Millionaire Doug Ford is "donating" his councillor's salary to "charity" (tax deductible of course). And now Georgio Mammoliti's going to give up his suburban constituency office to "save money". Why not give up their City Hall offices too? The lobbyists and contractors are really going to need some space and it's not really fair for them to be traveling back and forth now that Toronto is open for business again. According to the millionaire Mayor-elect, a councillor's job is only part-time anyway. Perhaps the councillors could be moved to a soon to be renovated section of the City Hall garage?
Toronto after the election, continued
Thu, 2010-10-28 18:58
#102
Thu, 2010-10-28 20:27
#103
Perhaps, it's better not discussed here but I've been hearing about a lot of homophobia driving Ford's vote.
I'm not sure that's good to explain more than a few percentage points. Smitherman's legitimate negatives seem much more important.
With the erosion of full time work through employers exploiting the "contract worker" loophole enabling them to get away with not paying benefits or overtime to part-time workers, more and more middle to low income folks are seeing themselves as "businesspeople" or "independent contractors" who think they have no use for unions in this dog-eat-dog world. no free rides etc.etc. they have drunk the neo-liberal koolaide and can't see through the rhetorical smokescreen the business sector has thrown up. They now truly believe that union members are the "elite" because of their job security and higher wages and benefits, not getting for a second that they could have the same if they did the same work standing up to the corporate class and organising in their better interest.
Could they? As a union member in the private sector I can tell you what would happen if we got pushy. It might well happen even if we don't but it becomes more likely the higher our costs go. Some or all of the jobs we do would become subject to contracting out, the ones that don't absolutely have to be here for whatever reason going to companies in India or the Phillippines. This is something government employers have been slow to do for various reasons and fairly or not, it creates a privileged class of workers.
Thu, 2010-10-28 21:17
#104
I was involved in the local, small\medium town, races in my area. A LOT of incumbent mayors went down in a wide area around London. I think there's a general dissatisfaction with the way pols conducted themselves during the recession, and municipal pols were simply the first targets in Ontario where voters had a chance to express this frustration.
Sometimes. Not in Port Hope or Cobourg, where the incumbent mayor was re-elected (Port Hope) or incumbent deputy mayor moved up on the mayor's retirement (Cobourg). The odd incumbent councillor who ran one time too many lost, but there was no general dissatisfaction here.
Thu, 2010-10-28 21:37
#105
So what's different about Port Hope and Cobourg?
Thu, 2010-10-28 22:14
#106
So what's different about Port Hope and Cobourg?
Not just Port Hope and Cobourg.
Unlike their 416 counterparts, most 905 voters last night did not find that political familiarity breeds electoral contempt.Across the GTA, most incumbents were returned to office.
Thu, 2010-10-28 22:38
#107
The incumbents were also returned in Waterloo Region (Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge) and Guelph, and a lot of Conservative "suits", newbies with their hold the tax lines were repulsed.
Thu, 2010-10-28 22:39
#108
If I tried to organize a union at my part time job, i would be fired immediately and I would be kicked out of my rental or use my credit card to pay my bills. Um, yeah, not going to happen. Unless if Karl Marx is coming back to the dead and can borrow m som money.
Fri, 2010-10-29 02:20
#109
What does Karl Marx have to do with you not being able to form a Union at your work? Other then the fact that in his writings, you can find out why the capitalist make it hard to form a Union.
Fri, 2010-10-29 07:56
#110
London, Ingersol, Woodstock, St Thomas.... all new Mayors, in an broad area representing over five hundred thousand people. Outside of Windsor this area has the highest unemployment rate in Ontario. Woodstock and Ingersol being slightly better situated because of the Cami and Toyota plants running more or less full steam.
Fontana in London ran on freezing taxes, and beat a candidate most everyone - media included - recognized as being the best organized and competent candidate.
Cities\municipalities not being friendly to business was a constant theme in these races. That's a hard line to disprove as an incumbent candidate, and being linked to left\labour\city hall was death for long standing public servants like Gina Barber and David Winninger in London.
The failure of progressives to recognize the growing anger, stoked by the media and bright right wingers, against "city hall" and protected gov workers is a problem that needs to be addressed.
Ford's campaign certainly influenced these races. When results started rolling in locally and provincially, everyone wanted to know what was happening in Toronto.
Fri, 2010-10-29 08:33
#111
Maysie
It's going to be exhausting to stay at this level of enraged for the next 4 years.
Fuck.
Closing for length.
P.S. FUCK!
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