11.28.2011 05:22 PM

Rob Ford is a liar

Said he wouldn’t raise taxes or cut services.

Is raising taxes and cutting services.

He’s a liar.

50 Comments

  1. john says:

    Couldn’t agree more. I didn’t vote for him and I am hoping that everyone that did feels like a fool. He is raising my ttc fair, my taxes and cutting my services..everything he said he wouldn’t do….argh

  2. Michael Bussiere says:

    He reminds me of a similar Conservative blowhard, one-term mayor in Ottawa by the name of Larry O’brian who ran on a zero-tax increase platform. Of course, that also got him elected in the first place.

  3. Finn says:

    Yup he is.

    Most politicians are.

  4. david says:

    I don’t understand ,Attacked all through the election campaign,attacked for the entire first year of his administration,And his star is still rising I just don’t get it.What happened to my Toronto??

    • The Doctor says:

      You own Toronto?

    • Ted says:

      Where have you seen that his star is still rising? Going from 75% support in the polls to 35% or so, the second least popular mayor in the entire country, is not what I would call “rising”.

      Unless you use a conservative translator, I guess. You know, the one that takes “fiscal implosion and incompetence” and translates to “fiscal prudence”.

  5. Ted B says:

    Correction, Mr. Kinsella.

    Rob Ford promised and guaranteed he wouldn’t raise taxes or cut services or cut jobs.

    Rob Ford raising taxes, cutting services and cutting jobs.

  6. James Bow says:

    Yeah, that about sums it up.

    Another question I would have is, how long did they know that the projected 2012 shortfall was actually $500 million better than originally estimated? Because, six months ago, when we were staring down the barrel of a $774 million shortfall, well, some sacred cows on both sides of the aisle would have to be killed. However, a few weeks ago, I heard from private citizens who said that this number was now inaccurate, but Ford and his allies continued to quote it to maintain the sense of urgency that suggested that cuts were needed and taxes were going to have to be raised.

    If they honestly didn’t know that the picture was rosier than it was originally anticipated, then fair enough; I’ll take this as good news and move on. However, if the larger number was harped upon while in full knowledge that the crisis wasn’t nearly as bad as it appeared, then that’s severely misleading on Ford’s part. I don’t care if you are left wing or right wing, it’s immoral to try and create or maintain a crisis in order to advance your own political agenda. And I don’t like being taken for a chump.

  7. TheSilentObserver says:

    Toronto was long overdue for a property tax hike, but everything else just strikes me as unfortunate. Who in their right mind could have believed that Ford respects and would want to preserve public services?

  8. W the K - No, not Warren says:

    He’s worse. He’s stupid beyond redemption. Ask anyone who knows the man. He is thick as a plank and an incomprehensible cauldron of anger. Completely incapable of stringing words together to form a sentence much less providing the political leadership required for the country’s largest city. He can’t answer simple questions at a news conference. How am I supposed to believe he’s running this city and formulating coherent budget priorities. I want to know who really is running things at city hall.

  9. WDM says:

    Please tell me the Monorail survived the cuts……

  10. Terraderma says:

    The question is, did he lie before or after he was elected. Did he truly believe during the campaign that balance could be achieved with a simple cutting of the ‘gravy’. Or, was he then aware there was no ‘gravy’ and knew all along that it would require cuts in services and raised taxes.

  11. Trevor says:

    Hi Warren,

    The best thing you could personally do in my opinion concerning
    this issue would be to ask Premier Dalton McGuinty to empower
    the City of Toronto with recall legislation, which would give us
    the option of holding early elections for our Mayor and Councilors.

    A recall election (also called a recall referendum or representative recall)
    is a procedure by which voters can remove an elected official from office
    through a direct vote (plebiscite), before his or her term has ended.
    Recalls, which are initiated when sufficient voters sign a petition,
    have a history dating back to the ancient Athenian democracy and
    is a feature of several contemporary constitutions.

    Many municipalities in the United States of America in particular,
    make wide use of recall elections, when voters find their respective
    elected municipal officials to be unaccountable to the electorate and/or
    in dereliction of duty. The option of a recall election is the very epitome
    of grassroots direct democracy and electoral accountability, in my opinion.

