Celebrated writer Margaret Atwood is offering personal visits to some book clubs as part of her online campaign to spare Toronto’s libraries from Mayor Rob Ford’s budget knife.On Thursday, Atwood retweeted a Twitter message asking people to sign an online petition, started by the library workers’ union, telling City Hall to ignore city-hired consultant KPMG’s suggestion to “rationalize the footprint of libraries to reduce service levels, closing some branches.”
Many of Atwood’s more than one-quarter million Twitter followers complied and promptly crashed the server hosting the petition, which was restored in about a half-hour when the union upgraded to an unlimited bandwidth package.
Atwood has since kept up the pressure, with many of her tweets referencing a recent quip on radio by Councillor Doug Ford that: “We have more libraries per person than any other city in the world. I’ve got more libraries in my area than I have Tim Hortons.”
The doughnut shop claim — which turned out to be false — is prominent on the petition website with a photo of the Ford brothers and a plea for Torontonians to fight any attempt to privatize or cut the city’s 99-branch system, which loaned out more than 32 million books, DVDs and other items last year.
“Twin Fordmayor seems to think those who eat Timbits (like me) don’t read, can’t count, & are stupid eh?” Atwood tweeted Friday.
Later she sweetened the pot by suggesting her followers pick a book to read, meet at “Tims”, then enter their book club in a draw and “winners get visit by writer &/or Timbit. Eh?”
Atwood also invited Calgary’s mayor, Naheed Nenshi, an active, humorous Twitter user, to join them: “He wouldn’t pass up a good read, a library, a Timbit, and Moi . . . :D (Have tried enticing him before).”
Atwood then tweeted: “Would be awesome if someone could get Timmy’s behind a Save Libraries campaign.”
The Toronto Public Library Workers’ Union is urging supporters to go to Thursday’s meeting of Mayor Ford’s executive committee and make a deputation. Anyone can ask for five minutes to address the committee on suggestions in the last of eight KPMG reports identifying core- and non-core city services.
Ford is also urging residents to turn out en masse for the meeting.
“I encourage people (to go),” Ford said on CP24 on Friday. “And next Thursday, at the executive committee, even if we have to sit there three, four days, I want to hear what people have to say.”
With KPMG pronouncing most city services “core” and suggesting controversial cuts to so-called soft services including libraries, daycares and nursing homes, Ford also rallied his supporters to urge councillors, who will eventually vote on a 2012 budget, to back his hunt for “efficiencies.”
“I encourage the taxpayers to start calling their councillors and say ‘Let’s cut the gravy, let’s cut the waste. I don’t want a tax increase,’” said Ford, who was elected last October promising “no service reductions, guaranteed.”
On Sunday morning, the union’s petition had more than 19,900 online signatures.
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Source: Toronto Star
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