[adma]

Y'know, I was thinking of the various Ford-advisory "Night Shifts" when one figure popped up in some transit-discussion thread on my Facebook feed, a figure that may ring a bell for those of you who were hanging around Urban Toronto a decade ago or so--Michael Binetti aka "miketoronto". Anyone remember him? A major pest who ran last or next-to-last in a couple of Ward 38 races and who kept starting up or feeding cockamamie-naive threads about how (and usually from a painfully parochial and self-serving Scarberian perspective) Toronto was "falling behind" in some dumb and all-too-often transit-related way or another, before he got pretty much hounded out of here and hunkered down in Skyscraper City instead.

As I think of it...perhaps it's *him* we have to blame for Subways Subways Subways. Because I wouldn't be surprised if Binetti approached RoFo, and RoFo being RoFo, he was all ears--anyone else would've "known Binetti's number", at least until the apparent success of this gambit forced the likes of erstwhile-election-opponent Glenn DeB on-side.

Oh, incidentally, Binetti's not exactly the Flagg Nation venal sort--more like a "I wanna pony" overgrown naive little boy. Which, come to think of it, *does* befit the RoFo id.

 

[Videodrome]

Has Ford's Twitter feed even mentioned the tax hike proposal?

 

[riffraff]

Bill Blair has been appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice. (At least the appointment wasn't to the Ministry of Democratic Institutions.)

 

[salsa]

Neil Flagg - Go to Paris and never come back.

I'm surprised he didn't call for Tory's assassination by Muslim terrorists.

 

[Kat_YYZ]

The man's obviously mentally ill, but this is the prime example they use to defend that argument? Canada's been in talks at the federal level with the Turks and Caicos on and off for decades about doing exactly that. Personally, I love the idea. We (hopefully) get to bring the standard of living up of the country, and in return get a vacation spot that doesn't come with the heavy taxation and tariffs of international travel and a chance to break the idiotic idea that Canada's the place for skiing and parkas in the summer. That's not to mention a national source for tropical fruit and sugar production that doesn't require import fees.

Addendum: apparently talks of this started with Robert Borden in 1917; so this has been going on for nearly a century.

Annexing means "to take or appropriate, especially without permission." If Canada and T&C went into talks and the elected representatives of T&C agreed to some kind of arrangement... or there was a referendum letting the people decide, then great. But I'm not in favour of Canada taking/colonizing/buying any nations by force/against their will -- even a tropical paradise that would benefit me.

 

[Jimmi T]

So, nothing from Ford's office yet, not even a statement!

The money's needed but Ford's going to have a field day ripping into Tory for this one if he's ever healthy enough to do so again.

 

[the lemur]

Annexing means "to take or appropriate, especially without permission." If Canada and T&C went into talks and the elected representatives of T&C agreed to some kind of arrangement... or there was a referendum letting the people decide, then great. But I'm not in favour of Canada taking/colonizing/buying any nations by force/against their will -- even a tropical paradise that would benefit me.

Good point. It wouldn't (shouldn't) be annexing, more like accession to confederation. Not like the time the US bought the Virgin Islands from Denmark.

 

[pud99]

Has Ford's Twitter feed even mentioned the tax hike proposal?

Jacobs is working on a 'statement' with Ford's name at the end, I'm sure.

 

[animatronic]

Good point. It wouldn't (shouldn't) be annexing, more like accession to confederation. Not like the time the US bought the Virgin Islands from Denmark.

I prefer "mega-country amalgamation".

 

[pud99]

...Doug, who turns out to dumber and meaner and more self-serving than we've ever even imagined...

More than I've imagined?

 

[zang]

Annexing means "to take or appropriate, especially without permission." If Canada and T&C went into talks and the elected representatives of T&C agreed to some kind of arrangement... or there was a referendum letting the people decide, then great. But I'm not in favour of Canada taking/colonizing/buying any nations by force/against their will -- even a tropical paradise that would benefit me.

Canada has been off and on in talks with the T&C government about it. There have been surveys over the years showing numbers as high as 90% of T&C citizens wanting the country to join Canada.

And while annexation is often associated with violent/forcible means, it a the proper political term (forcible or not). Toronto's own Annex was an amicable and voluntary annexation of the Village of Yorkville into the City of Toronto.

The plans for T&Cs entry into Canada have never been guided by force, but mutual gains.

 

[salsa]

You will never guess which councillor said the following words, when asked about the mayor's tax hike:

“What do you say to those families who want to build more transit? What do you say to those families who voted for SmartTrack, or want the Downtown Relief Line built? They don’t want to pay more taxes, but they also want community recreation centres, they want affordable housing maintained, they want a beautiful waterfront. We have to find the money. You don’t build a city with Monopoly money.”

- Denzil Minnan Wong

 

[DSC]

You will never guess which councillor said the following words, when asked about the mayor's tax hike:

“What do you say to those families who want to build more transit? What do you say to those families who voted for SmartTrack, or want the Downtown Relief Line built? They don’t want to pay more taxes, but they also want community recreation centres, they want affordable housing maintained, they want a beautiful waterfront. We have to find the money. You don’t build a city with Monopoly money.”

- Denzil Minnan Wong

Yes, I heard him and thought "There's person who likes being Deputy Mayor".

 

[the lemur]

Canada has been off and on in talks with the T&C government about it. There have been surveys over the years showing numbers as high as 90% of T&C citizens wanting the country to join Canada.

And while annexation is often associated with violent/forcible means, it a the proper political term (forcible or not). Toronto's own Annex was an amicable and voluntary annexation of the Village of Yorkville into the City of Toronto.

The plans for T&Cs entry into Canada have never been guided by force, but mutual gains.

They've already been through a period recently where they were placed under the direct rule of the UK for about three years after major corruption was uncovered. Before that they were governed as a dependency of Jamaica, and before that by Bermuda, which squabbled with the Bahamas over the use of the islands for salt. It's about time they were governed by someone nice

 

[Videodrome]

Yes, I heard him and thought "There's person who likes being Deputy Mayor".

The ultimate brown noser.

http://www.torontosun.com/2015/12/03/rob-ford-slams-mayors-tax-hike-proposal?utm_source=hootsuite

As expected, we have a strongly worded statement!