MB Toronto
Morning Brew: Rob Ford slammed for making corruption allegations (and widens his lead), wild cat populations skyrocket, going the wrong way on the 401, waterfront hockey arena price tag is $88M, suspect sought in hammer sex assault
Mayor David Miller, several city councillors, and others in the race for the city's top job are blasting candidate Rob Ford for "irresponsible" and "disgusting" remarks he recently made about city council. Specifically, Rob Ford has openly suggested that there's corruption at city hall (referring to the exclusive 20-year contract recently awarded to Tugg's Restaurant, an Ashbridge's Bay boardwalk pub), but he hasn't filed any official complaints or provided any evidence to support his very serious accusations. In related news, polling of decided voters shows Ford widening his lead over George Smitherman.
A warm summer, abandonment, and failure to spay and neuter cats is resulting in a major spike in feral cat populations in Toronto. The City has estimated that there are 20,000 stray cats on our streets, but cat rescue officials peg the number at closer to 100,000 now. 15 years ago, 80% of adoptions from city shelters were canines but now there's been a complete reversal, with 80% of the animals looking for homes being cats. Maybe its time we invite Bob Barker to town, to give us a scolding and teach us some lessons.
Last night a driver ended up travelling eastbound in the westbound lanes of the 401. OPP at Port Credit got the call, but it took them nearly 15 minutes to finally pull the driver over (he managed to drive against traffic from Trafalgar Road all the way to the 427). A 39-year old man is facing charges, including impaired driving and refusing to take a blood alcohol test.
Plans to abandon the large footprint, sprawling "snowflake" design in favour of building a stacked, four-arena sports complex on the waterfront are intriguing. But the revised, cutting-edge design is also going to cost quite a bit more. Pegged at $88 million ($17 million more than the previous design), the debate about whether or not this is money well spent (and questions about where the extra cash will come from) are just beginning.
Police have released a composite sketch of a man being sought for a violent and disturbing attack near Mimico Go Station in south Etobicoke on August 7th. The suspect reportedly struck a woman with a hammer, sexually assaulted her, and fled.
And Happy Friday the 13th!
Photo: "Feline Art Appreciation" by sniderscion, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
Morning Brew: Rob Ford slammed for making city hall corruption allegations (and widens his lead), wild cat populations in Toronto skyrocketing, wrong way on the 401, portlands hockey arena pricetag is $88M, suspect in violent assault sought
Discussion
62 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
Do I expect... no. It's easier to shoot off your mouth with no evidence. Kinda sounds like your criticism of Ford. And any others who disagree with you.
Did this city never watch the Price is Right??
Wrong way on the highway, absolute disaster no matter how you look at it. They should combine that Stunt Racing law with all current impaired driving laws and penalize any and all drunk drivers with the combined punishment of both.
Oh, and I am still voting for Ford.
shame!
Spay and neutering is very expensive in this city, and full of rules (must have shots, must have check up, have to wait a month after the shots) is it no wonder people let their cats go outside, and or ignore fixing them? Have you lived with a cat in heat??
One way to combat the over breeding problem in cats is to make fixing them easy and affordable. It's neither at the moment.
I'm not even in politics and that seems strange to me. "untendered 20-year contract to Boardwalk Pub operator Tuggs Inc" Why is it not open to public tender and a committee pick the best offer Mr. Miller? Just answer the question, and let us decide. Someone is NOT telling us the whole truth. Ford is sure getting under their skin, and it looks good on them. The free ride is over, now you have to answer these tough questions. How many other "contracts" like this, does the city have with private operators? ..
<b>The only defense to a lie, is the truth, so if he is lying, is Miller/city going to sue him?</b>
"liar liar pants on fire," where have we heard that before. If Ford is lying, just sue, him and I doubt that will ever happen. As far as the council getting along with Ford, if/when he is elected, they better shape up now.
We've heard it before, when someone is caught with their hand in the cookie jar and they're exposed, accuse the finger pointer of whatever you can muster. We have a <b>VERY BIG</b> cookie jar in Toronto and we need a much smaller one. It's just starting to get interesting....
<b><i>Daniel .. Toronto</b></i>
http://bit.ly/Daniel2010
Just accept it. You are the minority and tax payers in ALL of Toronto (you know, the city goes beyond Bloor St!) will vote for Ford.
