[GenerationW]

Does that go for everyone, or is it just a penalty-free day here at Urban Toronto for the white-wing trolls?

Shocking that you assume they're all white, shocking I tell you!


On the one hand I'm glad we'll be spared a by-election. On the other I'm sad I won't get to see Shelley Carroll embarrass herself.

What about the status of any of the other pending court actions/investigations against Ford (assuming they go forward), and would they make any difference since we would likely be close election time by the time any conclusions are reached?

 

[PCC]

By Fall later this year, we're going to start seeing the election campaign assemble -- the same point that was made against a by-election. I'm hoping for and frankly expecting an epic battle, for the best of the progressive side to really bring it in campaign creativity and policy, for a very entertaining and satisfying case to be made against Rob Ford. We were left waiting for Ford's faults to be pointed out and easy cases to be made against him in the last campaign and frustrated when the candidates couldn't get their shit together. I think we'll have a satisfying redemption this time around.

Can you imagine the incredible posters his "I'm too stupid to be Mayor" quotes from the trial will make in next year's election?

I don't think opponents of Ford actually understand what lead to his victory and why he will likely be re-elected. He was a quotable fool, easily assailable as a buffoon, lacking the polished gleam of a Smitherman type before the last election campaign, yet was elected by a large margin. His numbers are still pretty high, he is the incumbent, and frankly, his base doesn't see him as having gotten off on a technicality... they see this as a vindication. Trying to oust him by all methods possible is only seen as persecution. Keep making him a Martyr and you almost guarantee his re-election.

His success is not based on his appeal to progressives and liberals, so attacking him for lacking those qualities isn't going to dent him. A fool you can relate to is always better than being talked down to by one you can't.

 

[Electrify]

I think everybody is quite a bit surprised -- including Ruby. This wasn't a new trial but it was treated as a second chance, another shot for Lenczner pitching his argument to a new set of judges. Ford's lawyer presented no new evidence in the appeal as is the whole point of an appeal.

I believe that the deciding factor here is that no judge wants to over turn democracy and even Hackland attempted to find a way out for Ford who kept denying himself a save at every opportunity. Hackland had no choice but to find him guilty. The Divisional Court panel pulled the string on a technicality and ended once and for all this whole charade in the courts' unprecedented and unwanted role in dismissing an elected Mayor.

One can argue that despite this case being dismissed that Ford lost in the middle of all this.

He was forced to admit that he has no idea what's going on around him at City Hall. His defence relied on his incompetence. The mayor is now naked, exposed to many who voted for him and saw him during this trial as a bumbling lost man unqualified of the office he holds, willfully ignorant and forehead slapping stubborn.

Ford will be put to an election instead of booted from office by a law that while legitimate, is one that many don't understand. Ford's fate will be determined by Torontonians in 2014 as it should be.

In the meantime, the bizzaro world monster has been slayed. I'm no longer afraid of what Ford threatened do to the city because he has proven himself incapable of leading Council -- even towards damage. The most he has mustered are delays. Look who is left standing behind him in this press conference compared to a couple of years ago when Councillors picked sides...

View attachment 10093

Mammolitti is already crawling back -- as predicted -- but I can't imagine the sane voices on Council supporting Ford like they did early on in his term.

Two points that were made in the last few pages in this thread that I agree with: A) Ford will continue to hang around the Conservative Party's neck for the next two years likely again affecting the PC's chances at taking Ontario this year and B) we can just ignore him while Council leads the city and Ford continues to make a fool of himself.

By Fall later this year, we're going to start seeing the election campaign assemble -- the same point that was made against a by-election. I'm hoping for and frankly expecting an epic battle, for the best of the progressive side to really bring it in campaign creativity and policy, for a very entertaining and satisfying case to be made against Rob Ford. We were left waiting for Ford's faults to be pointed out and easy cases to be made against him in the last campaign and frustrated when the candidates couldn't get their shit together. I think we'll have a satisfying redemption this time around.

Can you imagine the incredible posters his "I'm too stupid to be Mayor" quotes from the trial will make in next year's election?

Thanks for the clarification. And I agree, Ford is now mayor in name only.

I think it is telling how the left is acting top this news compared to the right last December. The left is disappointed but understanding of the ruling. In December, the right was all up in arms claiming it was just an activist judge who had it out for Ford.

 

[nfitz]

The posts here outnumber any of the transit threads. It just shows that it is more important to put down Ford than to create good transit. This has been at the heart of the transit debates for the past year and a half.

