Ford: A real "cracker"?

[someone123]

My understanding of the rules is that the only plausible way he would be removed from office against his wishes would be if he were convicted of a crime and sentenced to time in prison.

It doesn't make a lot of sense to say he should be "removed from office" without specifying how, because there is no process for doing this and no good way outside of the court system to prove that he did anything illegal. Right now it would be hard for the police to make a case against him because the video itself likely cannot prove that he was smoking crack (how would you know the substance in the video was crack?) and because his admission was so vague.

In the case of the Washington DC mayor who was arrested, police actually caught him while he was in possession of illegal drugs.

[rbt]

Originally Posted by subdude

I'm not talking about the US president, or California or BC or Switzerland. As far as I know there is no recall mechanism in TO civic elections. Correct me if I'm wrong. So, yes, in this case it would be against democracy to remove the sitting mayor. It seems many are perfectly fine with that. The citizens of TO should vigorously oppose such ideas.

Your right. That mechanism does not exist but some are beginning to think it should.

Democracy is a process which enables government to reflect the wishes of the general population rather than a book of laws set in stone.

It's not undemocratic to protest/petition the province to grant the legal right to hold a recall election in Toronto; it's actually one of the fundamental mechanisms for informing elected officials of your wishes.

If the current laws are deemed inadequate by a large enough portion of the public, then those laws should be changed. That is democracy in action.

[softee]

'The Fifth Estate' just aired an episode called "The Rob Ford Story", it's must watch TV and it has some breathtaking aerial shots of Toronto!
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/episodes/2013-2014/the-rob-ford-story

[White Pine]

Originally Posted by subdude

I predict he'll win again. Probably at about the same margin, maybe slightly less. All of this is going to backfire big time against his opponents. Feel free to laugh at me next fall if he loses. But when he wins I won't say told ya so, promise.

I wouldn't be surprised either if he won. There are going to be like 20 people running on the platform of "This guy's an idiot", and they may well split the vote enough for Ford to come out on top.

For this election to be a contest there needs to be a high profile candidate against Ford rather than many middle-of-the-road ones. Chow could give him a run for his money if she ran, I think. Is there anyone else? At this point I think it's more about name recognition than anything else. Though anything can happen in a campaign.

[White Pine]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/11/08/rob-ford-crack-tattoo_n_4239448.html

Wow.... I think somebody cares about city politics a bit too much lol.

Wouldn't call Ford much of a role model

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by White Pine

I wouldn't be surprised either if he won. There are going to be like 20 people running on the platform of "This guy's an idiot", and they may well split the vote enough for Ford to come out on top.

For this election to be a contest there needs to be a high profile candidate against Ford rather than many middle-of-the-road ones. Chow could give him a run for his money if she ran, I think. Is there anyone else? At this point I think it's more about name recognition than anything else. Though anything can happen in a campaign.

Anyone have any idea what Chow's actual stances are? Not familiar with her politics.

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

Anyone have any idea what Chow's actual stances are? Not familiar with her politics.

She's on the left of the NDP like her late husband, though I don't know if she's part of the 30% socialist faction. I'm of two minds about that. I am a committed democratic socialist, but I also like skyscrapers, so I'm weighing whether a Chow mayoralty would scare away skyscraper activity in Toronto.

[WhipperSnapper]

The last thing Toronto heeds is another NDP candidate.

[urbandreamer]

^True. Everytime the NDP is in power there's a depressed real estate market. Hey, this could be a forecast of things to come?!

[manny_santos]

I wonder how many people think Rob Ford invented the term "drunken stupor". I just heard it on an older episode of Two and a Half Men, referring to, naturally, Charlie.

Which reminds me, Rob Ford has been about as entertaining as Charlie Sheen during his Tiger Blood meltdown.

[MolsonExport]

Rob Ford: Jailhouse beating came because man was a ‘bother’ to mayor

[subdude]

Originally Posted by rbt

It's not undemocratic to protest/petition the province to grant the legal right to hold a recall election in Toronto; it's actually one of the fundamental mechanisms for informing elected officials of your wishes.

If the current laws are deemed inadequate by a large enough portion of the public, then those laws should be changed. That is democracy in action.