All the others running with the exception of Smitherman are lame ducks. Smitherman's ehealth record and that fact that he is gay (sorry) will not allow him to win.
He's a real stand up guy. Really good at answering questions about his numerous lies when confronted:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8EpSdyB0zY
You should be proud to call him your mayor.
> criticism of Ford. And any others who disagree with you.
Isn't the point of the story that that's exactly what Ford did?
Seriously, we're talking about a political career built on calling other people names and paying for your own paperclips. The guy's a fucking joke. His only non neener-neener policy statements so far are "Save The Centennial Park Ski Hill!" and "Let's build subways to low-traffic areas and pay for them with wishes and pixie dust!"
Anti-asian? How? Because he said oriental. Who cares...none of them vote anyways and cant speak English.
Anti-cyclist...most people are anti-cyclist (except the tiny percentage of Torontotians who are in fact year-round cyclists). Until the day comes when cyclists share the responsiblity of the road (i.e. get licensed and trained), most people will be anti-cyclist.
Who gives a sh!t was Ford thinks anyway...I dont and I am voting for him. He will at least save some money for the city which is what we need so in 4 years all the bleeding hearts and corrupt politicians can start stealing again.
It's times like this where I say to myself "Hahaha, what a stupid novelty account". Then I snap back into it, and am reminded that pieces of shit like yourself still do exist.
Yeah, actually, that's exactly how. Just because other people are *also* anti-marriage equality doesn't mean either a) they aren't anti-gay, nor b) that it is ok.
Sometimes I swear you must be trolling as a parody of a Rob Ford dumbfuck supporter.
Do I feel Rob Ford will be a great mayor? No. However I do feel we need him for the next 4 years to get our financial house in order. He will likely bicker over pennies and cancel services, but that is okay. We need that right now to counter the spending sprees of the last administrations. To their defence though, Toronto has been through a lot in the last decade. However we still must face reality.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Regarding anti-gay, does someone who SUPPORTS gay marriage make them anti-heterosexual? Your point makes no sense. Someone can support traditional marriage, but still not be anti-gay. Who cares anyways...
If someone supports gay marriage, to the exclusion of all other kinds of marriage (ie. everyone *must* marry gay), then yes, they would be anti-heterosexual. But I, like probably 99.99999% of people who support gay marriage support marriage equality (ie. not *only* gay marriage).
Being for marriage equality takes nothing away from heterosexual rights. But being *against* marriage equality discriminates against homosexuals. So, no, you cannot be against gay marriage but not be anti-gay (any more than you can be against the equality rights for visible minorities and not be a racist).
20-year exclusive contract? No, you're right, that doesn't scream corruption anymore than non-bid contracts do.
You can all pretend Miller and Smitherman have no prejudices and they're perfect people but not supporting gay marriage when he has no say in LGBT issues is hardly a dealbreaker.
In fact I'm Asian and a liberal and I'd still vote for him over the others at this point. Asshole-Ford be a better choice than eHeath-Smitherman, and probably soft-on-everything-Miller. One would hope badboy-Lastman too.
But with Smitherman, all we have to do is mention eHealth and he shuts up quickly.
They had to go way back to find some dirt, but with Smitherman we don't have to go too far back to remember.
And I have still not made my decision yet.
Here's the link to the Smitherman site - http://www.fordonford.com/
Daniel .. Toronto
You still haven't addressed, nor backed up, your argument about how none of the Asians in the City of Toronto can speak English, and have no civic interests like voting. Go ahead, please. You have the floor.
I am white and married to an asian who is a full time cyclist. I also own a house, pay my taxes and water the lawn. Some of my closest friends are gay.
My husband can speak English and is looking forward to voting, but thank you for your opinion.
T2: I dont have any proof...just generalizing. But if I were a betting man, I would still put my money on what I said versus what you are suggesting.
And that's a Rob Ford supporter in 25 words or less.
Through his career, he has been a massive failure at saving any real tax payer money, but you now think making him mayor is going to fix the city's financial problems. Man, you must be as gullible and dumb as they come to buy into his lip service. Just because his message resonates with your anger, doesn't make him a champion for the tax payer. He's a champion of one thing his 100K+ salary. You need to actually look at what he's achieved in his career - which is nothing.
