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Toronto-Age |OT2|

Z

Zombie James

Banned
Kinitari said:
I swear to fucking god, I am not even getting any enjoyment out of the Rob Ford fuck up news anymore. For a little while it was nice knowing that I didn't vote for the wrong guy, and that the people who did are going to reap what they sow.

But now it's dawning on me that I'll have to reap it too. And I didn't even sow it. I didn't even plow the field.
Click to expand...

The only hope if for the majority of council to vote against him at every turn...
 
K

Kabuki Quantum Lover

Member
Zombie James said:
The only hope if for the majority of council to vote against him at every turn...
Click to expand...

Shut up vocal minority, that'll never happen. Stupid to the end, the Ford way.

EDIT: Remember, folks:

Mr. Ford said that, given the budget shortfall, the only other option is a double-digit tax hike, and denied his actions are at odds with his campaign pledge.

"I call it efficiencies," the mayor said. "We have to find different ways of delivering services. If the private sector can deliver them more efficiently, then why not have them."
Click to expand...
 
A

added_time

Member
The vote splitting of the left on the Liberals and NDP will most likely ensure a PC victory. I wish the left was more organized and voted one way because I feel like the right would lose out most times.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
added_time said:
The vote splitting of the left on the Liberals and NDP will most likely ensure a PC victory. I wish the left was more organized and voted one way because I feel like the right would lose out most times.
Click to expand...

I actually feel like a good portion of Liberals, who are bailing on what they perceive as a sinking ship, are going to the PC camp.. which also scares me. Bandwagoning, NDP being 'too radical', I don't know, but I don't like it. Of course, this is just what I'm seeing and hearing from people, so it's a small pool to gather information from. :/
 
F

Farooq

Banned
EvilMario said:
I actually feel like a good portion of Liberals, who are bailing on what they perceive as a sinking ship, are going to the PC camp.. which also scares me. Bandwagoning, NDP being 'too radical', I don't know, but I don't like it. Of course, this is just what I'm seeing and hearing from people, so it's a small pool to gather information from. :/
Click to expand...

Can we hope for a minority Liberal government supported by the NDP?
 
A

a176

Banned
Zombie James said:
Taxpayers still on the hook for Transit City, going to cost AT LEAST another $49M in penalties.



Oh joy...
Click to expand...

post the rest of the article

Q Has Metrolinx sent the City a bill yet for the sunk costs associated with the cancellation of Transit City?

A “At this time, an invoice for the sunk costs related to changes to the original 5 in 10 plan, also known as Transit City, has not been submitted to the City of Toronto. As part of the Memorandum of Agreement between the City and Metrolinx, the City will be absorbing the costs related to changing the original 5 in 10 plan, which included the four LRT lines in Toronto.
Click to expand...
 
Z

Zombie James

Banned
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1053210--ford-support-plummeting-poll-suggests

The Forum Research survey of 1,046 Torontonians conducted Monday after the release of city manager Joe Pennachetti’s recommended budget cuts, pegs Ford’s support at 42 per cent — a big drop from 57 per cent on June 1, and 60 per cent in late February.

Lorne Bozinoff, the Forum president independently tracking Ford’s support each quarter, said the mayor’s “very low” numbers are only likely to sink.

“This drop in support has come without any cutbacks actually coming into effect, we’re only at the idea stage,” Bozinoff said. “This is a ceiling — I think it’s going to get a lot worse for him before it gets better.

“He campaigned on a gravy train, none was found and the reality of cuts to services that residents rely on, often daily, is setting in. That has shaken public confidence in his ability to handle the job of mayor.”
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"Silent majority," my ass.
 
B

BigJonsson

Member
ConvenientBox said:
Ford can be kicked out of office, right?
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No

You have to hope that the councillors that are on the fence all side against Ford and nothing gets passed.......



Oh and Ford just said that worst case scenario is a 2% property tax hike
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
ConvenientBox said:
Ford can be kicked out of office, right?
Click to expand...

Like I said back when this all happened, best case scenario is Ford can't pass any of his radical ideals and progress in Toronto just flatlines for four years. It's terrible, but way better than letting Ford have his way.

Hopefully the 'on the fence / bandwagoning' Councillors see Ford as a sinking ship now, and come over to the other side.
 
C

cbox

Member
ahh ok I thought maybe if everyone hated they could vote him out of office :lol

I'm in mississaugaland so hazel rules it all, I feel bad for Torontontians sometimes...
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
ConvenientBox said:
ahh ok I thought maybe if everyone hated they could vote him out of office :lol

I'm in mississaugaland so hazel rules it all, I feel bad for Torontontians sometimes...
Click to expand...