    With regard to the aforementioned specific example with the City of Toronto,
    I believe I speak for a clear and ever growing majority of Torontonians when
    I say that Mayor Rob Ford has proven to be unaccountable to the electorate,
    surely the primary reason why his popularity has recently sunk to an
    unprecedentedly low level, despite being in office for just over a year. As I am
    sure you are quite aware, Mayor Ford has treated the electorate in many cases
    with both indifference and even outright contempt. He has made it clear in the
    view of many Torontonians that he does not believe in engaging his constituents
    in any meaningful consultation, despite his promises of greater transparency and
    accountability during the 2010 Toronto mayoral election. Mayor Ford has instead
    constructed a “Kangaroo Court” out of his handpicked and appointed Executive
    Committee, shortened everyone’s speaking time including elected City Councilors,
    and has not shown very much respect at all to anyone who disagrees with his
    socioeconomic proposals, in my own opinion.

    Mayor Ford and his administration, under his direction, continue to make decisions
    without the input of our 44 elected City Councilors. An example, Toronto’s 2020
    Olympic Bid, regardless of whether one supports the bid or not, it would have been
    nonetheless both democratic and accountable to have at least held public consultations
    about it. Toronto’s 2020 Olympic Bid would have had the potential to generate billions of
    dollars in revenue for the local economy, had the canceled bid hypothetically been successful.

    Mayor Ford has made it clear he has no intention of keeping his campaign promise of
    reducing taxes without any programme and/or service cuts. Likewise, he has also reneged
    on his promise not to directly layoff City of Toronto employees to reduce the size of the
    municipal workforce, despite explicitly promising during the 2010 Toronto mayoral election
    that any and all reductions in the size of the municipal workforce would be accomplished
    strictly through attrition resulting from a hiring freeze.

    I believe that Mayor Ford made a hasty decision to cut the Vehicle Registration Tax as
    soon as he was elected and felt the affects of a deficit soon thereafter. Mayor Ford has
    also opted for confrontation with public sector workers/unions over compromise and dialogue.
    For example, he has flatly refused to meet with the unions representing both inside and outside
    City of Toronto employees (CUPE Locals 79 and 416 respectively) in advance of any direct layoffs
    of municipal workers, despite repeated requested for such meeting from both of the aforementioned
    public sector unions.

    Lastly, Mayor Ford has stated his intention to cut our most critical and cherished municipal
    services without any input from his constituents. Mayor Ford has broken countless promises
    to voters, behaved in an indifferent and contemptuous manner towards Torontonians in many
    cases, and has proven himself to be both highly unprofessional and unaccountable in my opinion.
    Surely, Torontonians should at least be given the option of holding a recall election for Mayor Ford
    as soon as possible.

    Warren, will you please ask Premier McGuinity to empower the City of Toronto with municipal
    recall legislation, so as we don’t have to wait another 3 years before we have an opportunity to
    get rid of this buffoon?.

  12. wannabeapiper says:

    Yep, well, the people spoke and now they get what they deserve. Better still, they get to have another 3 years too. They must be very happy.

    • Real toronto says:

      Idiots in the suburbs elected him. No real Torontonian supports him.

      • Ted says:

        Sorry, but there is Toronto, and only one Toronto. Anyone living inside the boundaries is a “real Torontonian”.

        Just because we don’t like Rob Ford, doesn’t mean we should pit Torontonians against each other.

        Besides, Ford also did very well in the downtown core and if he is to be beaten the next time, we have to look at reality, not just our perceptions of it.

  13. Mike B says:

    Add scumbag for good measure.

  14. Colin says:

    I’m not defending Ford but calling him a liar for raising taxes and cutting services when promising otherwise is a little ironic coming from a McGuinty supporter don’t you think? They should both be turfed.

  15. Woody says:

    The dose makes the poison. Ford is way more toxic and ives rise to way more serious side effects.

  16. Dan says:

    We knew it wouldn’t add up. We KNEW. But people voted anyway.

    That’s how democracy works though. We make our mistakes and learn our lesson four years later. Hopefully.

  17. Kevin says:

    Is McGuinty a liar for also promising not to raise taxes? In fact, signing a pledge promising that.

    • Ted says:

      Did he sign that pledge knowing it could not be fulfilled? Did he reiterate the pledge, even once, after he saw the fiscal mess that Harris/Eves left for him?

      • Jason Hickman says:

        Given that his caucus members were going around at the time of the last Eves budget predicting a deficit that turned out to be remarkably similar in amount to what the post-election Liberals said it was, I’m going to answer “yes” to your question. McG signed the CTF pledge even though he never, as far as I can recall, accepted the PC numbers on the deficit in ’03.