More important then focusing on the cost side, have you ever considered how much less revenue the city will get from the province if Ford becomes Mayor? All the penny pinching in the world isn't going to make up for the gap, when the provincial taps are shut.
Smart people vote with their brains, gullible dumb people vote with the jerk of their knee. Try being in the former camp for once in your life.
I just have not seen any other candidate worthy of my vote. I guess the one exception may be Sarah Thompson, but I need to hear more from her first.
In-camera meetings are where confidential details are discussed. This includes contract negotiations, personnel matters and so on. If you worked for a board, you would not want them discussing your salary or "personal leave" requests in public, so this why you have in-camera meetings. Used sparingly, they are a perfectly legitimate element of open governments.
So Miller is not "hiding" behind the convenient technicality of an in-camera meeting. Ford is. Miller does not have to "come clean." Ford needs to take his concerns to the police, who are authorized to review in-camera meeting details and lay criminal charges if need be. If Ford really believes there is corruption, then it is his duty to report it. He has not. Why?
To borrow Ford's own language, this is black and white. Ford is either abetting corruption or he is an asshole. It's one or the other.
I dont like what he is doing. His "common man, rough around the edges" schtick is wearing thin...
He is just a blowhard joke
He would be a disaster
than Mel Lastman. He came to council during the
Harris/Eves era and its sensibilities and that
makes him an anachronism.
Moreover he's a true embarrassment to city
politics.
would you vote for Ford or Miller
The situation and level that Toronto is in is really low, so the only way to go from here is up. Choosing a fresh candidate as mayor is the common sense thing to do.
However, if you vote for someone with the same damaging routine and is a part or AFFILIATED with the same suffocating cycle and status quo that Toronto has been under, then you will keep Toronto down. Toronto is at a crossroads, yet has a huge chance here. Don't let this pass by because it may end up gone forever.
Remember, vote for the candidate most likely to DO THE JOB. Capable to do it. Vote for the one who has less skeletons and noise in their closet, who is more direct yet neutral, practicality and not a PC or catering person.
Overly-personal views on living, a few words here and there, sexual orientation, are not true factors to become mayor as this doesn't determine if the job will get done.
Miller's election was more a repudiation of the sleaze and cronyism of the Lastman years than any genuine support of the guy -- the suburbs swung in Tory's favor, the core swung for Miller. Ford's groundswell is more out of exhaustion of the arrogance of the Miller regime -- people are hurting financially and every time they see their tax money thrown at unions and whatever pet causes "the Left" is trumpeting, the more support Ford's message (not Ford himself) gets.
Which is me saying I agree with you.
why would we elect someone who has no love for that which he is representing?
also, bottom line, rob ford is just not smart enough for the job . I'm sorry, but I value intelligence.
His job is to run the city, not try to change the world.
I have friends who are nurses and hospital administrators. I also have lawyer friends who are working on FIT programs. There is no way in hell i will let Smitherman near my property taxes or in any kind of authority in this city. The man is a train wreck of Ego and he'd have no problems destroying the city just to refuse to admit he's wrong.
I'm voting for Ford and hoping for the best.
Miller is a f-ing lawyer! He could threaten to sue Ford, but kows doing so would expose his bacdoor corruptiuon with Tuggs and the Boardwalk Cafe, and dozens of other deals that screwed Toronto!
Folks, Miller is the same asshole who gave us rampant overtaxation, a decline in TTC serice, a $60 per vehicle registration tax, unnecessary garbage strikes, and more. He refused to have his buddy Adam Giambrone investigated by the Integrity Commissioner. He is what is wrong with Toronto!
"rob ford has been campaigning for months and still has NO PLATFORM besides "not spending the taxpayers money"."
And what is Slitherman's "platform"? "Vote for me, and I'dd suck your cock"?
blogto: please don't remove the clearly offensive post above by Nomonomon so as to make my/a point please.
And, Olaf: we have the LOWEST property taxes in the GTA. Our infrastructure costs are astronomically crippling because it is used, and abused, by not only the residents of Toronto but by the millions who commute to work and play here. We, Toronto, have been subsidizing the suburban lifestyle for far too long... it's time for road tolls (maybe just for unlicensed, non "Toronto" residents at first?) to enter the city.