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You're right Fidel. The social-dem agenda of the Miller executive and council as well as the ONDP has not delivered to poor people.
We are talking about wether or not these collective bargaining rights issues are "deal breakers" or not for voters. Obviously if they can vote for Smitherman as a "least worse option" and ignore his intention to bust the City Garbage Workers union, then "collective barganing" rights are not a deal breaker... they are willing to accept the "least worse option": Smitherman over Ford, regardless of Smitherman's position on collective bargaining rights... which was truly fucking horrible, by the way.
Exactly my point. If it had been a "deal breaker" they would have voted for Pantalone, or not voted.
And it's nothing to do with the top-down federalized neoliberalorama in this country since Mulroney and Chretien? My-my, anything but blame those guys, because as we know it's really been David Miller and the ONDP who've been running things in Canada all along. Who knew? How much do they pay people to lead in this kind of partisan cheering? Where do I pick up my bleu et rouge pom poms and bull horn?
News alert! The ONDP haven't been the government in this province for the last 16 years! Not since the last ideologically driven economic meltdown engineered in Ottawa.
And bless David Miller. You tried your best, buddy. You're worth a dozen of those idiots any day o' the week and twice on Sundays. God help them in Gotham City now.
I suspect that's a large part of it. If there's no more income to be had through wage increases (or price increases if you earn money as a small business, taxes going down becomes more than just a little nice thing and having to pay for the increases city workers get becomes somewhat painful. There's also a big disconnect between what you could call David Miller's "world" of artists, academics, students, developers, environmentalists and urban planners (regardless of what he actually *did*, this is who you tended to see him with) and the people outside of that world. Don Cherry puts it rather well, actually - "People are sick of the elites and artsy people running the show. It’s time for some lunch pail, blue-collar people." Rob Ford kind of spoils it by not actually being a blue-collar person, but that's okay, he can play one on TV.
Somehow, when it comes to the macro-picture, I wonder how well Don Cherry playing the symbolic introductory role that, I suppose, Jane Jacobs played for Miller will go over. Indeed, I wonder how many "Fordite-out-of-convenience" councillors might be having serious misgivings and second thoughts--come to think of it, I'm wondering whether the first Ford-era Council meeting might collapse in a heap of bleccchhh before it even wraps up, or whether there'll *ever* be a coherent Ford-led meeting of City Council.
Who knows; at this rate, we might as well be seeing Mayor Ford and his tinpot advisors opting for a Margaret Thatcher/GLC solution and abolishing Toronto City Council altogether, thus putting everything in the hands of his "cabinet of appointees". And if anyone objects, he'll just say "we won the election fair and square, the people have spoken, so, nyaaah."
the reason Ford won could be that alot of people who do not live in "priority neighborhoods" cannot "plan a life beyond the next immediate and urgent moments."
For example..I live right next to a subway station, but I am not a homeowner, I am a renter, and I am barely able to afford rent..so am I supposed to be considered as someone who is more privileged than those living in "priority neighborhoods"
I understand we need to lift everyone out of poverty, but very few people can really be totally compassionate and empathetic to the downtrodden when they also see themselves as member of the downtrodden but are being passed over as not having it all that bad by the David Miller administration.
Rob Ford has a phobia towards streetcars and light rail.
One may present all the facts we can find, but the facts will not persuade someone with a phobia. Better to turn our attention to the other city councilors who will listen to the facts presented.
I think Ford is just abused as a child and he has to overcompensate by hurting those who need help the most..but thats another story..
tell the council you want transit city
http://www.emailthem.ca/transitcity/
This could be his achilles heel. He seems to think his winning slogan was "stop the war on the car" or "stop the streetcar" not "stop the gravy train." I wonder if he has some polling data to back this up? If not, he may paint himself into a corner.
Than again, some people forget that Mike Harris won in 1995 on the slogan "stop photo radar." The "war on the car" has longer legs than some downtown folks think.
I don't think anyone voted for Ford because of his transit plan. Or even if that was part of his equation, it was not the biggest part. One of the fundamental problems of this campaign, and the Miller adminstration was being able to communicate their vision to the people of the city, and this was largely compounded by the fact that major media outlets, in particular the Toronto Star, spent the last year trashing Miller, as opposed to explaining transit city.
If the Star had actually endorsed "Transit City". as opposed to George Smitherman, then Ford might have been defeated on the issues.
Closing this thread.
Fuckity. (that's about the topic, not the behavior of babblers)