Toronto needs a mayor: my Mom renders judgment

My Mom lives alone in Kingston.  She is an artist, and she is very proper.  I’ve never seen her in sweatpants, or go out in public looking even remotely informal. She goes to church on Sundays, she does charity work, and she dislikes boorish people. With the exception of Kinsella family full-contact Scrabble games – and after a glass of wine – my Mom doesn’t tolerate bad language, ever.

I call her every single day, sometimes twice a day.  Yesterday afternoon, after the crackhead mayor of Canada’s largest city used some of the most disgusting language anyone has ever heard an elected official use, I called my Mom.  Without pause, she commenced condemning the piece of human garbage who occupies the mayor’s chair.  She said, inter alia, that he has embarrassed Canada around the world, that he should have been arrested by the police long ago, and that she fears for his children.

And then she said: “He’s just, just, a [expletive deleted] asshole.”

I was in shock.  I could not believe my mother had said that.  She was mad.

I told her I was astounded she had said such a thing.

“Well,” she said, “I mean it.  Now, dear, you go and get him out of there, do you hear me? Do it what it takes.”

Told her I was on it. I’m a son who does what his mother tells him to do.


Statement by my BFF (and lawyer) Brian Shiller

“I am offering to act for all of the proposed defendants in Mayor Ford’s anticipated lawsuit on a pro bono basis. It is important that a signal is sent that the citizens of Toronto will not be intimidated by the Mayor of Toronto from cooperating with the police in an investigation into potential wrongdoing by the leader of this great city.”


Toronto needs a mayor: live from the anti-Ford rally

I loved this sign – it’s so polite and technical, and therefore uniquely Canadian. The rally was like that, too: lots of average folks – including admitted former Ford Nation residents – simply saying they want this SOB out. Hundreds of people, from all walks of life.  Right, Left, you name it.  Despite the freezing wind, it felt great to be there.

Meanwhile, inside council chambers, a dramatic scene was unfolding: Denzil Minan-Wong asked Rob Ford, to his face, if he has purchased illegal drugs in the past two years.

Huge pause.

Then Rob Ford, the conservative law-and-order guy, says “yes.”


Toronto needs a mayor: the only reason they lined up for your bobbleheads is ’cause they think you’re going to be dead, crackhead

Why they lined up for Crackhead’s Bobbleheads.

Rock’n’roll axiom: you always sell the most records when you kill yourself.

Just One Quarter (24%) of Torontonians Believe Mayor Ford Should Currently Be in Office Today
Most (76%) Torontonians Want Mayor to Step Down Now

Toronto, ON – On the heels of an admission and apology by Toronto Mayor Rob Ford for a series of drunken behaviours, including one where he was caught on tape smoking crack cocaine – an allegation he has repeatedly denied – a new Ipsos Reid poll conducted exclusively for CTV News/CP24/CFRB Newstalk 1010 Radio has found that just one quarter (24%) of Toronto residents believe that Mayor Ford should remain in office, while the rest (76%) believe he should either resign permanently and stay out of politics (41%) or take a break for treatment, come back in a few months and run in the next election (35%). Moreover, few (30%) believe his plan not to resign or take a leave of absence and stay on the job working for taxpayers until the next election is acceptable.

Just one quarter (24%) of Torontonians believe Mayor Ford should ‘do as he says he will: stay in his job, not repeat any previous behaviour, get back to work because he loves his job and wants to fight for taxpayers and then let people decide in the 2014 election whether he stays on as mayor or goes.

Most (76%) Torontonians, however, Want Mayor Ford to Step Down Now

Four in ten (41%) believe Mayor Ford should ‘resign as mayor, get treatment for his admitted conditions and get out of politics all together because he should not be in elected office’. One third (35%) are more lenient, believing he should ‘step aside as mayor and have someone temporarily be in his place, go into a treatment program for three or four months and then return and resume his role as Mayor to run the city and in the Toronto Election of 2014’.

Mayor’s Current Plan of Action Not Acceptable

Since his apology, Mayor Ford has said he won’t be drunk again in public and will not resign or take a leave of absence for health treatment, and that he will stay on the job working for taxpayers who can then vote on October 27, 2014, in the Toronto municipal election and determine his political fate.

The data reveal that most (70%) Torontonians believe that his plan is not acceptable (49% not at all/21% not really), while just three in ten (30%) believe his plan is acceptable (11% very/20% somewhat).