One of the liberal candidates, I don't remember which, had some sort of impeachment legislation for the Mayor of Toronto on their platform. Oh well.
 
R

Rinoa

Member
EvilMario said:
Hopefully the 'on the fence / bandwagoning' Councillors see Ford as a sinking ship now, and come over to the other side.
Click to expand...

Don't see that happening with Mammoliti, he bandwagons anyone.
 
Z

Zombie James

Banned
http://www.thestar.com/news/article...-poll-results-says-he-ll-stay-the-course?bn=1

“The people I talk to tell me ‘stay the course,’” he told reporters in his City Hall office. “I talk to literally hundreds of people every day, be it through phone calls, out on the streets, everywhere I go.”

He then referred to encouragement he said he received at an appearance Tuesday at a Winston Churchill Collegiate Institute event held to celebrate the launch of three high school football teams.

“I just started three more football teams at Winston Churchill yesterday, and even teenagers understand the problems we’re in,” he said. “And they come up to you and say ‘stay the course.’ The teachers, the parents — it was all positive. I’m excited for the next three years. ”
Click to expand...

edit:

bICjU.jpg
 
B

BigJonsson

Member
Newsflash - People don't like having things taken away from them :eek:


This is why you raise taxes steadily so you don't get stuck in a position like this, but no one likes having taxes raised either and will always vote for the person saying they will freeze taxes at all costs

Politicians that do the right thing and look towards the future usually have the shortest lifespans.........

McGuinty may be able to survive thanks to Ford
 
A

Azih

Member
Thank God that we managed to get 8 years of Miller and an amazing Miller/McGuinty partnership.

Edit: I've got a Ford Zombie councilor 'representing' me (David Shiner). Do you guys know if your councilor is different? Fence sitters are the most important ones to call/mail/e-mail.
 
Z

Zombie James

Banned
Azih said:
Thank God that we managed to get 8 years of Miller and an amazing Miller/McGuinty partnership.

Edit: I've got a Ford Zombie councilor 'representing' me (David Shiner). Do you guys know if your councilor is different? Fence sitters are the most important ones to call/mail/e-mail.
Click to expand...

My councilor is Palacio, so there's no hope for that vote. I've tried, all of my emails have gone unanswered.
 
B

BladeWorker

Member
Roto13 said:
I like that there are more people who approve of the job he's doing overall than approve of any of the issues mentioned.
Click to expand...
Not surprising. Experience suggests it's very common in survey results to see a passable, okay, or even strong top-of-mind result, but when probed, the challenges are more visible.

It's more interesting when the opposite occurs: overall impressions suck, but specifics are positive, which suggests the guy you're rating isn't getting any credit for the stuff you like.
 
Z

Zombie James

Banned
Holy shit, what a day...

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1054059--james-council-rebellion-could-halt-ford-revolution

Rookie Councillor Jaye Robinson, a member of the mayor’s hand-picked executive committee, says she can’t in good conscience support the mayor’s plan to displace waterfront plans developed after years of public consultation.

Robinson and other rookie councillors have sought out their own briefings of the existing waterfront plan after the mayor hired consultants to concoct a vastly different scheme than the one city council approved last year.

Countering their move, the Ford administration strong-armed the councillors and failed to heel Robinson. Other non-aligned councillors — part of the so-called “mushy middle” — have become critical of the new plan as public opposition mounts.

Now, there is little hope of the plan fronted by Doug Ford getting council support.

“Yes there is egg on our faces for allowing this,” admitted Councillor Peter Milczyn, a Ford ally who is busy seeking a face-saving compromise before the issue gets to council next Wednesday.
Click to expand...

http://www.thestar.com/news/toronto...rchitect-kouvalis-now-trying-to-fight-it?bn=1

The architect of Rob Ford’s “gravy train” campaign and his first chief of staff at city hall is now helping Toronto firefighters battle the mayor’s proposed cuts, the Star has learned.

Faced with the threat of 300 layoffs, the firefighter’s union hired Nick Kouvalis’s marketing and polling firm, Campaign Research, earlier this summer to conduct research and provide advice in advance of their NotGravy.com offensive.

The site, which launched earlier this month, is coupled with an aggressive campaign to characterize the proposed cuts as “dangerous” and a serious threat to public safety.

The irony that Kouvalis is now fighting the gravy train is not lost upon opposition councillors.