        Heck, if we want to go back further, we could talk about Chretien promising to abolish the GST (though that can be fudged if you want, I suppose; Chretien saying “we will abolish the GST” was more of a stump-speech promise, not a Red Book promise). Or if it makes things better for you, we can talk about Conservative (federal or provincial), NDP (provincial) *or* Liberal (fed/prov, take your pick) promises that get fudged, forgotten or outright broken at some point after the votes are counted.

        At the risk of being too obvious: Politicians do this. I don’t like it, but it happens. They promise things where it would take a near-gone miracle to be able to keep those promises. If enough Torontonians decide that the overall record’s worth it, and/or that the alternative on offer is worse, a broken promise will be forgiven – just like it was for McGuinty in ’07.

        • Ted says:

          I would put McGuinty’s pledge up there with Harper’s promise not to impose taxes on income trusts. Combination of blind eye and political tactics.

          That is not the same as Rob Ford.

          Ford knew exactly what the deficit was. Said he could eliminate it without raising taxes, cutting jobs or cutting services. He repeated the promise many times in the last year. And, this being the main point, the finances of the City of Toronto are not any worse than when he made his promise. In fact, they are much better now than when he made the promise.

          There is no comparison. Period.

          So many people are desperate to make excuses for lying politicians. The only result is that the bar gets ever lower.

  18. VH says:

    Cutting a budget isn’t an “achievement” much less “amazing”.

    That’s not a goal of public service. What is a goal is to improve the lives of the citizens that one represents in the best way one can.

    Tell me specifically with examples, qualitatively and quantitatively, how people’s lives have been improved under any politician and then I’ll say that that politician has had an “amazing achievement”.

    For Rob Ford specifically the poor people, renters and other non-millionaires and non upper-middle class citizens have been screwed over. They’ll stand longer waiting for the bus which is also now more expensive, they’ll pay more at the swimming pool if one’s still there and if they are hoping to work hard so their kids can get ahead, Rob Ford is trying (tried?) to screw the over at the publib library too.

    This is only an “amazing achievement” if you define “achievement” as “underachievement”.

  19. Brad says:

    Warren,

    I don’t like when politicians break their word either. But to be fair, Rob Ford is facing precisely the same situation Mr. McGuinty faced in 2003 when he promised not to raise taxes, and subsequently did so using the argument that he did not fully appreciate the state of the budget until he was in power. And you did not call him a liar under those circumstances, correct? It seems to me that either both Mr. Guinty and Mr. Ford are liars, or their conduct is excused by some extenuating circumstances.

    Regards,
    Brad

    • Ted says:

      Except that Harris/Eves left the province with a suprise fiscal mess.

      Not only did Ford know about the fiscal mess of Toronto, but he campaigned on it.

      A province has a government. No one knows much about what goes on behind closed doors. A city has a council and everyone on council – and Ford was a councillor – knows about the details. Ford was asked about this over and over and he repeatedly said ‘I’m a councillor, I know where the waste/gravy is, I can get this done without service or job cuts and I will not raise taxes, guaranteed’.

      There really is no comparison.

      • Kevin says:

        Don’t sign a pledge if you are ignorant of the facts.

      • Jason Hickman says:

        Except that Harris/Eves left the province with a suprise fiscal mess.

        How was it a “surprise” when Liberal MPPs, including their then-finance critic, were predicting, as of June ’03, that there was a hole of up to $5B in the budget? source 1, source 2

        • Ted says:

          I think it is reasonable for a politician to rely on his opponents numbers when they are in government. Eves repeated over and over that his numbers were solid. He had a budget out trying to demonstrate they were solid. People, especially opponents, are always predicting the other guy’s numbers are off.

          But that is nothing like what we have with Rob Ford.

          Ford knew exactly what the deficit was. Said he could eliminate it without raising taxes, cutting jobs or cutting services. He repeated the promise many times in the last year. And, this being the main point, the finances of the City of Toronto are not any worse than when he made his promise. In fact, they are much better now than when he made the promise.

          There is no comparison. Period.

  20. Trevor says:

    So Warren, what do you think of my suggestion?.

    Do you think Premier McGuinty would empower the City of Toronto
    with muncipal recall legislation, so as we can at least be given the
    democratic option of recalling Tea Party Robbie BEFORE the next
    Toronto mayoral election in 2014?.

