with pretensions of serving on council. I'm trying to look beyond that, at an overriding scan of affairs. And in so doing, it might actually help to be a little bit cold--the lack of personal electoral pretension might, indeed, be a liberator of perspective. Otherwise, what you're doing is like flinging yahoo lobs at political scientists or social anthropologists along the lines of "you're losers, you'll never get elected". That's terribly...parochial. It's like the natives throwing rocks at the sociologists. So, if you're hurt, it isn't like you shouldn't be--and in its way, what I'm saying may hurt me at least as much as it hurts you.

Anyway, re the potential Fortuyn/Wilders-esque perils here: maybe the biggest hint of such in the present discussion is the so-called "anti-Semite in Ward 27" hoopla...

 

[syn]

I can understand why Ford appealed to many. Ultimately, he was very successful in communicating a simple 'cutting the waste' message, even if Miller wasn't nearly as wasteful as his critics make him seem.

It's too bad. His political affiliation is not the issue, but rather that he has absolutely no vision for the city beyond cutting taxes (and proposing improvements he probably won't have money to pay for).

 

[Simple Man]

Well I put 60-40 to Ford Winning but winning by such a margin with an increase turnout clearly showed the people liked his message. The fact the vote was decided in 10 mins is embarrassing for George. I think if George did not get some momentum in the end, Ford likely would have win 55+%... George made a huge mistake positioning as the Downtown or establishment candidate where there is so much anti-incumbency in the air.

Biggest losers here are the Toronto Star and Dalton. Star tried everything to take Ford down yet it made him stronger. Anti-incumbency is in the air in Ontario.


I think Ford is a weird guy but his message appealed to many people especially in the Suburbs.

Also to those who say Ford is a racist, why did he receive a very warm reception to a visit to a Sikh Temple last week?. First he was not one of those elitist politicians coming in trying to talk down to people. It was because people liked his message, and you will see in the results that he likely won massive support in the suburbs from minorities.

Likely from Tamils in Scarborough and Indians in North Etob.

I heard he got massive amount of support from Tamils, from my Tamil Friend and as an Indian Ford got huge support from that community.


Also, Good Job for Vaughan for picking Maurizio Bevilacqua, that man will transform Vaughan and is a super strong Leader.
Susan in Brampton easily wins again, John Gray is defeated in Oshawa and the new guy seems to be like Ford.