11.01.2013 10:30 AM

Toronto needs a mayor: Olivia Chow responds

From her Facebook page. Boy oh boy, it is so refreshing to hear from someone who conducts herself like a leader should, eh?

Dear friends,

I believe in restorative justice. Which is the idea that we need to look for ways to help people who make serious mistakes in their lives — as and when they take responsibility for their actions, and accept accountability.

Like all Torontonians, I was very disappointed to learn yesterday from Chief Bill Blair that Mayor Rob Ford has not been telling the people of Toronto the truth about the video widely reported in the media in recent months. Many of yesterday’s revelations about Mayor Ford’s closest associates, activities and personal problems are also deeply troubling.

Mayor Ford obviously faces some serious challenges in his life. I hope he finds help soon.

I also believe that as our Mayor — head of our city administration and Toronto’s representative to the province, the country, and the world — he must take responsibility for his actions. A good place to start would be for him to now face up to the truth, and to tell it.

Our city deserves better.

Olivia

27 Comments

  1. PeggyW says:

    From a class act to a classless one.

  2. MCBellecourt says:

    It’s been a long time since I’ve read anything so eloquent from a politician. Her point couldn’t be more clear, but she makes it in such a way as to not condemn or judge.

    I think she’d be a great Mayor. Torontonians would do well to pay attention.

  3. deb s says:

    fat chance….but I love how Olivia Chow pleads for toronto and for the mayor to do right by the city, while still sounding compassionate to that blowhard.

  4. Kaplan says:

    A nice way to frame her message. And knowing Olivia Chow, she means every word. No cheap shots, no kicking the guy while he’s down…classy.

    You know, for the past day, as much as I’m glad to see the truth about the video come out, there’s still a part of me that feels for Rob Ford. While he may the world’s highest functioning crack addict, it doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s human. Yeah, he made his bed and he’s got to lie in it and all that, but he’s also a very, very sick person. Coupled with his own ego and entitlement, his enabling brother, and an assortment of shady characters, his addiction is going to lead him ever further into the gutter. He’s the author of this tragedy, but now that he’s publicly hung himself, I’m realizing it’s not a pleasant site. There’s no joy, for me, in watching this happen.

    And I think Olivia Chow intrinsically understands this – that as much as Ford’s flameout can only help her politically, the guy is, at the end of the day, one of us.

    • doconnor says:

      “he may the world’s highest functioning crack addict” I’m sure there the plenty of crack addict higher functioning then him.

      I agree that the best reason for him to resign is to save himself.

    • david ray says:

      With due respect Kaplan I don’t think he is one of us. Yesterday I wrote that Rob Ford was breaking sad. Today I think he is breaking mad. He is Howard Beale writ large. He is the end result of celebrity entitlement and cognitive dissonance spilling his psychosis over Toronto and on the walking dead who elected him (thanks mostly to amalgamation and wedge politics). He is a giant Ikea monkey who should be taken from his crazy owners who think he’s a pet and returned to the wild; maybe Bob Barker’s home for elephants in California because I now think Rob Ford is going to hurt someone and badly while we stand around waiting for the accident. I hope I’m wrong for the sake of his family who are in the line of fire but the mind is a fragile thing especially a drug fueled one.. to wit, last night’s ridiculous telephone call to a talk show. That was not the feather on the scale. The man is sitting on the scale. He has lost his grip. I wish someone who does have a grip would intervene in time but I don’t see it happening. At least not in time.
      How bout those Leafs though. Huh.

      • deb s says:

        yep….he is losing his grip on reality…even more so. That makes him dangerous…he is either going to kill himself or run someone down while under the influence and having a rage. Its not good…his family should step in and save everyone in toronto. Its beyond crazy. I mean it was one thing to accuse the star of lying but the police chief confirms the cracksmoking soooo…yeah he needs to go.

  5. Ridiculosity says:

    CANADA NEEDS A PRIME MINISTER: OLIVIA CHOW’S RESPONSE REVISITED

    Dear friends,

    I believe in restorative justice. Which is the idea that we need to look for ways to help people who make serious mistakes in their lives — as and when they take responsibility for their actions, and accept accountability.

    Like all Canadians, I was very disappointed to learn that Stephen Harper has not been telling the people of Canada the truth about the ongoing Senate scandal. Many of this month’s revelations about Harper’s closest associates, activities and personal problems are also deeply troubling.

    Prime Minister Harper obviously faces some serious challenges in his life. I hope he finds help soon.

    I also believe that as our Prime Minister he must take responsibility for his actions. A good place to start would be for him to now face up to the truth, and to tell it.

    Our country deserves better.

    Olivia

  6. Robert says:

    We have included your post in our ‘Around the Blogs’ section at looniepolitics.com

  7. Eric says:

    I can’t think of a better speech to open the campaign with!