    • Stephanie Powers says:

      You are good for a laugh Trev.

      Firstly, congratulations on championing an old REFORM party policy plank calling for the empowering of citizens to recall politicians. I’m sure that gives you great comfort to know that you are thinking along the same lines as a group of people that you no doubt consider racist, homophobic and gun-toting right-wing lunatics.

      Secondly, what ‘progressive’ politician wants democratic limits or checks on their ability to impose social engineering plans or tax hikes to pay for them on the populace. Nothing would ever get done for the good of the people! The people don’t know what’s good for them until the left-ist saints of our political elite class shove it down our throats!

      And lastly, why would McGuinty ever provide the rope for a posse to hang him? He would be the first politician recalled. Unless you want a seperate right for the citizens of Toronto, and not the rest of the province. How fair and democratic minded of you.

      Keep dreaming of that utopian world pal. Paisely coloured skies abound.

  21. Hannah says:

    Brad, not true. Mr Ford chooses to embrace the position he is in now because of his follies when he first started – namely killing Transit City and all the associated costs of doing so, along with all the other costs this buffoon racked up (2 billion to bury the Eglinton line).

    Another point I’d like to mention i that Ford is a proven liar in ALL aspects of his life. He lies so much that when he gets caught lying he makes up more lies until the evidence can no longer be refuted, then Ford just makes some lame excuse and that’s it. End of story. A bully from Etobicoke is now running a large city, over 60 percent comprised of civilians he doesn’t like. Pinko commies who ride bikes, have cushy union jobs, live downtown and sip latte. Or we are on welfare. This is the level of discourse among Ford Nation – population 20

    Ford is divisive and incredibly stupid. His scorched earth approach to Toronto is shockingly dumb.

  22. Pedro says:

    Oh, for heaven’s sake…
    Just as any number of Liberal, Progressive Conservative, Conservative Party of Canada, New (?!) Democratic (?) Party (whoo-hoo!) of Canada leaders have said.
    Whoopee **it!
    Get in line you complainer!

  23. steve says:

    Number one problem in GTA is congestion, Ford cuts capacity and raises prices, that’s Conservative solutions epitomized. Meals for children, cut, donuts for cops add.

  24. pomojen says:

    Yep – there are plenty of liars out there….no question. Like this one, for example:

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/documents-show-harperization-of-government-communications/article2253080/

    Doesn’t make sense to pretend it’s acceptable. Or that it doesn’t imply narcissism, arrogance and contempt for the people they purport to serve.

  25. Mom says:

    Every day I get on the 401 at rush hour and thank Rob that the “war on the car is over, ladies and gentlemen!”

  26. The thing with Ford is that “liar” is just about the nicest thing anyone could bring themself to call him.

  27. RDS says:

    First, some advice for the conservative trolls:

    It is a good bet that Warren and most like-minded people who read this site still remember that the reason Dalton McGuinty had to raise taxes was that immediately after he assumed office it was revealed that Ernie Eves, who ran a campaign based on a claim that the balanced budget, had deliberately concealed a deficit north of $5 billion. Saying that the deficit is zero when it is $5 billion is called lying; changing your mind when the facts change is called being reasonable. There is a fundamental difference between deliberately saying something which you know to be untrue, and not doing what you said you would because the circumstances no longer allow it. If you do not understand this, you are an idiot. If you do understand this and pretend not to in order to score political points, you are a liar.

    Second: To be fair, it is possible that Rob Ford actually believed he could find hundreds of millions in gravy, in which case he is not a liar, he is an idiot.

    I guess sometimes it is hard to know whether somebody is an idiot or a liar.

  28. Andrew Spicer says:

    Not to defend this buffoon, but when did he ever promise he would not raise property taxes? I don’t think that is true and his 2011 property tax freeze was both a surprise and a mistake.

    • don says:

      One of many many mistakes this guy is going to make.
      Note the police gravy train paid duty is still not derailed costing taxpayers 10 million a year.
      Grossly overpaid managers and other flunkies collecting huge salaries for doing next to nothing.
      None of these people have been touched.
      None of them are unionized either so he could have straitened this mess out right off the get go and saved millions.

      Sue Ann levy another disgusting person but she was right about the old boys club of managers waiting out this Ford regime and going back to business as usual making huge salaries and wasting taxpayers money.

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