23-21 vote undoes many of Mayor Rob Ford’s cuts
James: Ford loses the gamble
This is essentially what I had predicted near the early part of this thread: A Mayor so inept, so contrary to the soul of Toronto that City Council takes over and effectively becomes its own Mayor, locking the
Mayor in name only out of the process, or at least out of the final result.
The bad news for Ford doesn't end here. His popularity has plummeted so close to the beginning of his tenure -- even amongst those who voted for him -- and as we get closer and closer to the next election, the number of councillors backing Ford will continue to dwindle. They won't want to go down with the sinking ship. 20 councillors voted against this all out reversal of all cuts, not to be mistaken as being in favour of the Mayor. I'm willing to bet that a significant part of them would have voted Yes if some of the acceptable cuts had not been included in this motion.
21 is the Mayor's best possible number of support going forward. One is himself, and the other is his brother who appears unlikely to finish his term given his comments in recent months. By the 2013 budget, I'm willing to bet that that number will be down by at least 25%.
We've got a lame duck Mayor. 3 years from the end of his term.