News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
A Message to Our Readers
 8.8K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
EarthCam Time-Lapse Documents Rafael Viñoly-Designed New Stanford Hospital Construction
 40K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
Resort Town
 5K     0 

Status
Not open for further replies.
L23 said:
For some reason I thought he was less than 10 years older than Rob is now, which isn't that much at all.

ETA: I realise my post could to be taken to seem like I was questioning Casita here - not at all, I was just expressing my surprise, for some reason I thought Doug sr had died in his early 50s.
Click to expand...

He was 73. If Doug Sr. had been in his early 50s when he died, then he'd be about 60 today, having fathered all four kids by 15. No wonder he went down in defeat to Marilyn Bell - those darned kids wore him out.
 
the lemur said:
And unless you're familiar with the term 'burgomaster' as an archaic word for 'mayor' (which comes from French and ultimately Latin), you probably wouldn't guess that a Bürgermeister is the master of all citizens (Bürger <- Burg = settlement, fortress).
Click to expand...
Or unless you were a kid watching Rankin/Bass Christmas specials in the early 70s and found the name Burgermeister Meisterburger funny.
 
casita said:
Exactly. I still use my car, but I love the TTC. Can't stand the aggravation of driving and parking in this city anymore. I also like to treat myself to a taxi sometimes. There's a Zip car station across the street, and I am thinking of joining that.
Click to expand...

Driving is a hassle, cars are expensive, and urban areas are making far more sense as a place to live. There's a reason millennials are choosing not to get their driver's licenses. It just doesn't make any sense any more. Suburbs don't make (fiscal) sense anymore. Many of our post-war beliefs of what liveability is has been completely demolished by reality.

I grew up in rural Ontario, 14kms outside of a small town, I got my license as early as possible. At 38, my wife has never pursued her drivers license. She grew up in Montreal, where there was a fairly extensive subway system by the time she was of driving age. She lived in Tokyo for 4 years, and was spoiled by an insanely extensive and convenient system (despite lines owned by multiple companies) and now Toronto. For 99% of what we do, transit is just fine. I had a zip car membership, but cancelled because we didn't even use *that* enough. Instead of paying $10,000 a year (CAA's average cost of car ownership, ~$835/month), we pay a couple of hundred dollars more on rent right in the core and take TTC. Seems expensive to suburban friends, but in reality it's cheaper. And we walk every-freaking-where, because most of what we need is blocks away. A friend in Brampton has to drive just to find a convenience store. But because it's all upfront costs, they often don't see the big picture or the convenience.

casita said:
Transit is one of the things I like about visiting Europe.
Click to expand...

I absolutely *loved* the system in Paris, and the integration with the regional trains, etc. It needed better accessibility, but it was 5 years ago we went, and apparently they're retrofitting at an amazing rate. Seeing their system gave me a strong belief that we need a national transit plan like theirs. As much as I love the history of the TTC and would hate to see it eaten by a larger entity, Via, GO and the TTC need to be better integrated, and fares more heavily subsidized.
 
Oriana said:
I agree, majority will not vote.

Had a conversation with someone the other day. Two men where fixing something in her house, and the conversation turned to Ford. One guy (POC) says Ford's racist remarks are not an issue, will vote for him because he's "ghetto". The other guy says he will vote for him because he's an "average" guy. Both won't vote for Olivia because she's a woman who doesn't speak English.

I think the comments about Olivia disturb me the most. Welcome to Toronto in 2014. If anything, Ford has shown us what we're partly made up of, and it ain't pretty.
Click to expand...

Ghetto-ness is a terrible reason for choosing anything or anyone, even if you consider it a sign of being genuine.

There's nothing average about Ford.

And comments about Olivia's English are really puzzling and irritating. They seem to come half from people who have issues with any kind of accent but their own and half from people whose English is actually demonstrably worse (ungrammatical, malapropistic) than hers.
 
Last edited:
Videodrome said:
If Doug Ford does decide to run, does that mean all the fundraising earned for Ford will not be accessible to him?

That is a great question I don't know the answer to. I believe you're right - he wouldn't be able to seize that fundraising. But I'll check.
Click to expand...

That's correct - the R Ford campaign continues from a financial perspective, and he would have the opportunity to erase a deficit or return a surplus to recoup personal contributions. He could transfer the funds to a run for council, but not pass it off to another person. That said, one suspects that Rob is not in possession of a massive surplus of donations.

If Doug were to run he could fund the entire thing out of personal assets and not fundraise a single dollar.
 
casita said:
"Can psychological stress cause cancer?
Although stress can cause a number of physical health problems, the evidence that it can cause cancer is weak."
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/stress
Click to expand...

Didn't read the paper; however, stress, especially physical stress will negatively effect the immune system, and giving a person a higher percentage chance of getting sick with anything from a virus to, and possibly in this case, an auto immune disease.
 
fishie said:
He was 73. If Doug Sr. had been in his early 50s when he died, then he'd be about 60 today, having fathered all four kids by 15. No wonder he went down in defeat to Marilyn Bell - those darned kids wore him out.
Click to expand...

There's a joke about his "champion swimmers" in there somewhere...
 
sno man said:
I guess they won't get out to vote for Mikey either then... I'm okay with that.
Click to expand...

Let's keep our fingers crossed then!

khristopher said:
I'm so glad I'm not alone in feeling this way! I was saying this as my number one reason to not vote for him in the last election, and people gave me weird looks.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say it's my principle reason, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a contributing factor. It's not about fat-shaming as I could stand to lose a double-digit number of pounds myself, but I believe that the way in which the mayor treats him or herself is indicative of the way they will approach running the City. If a person can't be arsed to treat themselves with respect, to show concern for their own personal health and well-being, then why should I believe that they'll treat the city any different? If a person runs their life with poor impulse control, then what's going to happen when they're put in charge of a $10b budget and tens of thousands of employees?

Image is extremely important for a City's reputation and livability, and if someone doesn't project a good self-image, then I have no reason to believe they'll impart a good image on the city.
 
the lemur said:
And comments about Olivia's English are really puzzling and irritating. They seem to come half from people who have issues with any kind of accent but their own and half from people whose English is actually demonstrably worse (ungrammatical, malapropistic) than hers.
Click to expand...

If you believe folks at IHTWOMRF, she spoke clearly and without an accent up until this election, when she suddenly switched it on to suck up to Asian communities (really though, wouldn't speaking her native Cantonese be a much better approach?).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top