LGBT News Rob Ford...Village Idiot

If this man wins re-election I will be totally surprised.

 

Thing is, he probably will. For some reason or another he is quite popular even though he is a walking joke.

 

I can actually answer this, since I'm just off of six years in Toronto. The greed aspect actually plays a lot less of a role than you might think. Toronto was amalgamated with a bunch of smaller municipalities (Scarborough, East York, North York, York, and Etobicoke, where Ford is from) in 1998 and there are still a number of growing pains. A lot of those old suburban municipalities often feel, not entirely falsely, like they get short shrift with city spending and investment, and a lot of them like the idea of low taxes and keeping city services to the absolute basic minimum; things like fixing potholes, making traffic better, and lower tax rates are bigger issues than, say, green space or homelessness.

Ford did a rather good job pitching to that segment, and managed to get a lot of people on board, particularly in the inner Toronto suburbs and in poorer areas of the city. And there are a lot of other things Ford does that endears him to his bizarrely loyal core voters; they like the unfiltered politician image, they like that he returns individual phone calls and makes them feel heard, they like that he comes across as that little average guy railing against big government.

That's a rather superficial rundown, and lots of ink has been spilled on this. Here was a particularly good take on it by Ivor Tossell, a Toronto journalist I rather like, pitched at Americans who were just tuning in during the crack thing: Why Toronto Fell for Rob Ford - NationalJournal.com

Anyway, I still can't escape all the Ford news after moving across the country (perhaps... okay, entirely because I still have a ton of journalists from Toronto on Twitter). And I never cease to be shocked by the newest thing, which I shouldn't be. I mean, after his comments on AIDS, his surprisingly ignorant views on trans* people, telling women to move to Iran and get raped while at Leafs games, berating cyclists, derogatory comments about "Orientals working like dogs," all the repeated addiction issues. Although, this does seem to be the most the Ford bros have been actively pulling out the anti-LGBTQ sentiments.

Also, in case it wasn't clear: I did NOT vote for Ford. Just putting that out there.

 

Canada: the one country where it's known socialism works, very liberal place, famously polite and friendly, and there's a douchebag mayor. Why? I bet he doesn't even, um, eat doughnuts or wear toques or watch curling. Canadian stuff. Eh?

I'm sorry, I had to. Being an asshole is the opposite of what people think when they think of Canada.

 

My next federal vote goes to the first party co-opts this statement for a national tourism campaign.

CANADA: usually the opposite of an asshole.

Just kidding! I'd never vote for the Conservatives no matter how fun their slogans get.

Heh. Now every so often I wonder if one day he'll pull off a mask and say "JUST KIDDING!" and it will all turn out to be an elaborate hoax and we can all sleep well again.

 

Sometimes, they get in based on weird quirks like that, where other candidates had worn out their welcome. Mayors have all had their scandals (Villaraigosa of L.A. and Gavin Newsom of S.F., among others here in the U.S.). Didn't Montreal have a mayor removed within the last year or so for corruption? I hear the history of Montreal's mayoralty has been colorful, but Ford takes the cake. I like the term "village idiot."

 

Hey, now, the Village probably doesn't want anything to do with the guy :dry:

 

Thanks for the background on Ford.

He's kind of like the Justin Bieber of Mayors, one might say, though older and bigger. Maybe the two would get on well.

 

Calling Rob Ford the Village Idiot does a huge disservice to Village Idiots everywhere. And, now that he's admitted to using cocaine, he's giving cokeheads everywhere a bad name.