!

[james_davis_nicoll]

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was relieved of his duties today as the city's chief magistrate after an Ontario judge found he violated conflict of interest rules.

Comments

[qwerty88.livejournal.com]

But apparently allowed to run again. :(

Playing the martyr card I'm sure.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

It would beggar belief that he would want to, and it would beggar even more belief that he would get elected. However, if he did, I'm sure that everyone in Canada that did not live in Toronto would have to sadly shake their heads and say, "Well, yes, you get the elected officials you deserve."

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Ford's support is steady at about 40%, right? So given two or more rival candidates of equal attractiveness to the voters, he could easily win again.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

And the electorate would get the elected officials they deserve.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

http://stratcomca.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/rob-ford_approval-tracking_chart_may2012.jpg

It doesn't have any recent numbers, but the trend has been downhill.

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

I don't understand why he was elected in the first place, nor why he still has a significant amount of public popularity. So my disbelief that he'd be re-elected doesn't go beyond that.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

Mayor Miller was widely perceived to be a left-wing disaster of a mayor, so naturally the electorate decided to return balance to the Force and elect a right-wing disaster.

-- Steve is feeling cranky and cynical today, so this may be an overly-snarky evaluation.

[qwerty88.livejournal.com]

Rob Ford will fight mayoral removal ruling 'tooth and nail'
Toronto mayor decries 'left wing politics,' says he will appeal Ontario judge's decision in conflict case.

"And I'm going to fight tooth and nail to hold on to my job. If they do for some reason get me out I’ll be running again whenever the next election is, if there’s a byelection. My name will be the first one on the ballot."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/11/25/toronto-ford-conflict-case-decision-release.html

So apparently he wants to.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Because "real men don't quit". I suppose.

(They just sneak out of work to go coach football.)

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

Unless we're talking about a publicity-stunt diet. Then real men do quit.

(To be fair: I thought the diet was wrong, and quitting was the right choice, but I don't think one can invoke the "I'm not a quitter" claim after one has quit something that public.)

[resonant.livejournal.com]

Despite seriously disliking him, I'm OK with him being allowed to run again. The electorate should be able to vote a bottle of maple syrup into office if it so wishes. For true democracy, any impediments to election - sex, age, ethnicity, place of birth, whatever - should be eliminated.

However, I really hope he doesn't get elected again. I wrote to him, and he promptly wrote back (commendable), but his inability to read and his inability to write coherently scared me.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

"any impediments to election - sex, age, ethnicity, place of birth, whatever"
sentience, self-awareness, endo/exoskeleton...

I propose a challenge! Come up with the full list of barriers that must be eliminated to permit the election of a bottle of maple syrup.

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

I'm an American, but here, the only qualification I can think of that a bottle of syrup is missing is citizenship, residency, and minimum age (age of majority at least). OTOH, once elected it seems unlikely it could undertake an oath of office, so that's another problem.

[(Anonymous)]

"We challenge the mayor to show its long-form list of ingredients"

[fsandow.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting judgment. The judge spends a lot of time on the argument that the rules shouldn't prevent a councillor from speaking in their own defence with respect to a disciplinary matter, and appears to have some sympathy for that argument, but ultimately says that it's up to the legislature to make that change. In any event, he says there's no excuse for Ford voting on the matter.

He's also very clear in finding that there was no actual corruption. He regrets that there are no lesser penalties, and definitely wouldn't have removed Ford from office if he'd had a choice.

On to the appeal. I'll be curious to see what order the Divisional Court makes for managing the situation pending the appeal. Hopefully they can expedite things.

[(Anonymous)]

The amounts in question are very small, it's true. But entirely in the same league as amounts Ford (as councillor) harangued other councillors about when criticizing the way they spent their office budgets.

Which is why it's interesting reading the newspaper comments — the same commenters that cheered him on when he was riding the "gravy train express" to office are now saying that the amounts are too small to be worried about.

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

I saw that, and my first thought was "James will be happy!"

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this would get much attention south of the border but this has not been a great year for Canadian mayors. Ford may be out but at least he comfort himself that his exit didn't involve shackles.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

I'd be even more schadenfruede-tastic over the fall of ex-Mayor Fnord if the mayor of my own city, London (Ontario), wasn't in front of a ticking time-bomb of his own.

-- Steve keeps hoping we'll stop electing idiots and crooks, but alas...

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the hijinks going on in Quebec!

(Kitchener had its own wacky mayor in the 1990s but at least he got to serve out his full term before being booted by the voters)

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

There was a good joke on Twitter this morning about Montreal trading for "Mayor Ford and another scandal to be named later."

-- Steve also saw some grumbling about Winnipeg's mayor on CBC's comments page covering the Ford decision. Of course, well, "comments page" is a caveat all on its own isn't it?

[keithmm.livejournal.com]

But Montreal (and a few other municipalities in the area) are dealing with good, old-fashioned corruption. That's the traditional thing for municipal politicians. Ford isn't competent enough to do that.

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Depending on who you talk to, I think "wacky major" may still pertain.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Not on the scale of former Mayor Christy, surely?

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

No, likely not - although perhaps just along different axes.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

"This is a man that cares, a man that is the most honest politician I've ever seen in this country."

Oh, Lord, I hope not.