09.28.2012 07:14 AM

Ford follies: the noose tightens

Earl Provost, one of Mayor Rob Ford’s top advisors, personally urged Queen’s Park to help bankroll $2.8 million in renovations to Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School’s football facilities, the Star has learned.

The unusual appeal for financial help for the football team coached by Ford was made on March 3 — a Saturday — and there was urgency to the request, sources say.

Despite controversy swirling around his gridiron activities, the mayor refused comment on Thursday.

21 Comments

  1. Matt says:

    Arg… So it’s pretty clear that Toronto is third on Rob’s list of priorities behind football and the label business. In fact the whole Mayor thing is only valuable to browbeat forks to help with the other two. I have NEVER seen anything like this and it’s hard to know whether to fight or cry at the state of things with this dope.

  2. Matt says:

    lol Of course I mean browbeat *folks not forks… although he does that as well.

  3. Take a steel brush to yourself laddy.

  4. The Other Jim says:

    Mmmmmm, gravy!

  5. steve says:

    Why does Doug not just buy him the Argo’s and save Toronto further agony.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLcf3-5KYTY&feature=player_embedded

  6. Bluegreenblogger says:

    Oh dear… Here’s yet another one:

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/09/27/rob-ford-civic-appointments123.html

    “Staff also reported that the mayor’s office asked them to remove language that encouraged members of the “city’s diverse population to apply.” But staff refused that request.

    When asked by a reporter on Thursday if his office had asked for the language about diverse applicants to be removed, Ford said, “No, that’s never happened, no.”

    He is getting clobbered, and it is more than somewhat akin to the swelling derision that terminated the Mulroney PC’s. A year ago, some people might have believed his assertion that: “that’s never happened, no” but he is a proven serial liar, so at this point anybody can say anything they want about him and it will gain traction. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving duo.

    • RDS says:

      Yes, but the media are all pathological liars, and also pricks. Gravy train gravy train gravy train subways subways subways. Subways.

      Subways.

    • Outsider says:

      Has there ever been a “politician” (phrase used as loosely as possible) to self-immolate so completely, thoroughly and quickly?

      • RDS says:

        I think we need to see some numbers before we can contemplate Ford in those terms. It seems like he would have to personally murder and eat Johnny Bower at centre ice during a Leafs game to alienate his core supporters. How much does this stuff really matter to them? In a race against Olivia Chow and a credible centrist opponent, I think he still stands a chance.

        • Outsider says:

          Without question, he would survive even a Bower feast among his mnions. But surely he has alienated those who now realize he is all bluster and those who did not pay very close attention last time, and has galvanized those who did not bother to vote in the last election because they saw it as either a win/win or lose/lose. One would have to think that Ford will face a stiffer test in the next election. And I do believe my central theme remains: No other politician has brought down so many self-constructed calamities in such a short period … at least that I can recall …

  7. Cromwell says:

    Provost is apparently an educated man, unlike his dimwit boss, and, according to the Star story, a Liberal. Looks very much like sabotage to me.

  8. wsam says:

    Of course. Provost is a Liberal sleeper agent.

    In one of his last acts while still retaining power Paul Martin ordered Provost to ingratiate himself with then junior Toronto councilman, Rob Ford, and his wealthy Etobicoke family. Martin knew that one day the seemingly buffoonish Ford would be Mayor. Martin saw this. He also saw this as the Liberals best opportunity to consolidate Liberal rule for generations. And he was willing to risk everything.

    Toronto is the centre of everything and had always had significant Conservative energy. But that energy is diffuse and hard to pin down. It fluctuates between the Lambeth golf and country club, the Albion club, Muskoka and the Sommerhill LCBO. But get that energy to reveal itself. To make itself visible. And you could destroy it. That’s where Rob Ford comes in.

    Few know this, but Martin deliberately lost the 2006 election in order to make Provost’s task easier. Dion might have overdone it a little bit, but he basically stayed the course, like the good soldier he has always been. Where do you think the green shift came from? Nobody had to brief Iggy; he appeared weak and uncertain as if by instinct. Perfect.

    In this, Provost represents a metaphorical liberal ‘shot from the grave’. Who would suspect a senior member of a flailing political party as a master saboteur? From a party about to elect a drama teacher as its leader. This is chess as played across millennium. And Provost is the chosen one. He is Frodo. The one chosen to restore Liberal fortunes for eternity. Stephen Harper thinks in terms of election cycles. Liberals think out to 10, 20, 30, 100, 200 years out into the future.

    The plan was that, once buried inside Ford’s inner circle, Provost would rise up and destroy him and his family. This would shatter Canada’s Conservative forces, which gather around Ford and which draw on him for their strength. Ford is pure right-wing energy. Undiluted. He is the Conservative’s tesseract. He is the key. The one ring to rule them all.

    Destroy Ford and the entire Conservative edifice collapses.

    • Outsider says:

      Dear Comrade: I don’t think Command Control wanted you sharing this publicly ….

    • Cromwell says:

      Or perhaps Earl just needed a job and no Liberal would give him one.

    • Bill says:

      wsam, smoke another one……”liberals think in 10,20,30,100,200 years out into the future”. haha, very funny, liberals have a hard time thinking day to day. The conservative force is much larger then the ford’s and Toronto is far from the “centre of everything”. The power continues to shift to the west, where the economic engine is now located. Conservative movement is global, with more counties moving the right, not the left.

      • Tim Sullivan says:

        Wow, Bill. It’s stunning how you miss the point, or have absolutely not sense of humour.

        Stunning.

      • bluegreenblogger says:

        ROFL…. not the sharpest tool on the bench eh Bill?

      • Bill says:

        Jokes on you……can believe you guys are so gullible, thought I would play along and find some left wing nuts. Hook, line and sinker. Hahahaha.
        What do you think I live under a stone….like you left wingers…LOL

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

    DiManno weighs in:

    http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1264309–dimanno-mayor-rob-ford-is-no-longer-a-laughing-matter-should-be-recalled

    Think what you will of Dimanno and The Star, but she, like many, have had it up to f*ckin here with this guy.

    Interesting Rossi allusion…

    • Dude Love says:

      Recall will never happen because it can work for you or against you. There was a movement to have Miller recalled and if that had happened?

  10. Matt says:

    When Rocco seems sane and Mel progressive… yup, things are bad.

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