There's only been two active Ford threads here in the last half-year. This one, and the who will challenge him thread, that barely has 200 posts. In Transit, there is quite a lot of threads discussing the same, or similar issues. The main Transit City thread might only have 8,500 posts, but there's innumerable other threads active in the last 6 months, including over 3,800 in the Eglinton-Crosstown thread, and thousands in various Sheppard East and Scarborough RT threads. There's about 7,000 in the three main GO Transit threads ... and another 2,000 in the Presto thread.

If one put most of the Toronto transit discussion in a single thread, it would be much longer than this one.

 

[Voltz]

I don't think opponents of Ford actually understand what lead to his victory and why he will likely be re-elected. He was a quotable fool, easily assailable as a buffoon, lacking the polished gleam of a Smitherman type before the last election campaign, yet was elected by a large margin. His numbers are still pretty high, he is the incumbent, and frankly, his base doesn't see him as having gotten off on a technicality... they see this as a vindication. Trying to oust him by all methods possible is only seen as persecution. Keep making him a Martyr and you almost guarantee his re-election.

His success is not based on his appeal to progressives and liberals, so attacking him for lacking those qualities isn't going to dent him. A fool you can relate to is always better than being talked down to by one you can't.

I agree more or less, unfortunately the circumstances that lead to his election don't seem to be changing, too many people still can't see what he really is.

 

[JasonParis]

I can't decide if he's now some super-Teflon Mayor who will be viewed as the invincible comeback kid or, as stated, a Mayor really in name only who has been laid bare for all to see. I don't think any of us truly know how this will play out, but I think he's been weakened, at least a bit, by all this.

 

[hawc]

Pretty spot on:

It goes without saying that Rob Ford has not been a perfect mayor. He’s not subtle. He’s often not very diplomatic. He tends to treat opposing views dismissively. He provokes opponents when it might be better politics to accommodate.Rob Ford to remain Toronto's mayor as court overturns ruling ordering him out

He also does not fit the image of an ideal Toronto mayor held by many of his opponents. He’s too heavy, a fact the otherwise obsessively-correct Toronto Star can never contain itself from mocking. He’s anything but a downtown sophisticate. He drives a big fat Cadillac Escalade, though it was a present from his brother and not his own choice. He dislikes streetcars (as do many people who have to ride them, or get stuck behind them in traffic), preferring subways. He’s too often in the news for the wrong reasons, and has a tendency to act without completely thinking through the situation.

He is, in short, human. Very human. But being fallible has never precluded anyone from serving as Toronto’s mayor before. What’s crucial, as always, is not what he says or what he looks like, but what he does in his capacity as mayor. And as mayor – putting aside the circus that surrounds city council — he has a respectable record. Ford was elected – with 47% of the vote, more than 10 percentage points ahead of his nearest challenger – to get the city’s budget under control and halt the chronic waste of the previous, left-wing administration of David Miller. He’s done that. The annual budget crises of the Miller years, the appeals to the provincial government to rescue the city from its overspending, are over. The swaggering demands of over-entitled city unions have been tamed. There is labour peace, at a cost the city can afford.

But the record isn’t what perturbs Ford’s opponents. Never has. What matters is his style and his conservative views. The suburban voters who elected him may be satisfied – many analysts suspect he’d be quickly re-elected if given the chance — but the downtown core is embarrassed. He doesn’t have David Miller’s hair or his political correctness. He doesn’t pledge fealty to unaffordable projects that make them feel good about themselves. He’s a bit bumptious. He says stuff on the radio that offends them. They maintain this is an embarrassment to Toronto, although in reality the embarrassment stems from the chronically childish culture that emanates from city council as a whole, where partisanship reigns, fiscal irresponsibility runs rampant and left-wingers feel free to throw around tax dollars on whatever personal agenda suits them. The witch hunt mounted against Ford is in itself an excellent example, as the governance of the city itself was tossed aside while the mayors’ opponents threw rationality to the wind in their determination to overturn his election.

The crime he was accused of – and which has now been wisely struck down by Superior Court – involved an ill-advised decision to cast a vote on a matter in which he had a personal (though, as the court ruled Friday, not have a pecuniary) interest . He might have been wiser to abstain, but it was a relatively small error. As a comparison, consider Premier Dalton McGuinty’s sudden decision, in the midst of the last election, to arbitrarily cancel a new power plant, at a cost of at least $250 million, for no other reason than to try and save a Liberal seat. McGuinty didn’t break the law, so there was no danger of him losing his job. But Ford’s opponents were willing to mount a political jihad over a much smaller amount, $3,150, producing a draconian penalty that in no way matched the offense.