“Nobody in Toronto believes in the gravy train anymore and now we’re finding out Nick Kouvalis never did,” said Gord Perks.

Shelley Carroll said it raises “credibility” issues for the mayor.

Ford’s office refused to comment, but sources within the administration say there have been whispers Kouvalis was involved and that, if true, it was incredibly “frustrating.”
Click to expand...

There's still hope if rookie Ford allies are ready to do the right thing.
 
D

Draff

Member
Boo, does 42% not seem too high given all of his ridiculous shenanigans over the past several months? Are people just oblivious to the news or do people actually believe his garbage?
 
B

BladeWorker

Member
That Star article really bugs me. Lawyers argue all kinds of cases they don't necessarily believe in. They've been hired to do a job, so they do it. But another profession does the same thing and it's like the sky is falling.
 
Z

Zombie James

Banned
BladeWorker said:
That Star article really bugs me. Lawyers argue all kinds of cases they don't necessarily believe in. They've been hired to do a job, so they do it. But another profession does the same thing and it's like the sky is falling.
Click to expand...

I think the point is that this news underscores the fact that "gravy train" was pure marketing with no basis in reality (past or present).
 
B

BigJonsson

Member
Article in the Globe and Mail about Hudak abandoning the foreign worker issue already lol

How did he think that was a good idea? The CPC destroyed the Liberals by pandering to the ethnic communities so it made no sense for Hudak to alienate their new GTA voting block lol
 
F

Fuzzy

I would bang a hot farmer!
added_time said:
Nice. If Ford's approval keeps dropping, he might be forced to cancel at least some of his stupid ass plans.
Click to expand...
He'll just think that these polls are the 1/20 when they're wrong.
 
Z

Zombie James

Banned
BigJonsson said:
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1054349--ford-says-city-employees-are-the-gravy?bn=1

Even formerly friendly radio hosts are starting to challenge him
Click to expand...

Wow...

He referred to the Toronto Zoo and the three-city run theatres as “nonsense we're looking after.”
Click to expand...

“Why are so many people saying — and you know it's all over the place, in all media, just on the street, people hangin' at Tim's [Tim Hortons] — are saying, 'Hey, he's not finding the gravy!'“ Agar said.

Ford said, “That's not what I'm hearing. I don't know what Tim's you're hanging out at.”
Click to expand...

Challenged by Agar to say whether the elimination of daycare subsidies for 2,000 people would be a cut, Ford said, “No, it's an efficiency.”
Click to expand...

It's just an endless stream of garbage coming out of his mouth now.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
He's no doubt feeling very threatened when he has former staff and current supporters turning on him left and right. I'm not terribly optimistic this will make him any more likely to change his long held ideals, but might even make him spout off more often. Of course, this means people will just continue to distance themselves from Ford, which is a good thing.

Welcome to three more years of no-progress in Toronto, but at least, for now, it appears Ford won't able to inject his influence further. The budget cuts that are coming are real though, and I'll be interested to see what takes the hit.
 
Z

Zzoram

Member
BigJonsson said:
Article in the Globe and Mail about Hudak abandoning the foreign worker issue already lol

How did he think that was a good idea? The CPC destroyed the Liberals by pandering to the ethnic communities so it made no sense for Hudak to alienate their new GTA voting block lol
Click to expand...

Conservatives can't resist going back to their roots.

Maybe with Ford's dropping support, he'll bring Hudak down with him.
 
L

lunarworks

Member
EvilMario said:
He's no doubt feeling very threatened when he has former staff and current supporters turning on him left and right. I'm not terribly optimistic this will make him any more likely to change his long held ideals, but might even make him spout off more often. Of course, this means people will just continue to distance themselves from Ford, which is a good thing.

Welcome to three more years of no-progress in Toronto, but at least, for now, it appears Ford won't able to inject his influence further. The budget cuts that are coming are real though, and I'll be interested to see what takes the hit.
Click to expand...
This is the guy who has voted "NO" to almost every motion in council for the last 10 years. Even when every other single person on council votes "YES". He's not gonna change.
 
A

Azih

Member
Draff said:
Boo, does 42% not seem too high given all of his ridiculous shenanigans over the past several months? Are people just oblivious to the news or do people actually believe his garbage?
Click to expand...
The article made the point that Ford's support is dropping like a rock even before any cuts have actually been made which explains the occasional whine from Ford allies on council about how they haven't made any cuts. When the cuts actually start coming and actually start hurting people Ford's support *should* go right over a cliff.