Sure I guess - but then you have to have a recall, which takes a long time. The regular election would probably come around before a recall could happen. Doesn't strike me as democratic to have the premier tell city council what to do about their own elections.

[rbt]

Originally Posted by subdude

Sure I guess - but then you have to have a recall, which takes a long time. The regular election would probably come around before a recall could happen.

Yeah, it likely will.

Doesn't strike me as democratic to have the premier tell city council what to do about their own elections.

Well, that'll you'll have to take up with the Queen of Canada because not even the Federal Government has the ability to remove that authority from the provinces.

When provinces were created they only had a few thousand people in them and they maintained all local affairs much as a city-state would. Over time, municipalities were created by the provinces to remove some of their workload. There are still large chunks of Ontario which are unincorporated; meaning the province still manages services in those areas directly and collects property taxes.

Cities have zero powers other than what the province grants; and as we learned with Harris, the province can take away all of those granted powers and rearrange things at any time.

[rousseau]

So this loser MacIntyre, former boyfriend of Ford's sister, was allegedly punished in jail by thugs instructed to do so by the mayor, Rob Ford, for the sentiment behind this charming letter he wrote:

In part, MacIntyre had written: “You and your family have one chance to leave me the f--k alone and stop this s--t! Or I am going to start a firestorm.” The letter went on to say: “You and your family think I should play nice! F--k you.”

And if you think it unlikely that Ford explicitly had those thugs do his bidding, then you also probably don't think Ford had anything to do with the death threats and boatloads of cash that the guy with the original video that started this whole brouhaha was threatened with and offered.

Because vicious drug dealers in inner city neighbourhoods naturally take offence at any perceived besmirching of their elected civic leaders, right? Sure, happens all the time. Don't be dissing de mayor, yo. He my homie.

"When you elect a clown, don't be surprised when the circus comes to town."

Every new twist in the tale is unexpected and shocking, but there are certain things you can count on in a dreadfully tedious way. For instance, this quote above about Ford's sister's ex-boyfriend: how many rightwing cretins in the Sun and National Post comment sections are going to use MacIntyre's words as representative of the left's "hateful attacks on Mayor Ford"?

Hasn't one idiot in this thread already suggested, apparently without irony, that the people who are rightfully indignant about how low Ford has sunk are the ones who are the "haters"? In a thread about a politician whose very raison d'etre is hate, who formally kicked off his term as mayor by inviting a famously hateful jerk to say hateful things about the people who voted against him? That's just patently...stupid. There's no other word for it.

[subdude]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

#1, you are quoting a tabloid.

So sorry for quoting from, oh god, the Sun. Here's the same message cleaned up with big words and stuff:

Rex Murphy: An early, bitter Christmas for the Ford-haters
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013...ly-bitter-christmas-for-the-ford-haters/

He thinks Ford is finished. Could be, but nothing for the leftie elites to be proud of though.

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by subdude

Sure I guess - but then you have to have a recall, which takes a long time. The regular election would probably come around before a recall could happen. Doesn't strike me as democratic to have the premier tell city council what to do about their own elections.

It would seem to be a distraction to focus on recalls and calling out the "Ford-haters" when there is the options open for them including him resigning, him being arrested for big charges (extortion, conspiracy) or people waiting out the year for the election to come to vote him out.

[Mongo62]

Originally Posted by subdude

Sure I guess - but then you have to have a recall, which takes a long time. The regular election would probably come around before a recall could happen. Doesn't strike me as democratic to have the premier tell city council what to do about their own elections.

But the province would not be telling the Toronto city council what to do. Instead they would be giving all the city councils of Ontario additional powers, for them to use or not use as they wish (provided that certain criteria are met). How can that be undemocratic?

[The_Architect]

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."
- Winston Churchill

[RyeJay]

Originally Posted by subdude

So sorry for quoting from, oh god, the Sun. Here's the same message cleaned up with big words and stuff:

Rex Murphy: An early, bitter Christmas for the Ford-haters
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013...ly-bitter-christmas-for-the-ford-haters/

He thinks Ford is finished. Could be, but nothing for the leftie elites to be proud of though.

I'm not sure what groups of people you're trying to stereotype when you say "leftie elites" ...but, I don't think Ford's predicament is something any Torontonian could be proud of.

[FrankieFlowerpot]

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