If this isn’t the beginning of the end of Rob Ford, it should be. Now that his hypocrisy has started to offend even his most ardent supporters, how far off can his political demise be?
It’s interesting, though, that His Worship’s undoing won’t be the result of the extraordinary incompetence with which he has run the city, but the sheer stupidity of his personal behaviour.
For a man elected on a ticket of stopping civic waste, what he even called corruption, the spectacle of recent days takes one’s breath away. He is, don’t forget, a politician who famously, if fatuously, fulminates on cue every time the city offers to pay for so much as a councillor’s paper clips.
Now it turns out the more athletic members of Ford’s staff do double duty helping the chief magistrate in his hobby as a high-school football coach. One is a former University of Toronto quarterback.
Love to know how Ford would have reacted if, say, Councillor Paula Fletcher, who never saw a mike that didn’t make her want to sing, had a voice coach on staff.
The poor man would have gone purple with rage. Steam would have come from his ears. Eyes would have bulged.
It’s bad enough that Ford has no problem skipping important executive committee meetings to toss a few balls with the boys. But spending public money on his pastime makes a bad situation worse.
Last week, he had to face the disapproval of the usually onside Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the sort of single-focus interest group that loves politicians like Ford.
“It seems clear that this is not okay,” Gregory Thomas, the group’s federal and Ontario director, told the Star recently, “and it’s against the rules, and it should stop. And if anybody can figure out how much city staff time, and resources like cars and what have you, have been used, then that should be reimbursed to the city.”
That amount, whatever it turns out to be, would be in addition to the $3,150 of donations he has already been asked to return.
Part of the Ford mythology is that as a man of the people, he remains immune to any such criticism. Yet the notion of Ford as Joe Average may be the biggest lie of all. Thanks to Daddy, he never had to worry about going to school, getting a job, paying the bills.
When his supporters compare Ford to the guy on the street, they do us a huge disservice. What they really saying is that coarseness, crassness and crudeness make him seem ordinary when he’s anything but.
In fact, unlike the guy on the street, Ford has a sense of entitlement that would make him stand out in even the most grasping elitist circles in downtown Toronto. As he made clear in court last week, he feels no need to know the rules let alone apologize when he breaks them.
As much as anything, Ford exploited widespread anger against elected officials and bureaucrats who appear to spend public money as if it were their own. That resentment can swing either way, however; it could easily send him back to the obscurity from which it so cynically raised him two years ago.
We’re closer to that point than ever. His staunchest allies still rush to his defence, but even they must know they are starting to look ridiculous. In the meantime, with council due to reconvene in three weeks, Ford has uttered not a syllable about his plans, except, of course, that he’ll still be playing with kids.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Christopher Hume
It’s interesting, though, that His Worship’s undoing won’t be the result of the extraordinary incompetence with which he has run the city, but the sheer stupidity of his personal behaviour.
For a man elected on a ticket of stopping civic waste, what he even called corruption, the spectacle of recent days takes one’s breath away. He is, don’t forget, a politician who famously, if fatuously, fulminates on cue every time the city offers to pay for so much as a councillor’s paper clips.
Now it turns out the more athletic members of Ford’s staff do double duty helping the chief magistrate in his hobby as a high-school football coach. One is a former University of Toronto quarterback.
Love to know how Ford would have reacted if, say, Councillor Paula Fletcher, who never saw a mike that didn’t make her want to sing, had a voice coach on staff.
The poor man would have gone purple with rage. Steam would have come from his ears. Eyes would have bulged.
It’s bad enough that Ford has no problem skipping important executive committee meetings to toss a few balls with the boys. But spending public money on his pastime makes a bad situation worse.
Last week, he had to face the disapproval of the usually onside Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the sort of single-focus interest group that loves politicians like Ford.
“It seems clear that this is not okay,” Gregory Thomas, the group’s federal and Ontario director, told the Star recently, “and it’s against the rules, and it should stop. And if anybody can figure out how much city staff time, and resources like cars and what have you, have been used, then that should be reimbursed to the city.”
That amount, whatever it turns out to be, would be in addition to the $3,150 of donations he has already been asked to return.
Part of the Ford mythology is that as a man of the people, he remains immune to any such criticism. Yet the notion of Ford as Joe Average may be the biggest lie of all. Thanks to Daddy, he never had to worry about going to school, getting a job, paying the bills.
When his supporters compare Ford to the guy on the street, they do us a huge disservice. What they really saying is that coarseness, crassness and crudeness make him seem ordinary when he’s anything but.
In fact, unlike the guy on the street, Ford has a sense of entitlement that would make him stand out in even the most grasping elitist circles in downtown Toronto. As he made clear in court last week, he feels no need to know the rules let alone apologize when he breaks them.
As much as anything, Ford exploited widespread anger against elected officials and bureaucrats who appear to spend public money as if it were their own. That resentment can swing either way, however; it could easily send him back to the obscurity from which it so cynically raised him two years ago.
We’re closer to that point than ever. His staunchest allies still rush to his defence, but even they must know they are starting to look ridiculous. In the meantime, with council due to reconvene in three weeks, Ford has uttered not a syllable about his plans, except, of course, that he’ll still be playing with kids.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Christopher Hume
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