    • Attack! says:

      Yes, the very real possibility that Anthony Smith may have been killed in connection with this video is very troubling – especially since he’s not just any young man: some (but curiously very few) have reported that he was actually on the high school football team a few years ago, when Ford was coach http://globalnews.ca/news/601075/second-arrest-made-in-anthony-smiths-murder/

      That previous relationship may have been how they came to be in that gathering ill-fated in the first place. And it was Smith’s presence in the photo that convinced the reporters to check out & take the video seriously and led to the kickstarter campaign.

  8. Luke says:

    Does Rob Ford smoke crack? Click below, and refresh frequently.

    http://doesrobfordsmokecrack.com

  9. david ray says:

    Yes Rob Ford has jumped the shark as has Harper and the Cons. You know it’s true when the inevitable Hitler video is made. This one is hilarious and just in time for the convention and so without further ado for your friday afternoon viewing… oh and the kenney reference is brilliant.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7fQAvkeQmE

  10. Pat Downey says:

    Facing Up To The Truth

    Rob Ford has repeatedly ranted against “hug-a-thug” programs. Couldn’t agree more, which is why, Rob Ford and the shadowy criminals the Ford Family run with, should be continually tracked by investigative journalists and the police. The right wing cannot have it both ways – spewing forth about being tough on crime, zero tolerance, just-say-no, but in secret, living the Goodfellas lifestyle to the max.

    Nor, can the left wing claim moral superiority. Olivia Chow, Libby Davies, Justin Trudeau, Gregor Robertson, Jenny Kwan, et al. – all boosters of the Insite Movement and narco-socialism. The Insite Movement is lobbying for “inhalation rooms” where addicts can smoke crack cocaine and methamphetamine – at tax payer’s expense. The Insite Movement is lobbying for dispensed opiates where addicts, rather than buying their own drugs, will have them supplied by the state. There is no expectation addicts should “take responsibility for their actions, and accept accountability” (Chow). These enterprises rest entirely on the premise that one can be a fully functioning drug addict and contribute to society. Progressives, the left, narco-socialists are the great enablers in Canadian society. Train wrecks like Rob Ford are the debauched fruits of this culture of insane permissiveness.

    Celebrity and international bad boy Russell Brand – self-confessed heroin, sex, and alcohol addict, arrested twelve times – recently described Vancouver’s drug injection facility as the “crown jewel” of Vancouver; he then went on to declare, during his comedy routine at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, that “Communism is just sharing, isn’t it?” and pointing to Che Guevara, described the huge image as “fierce, noble… what a leader should look like.”

    For the historically illiterate (sadly, about 99% of the population), this is the Che Guevara who wanted the Kennedys assassinated and New York City incinerated: “If the (nuclear) missiles had remained we would have used them against the very heart of America including New York. We must never establish peaceful coexistence. In this struggle to the death between two systems we must gain the ultimate victory. We must walk the path of liberation even if it costs millions of atomic victims.” Hate speech? Yes, but tolerated. Why? Because everyone is spaced out on strong drugs and stronger propaganda!

    Brand went on to attack Prime Minister Harper (a right of free speech and expression not available in in the Marxist paradises of Cuba or North Korea or China) ranting, “We wouldn’t let him be in charge of pencils!” – note the relentless drive to marginalize, ostracize those considered unworthy of the narco-socialist cause. Academics, policy makers, and scientists who have taken a dissenting view about Insite and narco-socialism have found their offices or homes surrounded by flash mobs of angry addicts (“junkie cadres”) and militant Marxists a la Cuba’s Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.
    This is the great hypocrisy of the narco-left: it isn’t about drug consumption or behavior; it is about ideology. Whose is right and whose is wrong. Marxists get a free pass. Liberals a half pass. Every so often a conservative gets hung up on drugs and inevitably their own self-righteousness – such is the Marxist program of destabilizing society.

    No high elected official should be in active contact with illegal drug traders/users. Rob Ford should be gone – this is like a real life Breaking Bad, complete Aryan Nation types. Self-confessed marijuana experimenter Justin Trudeau should be gone – this is typical Marxist subversion – grass and utopia today, statist nightmare tomorrow. There should be continual drug testing of all MPs, MLAs, and mayors at the very least. In fact, every level of government, ever political party and movement is utterly failing to staunch this socialist-criminal insurgency. Across this country, children go to bed hungry, young scholars don’t receive adequate education, the elderly, the sick languish with substandard care while narco-powers live high on the high on the hog, indulging every corrupt and debauched desire. Citizens should inform themselves, get organized and go after these varmints. has to be cold turkey from here on in.

  11. james Smith says:

    How on earth do two spoiled rich kids who have no shame get cast as both victims and “average joe’s”?
    In other news, here’s a list of what Mr Ford may be smoking:
    http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2013/11/brief-survey-things-rob-ford-could-be-smoking-out-his-pipe/71180/

  12. TokyoJoe says:

    I used to think that here in Montreal we had the worst municipal politicians. Ford is the uber-cunt of mayors.

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