He's definitely lost control over the message. I think Doug Ford's GIANT FERRIS WHEEL was absurd enough to break through a lot of cognitive dissonance.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
http://www.thestar.com/news/toronto...experts-in-rejecting-his-port-lands-plan?bn=1


Ford ally joins experts in rejecting his Port Lands plan


A member of Mayor Rob Ford’s executive says she will vote against his mall-and-monorail Port Lands vision that leading experts will blast Thursday as “ill-conceived, reckless,” and poised to do “irrevocable harm to the city.”

The increasing likelihood that council will reject Ford’s attempt to wrest control of the Port Lands from Waterfront Toronto had other allies scrambling Wednesday for a compromise to help him save face.

Councillor Jaye Robinson (Ward 25, Don Valley West) told the Star that, after much study and receiving more than 500 emails supporting the existing Port Lands plan, she can’t support the mayor’s glitzier rival vision.

“Voting on something where there’s no business plan and there’s been no extensive public consultation — I ran on civic engagement — I can’t do it,” Robinson said in an interview in her city hall office.

“If you keep changing your vision, you’re never going to realize it . . . My position is I’m not supporting this proposal.”

Ford’s vision for the eastern waterfront will come under more fire Thursday with the 1:30 p.m. release at Toronto Reference Library of a strongly worded letter to council, signed by more than 140 experts in planning, architecture and design and obtained by the Star.

They say altering long-gestated plans for a mixed-use community with condos, retail, offices and parks around the Don River is “ill-conceived, reckless, and, if adopted, will result in irrevocable harm to the city.”

Heavy-hitter signatories include former City of Toronto chief planner Paul Bedford; urbanist Richard Florida; Eric Miller, director of the University of Toronto’s Cities Centre; and Richard Sommer, dean of the U of T Daniels faculty of architecture, landscape and design.

In six points, they attack the vision pushed by Ford and his councillor brother Doug that includes a monorail, Ferris wheel, “ice palace” in the former Hearn generating station, lots of condos, offices and less parkland for flood protection.

The academics accuse Ford of “flawed reasoning” for arguing Waterfront Toronto, started with $500 million each from the city, province and Ottawa, has made little progress. Noting developments including Sugar Beach, Sherbourne Common and the Corus building, they argue Ford’s approach will slow down progress because of added uncertainty and duplication of environmental approvals.

Ford’s argument that the current flood protection plan to remake the mouth of the Don River will gobble up valuable land is “absolutely false from both a real estate/land development, value creation and ecological perspective,” they say.

And the new vision, unveiled by the city’s Toronto Port Lands Co. at a meeting last week, isn’t bold or new but “shockingly inferior” and “a tired recycling of 1960s thinking. The Lower Don Lands are not Disney World.”

The current plan, they say, has plenty of retail in “active urban shopping streets” while Ford’s plan, with a large shopping centre, would hurt businesses in nearby retail strips and create a “transportation nightmare” for east-end residents.

Rather than city building, Ford’s plan seems to be “a desperate attempt to sell off extremely valuable city assets at bargain basement prices to offshore developers to raise a one-time contribution toward reducing the city’s deficit.”

The mayor declared last week: “We now have a plan. It is absolutely phenomenal. We are going to revitalize the Port Lands like you have never seen before.”

Waterfront Toronto has expressed willingness to review its plan, and one compromise being floated would see the city’s Port Lands Co. transform the Hearn plant into a sports palace and develop some land not included in Waterfront Toronto’s current plan.

Robinson, who was absent last week when Ford’s executive voted to start negotiating with senior governments to regain control of the land, said factors in her decision included flood protection.

She recently experienced Hurricane Irene in Cape Cod and said consultations with experts led her to favour Waterfront’s flood-control plan, with the new “naturalized” mouth for the Don River.

Robinson said there are possible changes to the Waterfront plan — residents want the development speeded up, and Robinson likes components of the rival plan including the “emerald necklace” of green space and playing fields — but transferring control is out of the question.

Asked what ramifications she expects from Ford for defying him on a major vote, the rookie councillor said: “I’m not going to speculate on that.”
Click to expand...

You see, writing to your Councillor does actually have an impact. People will always look out for their own necks, and if they feel the heat from voters, they'll change their tune. With more and more turning against Ford, it should just empower more to cross over to the 'light side'.
 
B

BladeWorker

Member
EvilMario said:
You see, writing to your Councillor does actually have an impact. People will always look out for their own necks, and if they feel the heat from voters, they'll change their tune.
Click to expand...

Reason #54987364 that not having political parties at the municipal level is a really, really good idea.
 
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