The fight was all about politics and personal dislike. The mayor’s opponents would have been quick to council leniency in the case of a more sympathetic figure. But in his case, suddenly “the law is the law†and there could be no quarter. Would they have taken the same stance towards a low-income Torontonian facing eviction from public housing over some slight misdemeanour? Hardly. But they disliked Ford so deeply they were willing to put their usual principles aside, even if that meant voiding the results of a democratic vote that clearly reflected the will of the people.

They lost. The court on Friday ruled there was no contravention of the Conflict of Interest Act. He keeps his job. The mayor’s critics would be wise at this point to drop the witch hunt and reapply themselves to the important issues before city council. Their personal dislike of Rob Ford has caused enough needless disruption. The voters, and now the court, has decided. Get over it.

 

[nfitz]

Pretty spot on:

Are you joking? The article is absurd - it white-washes Ford as merely human and fallible. Are you kidding? The number of 911 calls to his property alone suggests something way outside the norm. What about his faking his academic credentials during the election - that's normally a firing offence for any employer. What about his criminal record? His bribery attempt? What about the claims of other members of his Executive Committee (his inner circle) that he simply lacks the intellectual capacity to actually understand the complex financial issues in front of him? And then there are his numerous personal failings, addictions, and the like, which are brushed away with "his style". The National Post isn't normally this trashy! I guess they are trying to fill the void the Sun is leaving.

The article then goes on to mischaracterize the budget process during the Miller years to recently. Ford has used the same tricks to balance the budget as Miller. Net spending continues to increase, unlike the early Lastman years where it was frozen. The wage settlements he made with the police, and the TTC (which he was required to do after he made the pro-union decision to make them an essential service) are obscene.

It's absolutely horrid journalism, setting up a completely false situation to make a point. How can anyone be so ignorant to be hoodwinked by this type of article?

 

[ShonTron]

Are you joking? The article is absurd ...
It's absolutely horrid journalism, setting up a completely false situation to make a point. How can anyone be so ignorant to be hoodwinked by this type of article?

First of all, Hawc lifted the "article" in full from the National Post, but did not bother putting in a link, title or by-line. It's a column, not a news article, from Conservative columnist Kelly McParland.

McParland didn't even understand this difference between "Superior Court" - which is where he was found in breach by Justice Hackland and "Divisional Court" - which is the Ontario Appeals Court that today overruled the decision of the Superior Court.

 

[Silence&Motion]

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti says he might rejoin Mayor Rob Ford’s executive committee (Toronto Star)

"I told [Ford], ...you’ve got to start acting like a mayor, the sideshows have to finish," said Mammoliti, the councilor who would like to be let back on Ford's executive committee and who also claims to be currently investigating a conspiracy against him by a shadowy group of people who may or may not include other members of council and who may or may not have tapped his phone and made threatening calls to him. Bring on the sideshows!!

 

[rm20010]

Man, it's amusing to see the usual... suspects come out of the woodwork all of a sudden today. On here and comment sections on sites.

 

[Peepers]

Pretty spot on:

I agree with a lot of this but I take issue with the notion that Rob Ford was wrong to vote in the first place. That he made a mistake. The fact is Rob Ford was completely vindicated today. The 3-judge panel concluded that Ford did not break the law - that he could not break the law because the original motion by council was without legal force. This fact seems to be lost on a lot of commentators from both the left and right.

Once the 3-judge panel concluded that council acted ultra vires every other issue fell apart. It no longer mattered whether Ford was "willfully ignorant" or not because as it turned out Rob Ford was RIGHT on the issue of law and most everyone else was wrong!

In the wake of this decision commentators from the left and right are asking what lessons Ford will take away from this near-death experience as if he did something wrong. The better question would be what lesson did the left-wing cabal that has waged a witch-hunt against Ford learned? Paul Magder - for one - has learned a very costly lesson today!

 

[balenciaga]

What is sad about this whole scheme is that people want Ford out because they don't like him, not because he made the mistake. They just jumped at this $3000 mistake to oust him, not for justice.

If a mayor they like make the same mistake, will they be equally harsh to him? Let's ask ourselves this question. No matter how bad we think Ford is, be fair to him.

 

[spider]

Hey sore losers get ready for the final irony. Ford demands his legal costs in full and donates it all his football foundation.

 

[Filip]

Hey sore losers get ready for the final irony. Ford demands his legal costs in full and donates it all his football foundation.

I am highly hoping Ford does that! Poetic justice at its finest.