Ford Desecration Pt III

In the opening days of Rob Ford’s mayoralty, he told me and the Post‘s City Hall reporter, Natalie Alcoba, that closing a library on a Sunday would constitute a “major” service cut, and therefore would not happen. Fast forward to this week, and not only are library hours very much on the chopping block, but Doug Ford sounds downright eager to close branches altogether. He said there’s one in his ward that “nobody uses,” which isn’t true of course, not long after he said there were more libraries in his ward than Tim Horton’s franchises, which also isn’t true. And he suggested if Margaret Atwood has an opinion on libraries, she should get elected or shut up. Concurrently, we learned that Rob Ford may have flipped off a woman who sanctimoniously told him to get off his cell phone while driving — a “misunderstanding,” says the Mayor, hilariously. (He should have just said nothing, but damage control has never been a strong suit.) This really is the sort of low point — spiteful, undignified, pointless — that I and other moderate penny-punchers dared dream we’d never arrive at. And barely anything has even happened yet at City Hall. Anyone want to talk me down off the ledge?

You don't get paid everytime someone borrows your book. The only money Atwood would make would be the initial royalties from the library buying a library edition of her book. It's a one-off. Even more of a ludicrous idea than you think!

In 2010-2011, the [url=http://www.plr-dpp.ca/plr/documents/PLR_Annual_Report_final.pdf]Public Lending Right (PLR) program[/url] delivered $9.9 million in payments to 17,487 authors, tanslators and illustrators for the presence of their books in Canadian public libraries.

So what ever happened to "Ford Nation"?? I was expecting to see massive phalanxes of "Tea Party North" types who voted for Ford all packing the public meetings and demanding MORE cuts in service and MORE tax caust and MORE with-hunts for "gravy". Instead they are no where to be seen.

Catchfire wrote:

You don't get paid everytime someone borrows your book. The only money Atwood would make would be the initial royalties from the library buying a library edition of her book. It's a one-off. Even more of a ludicrous idea than you think!

That was true until 25 years ago.

Quote:

In 2010-2011, the [url=http://www.plr-dpp.ca/plr/documents/PLR_Annual_Report_final.pdf]Public Lending Right (PLR) program[/url] delivered $9.9 million in payments to 17,487 authors, tanslators and illustrators for the presence of their books in Canadian public libraries.

According to Mayor Ford, they're too busy working and earning their keep to attend and depute at such public meetings.  Really.

 

Which, if divided equally, would come to a little more than $566.13 cdn per author.  So it's still not exactly a goldmine.

It will be now.

Who is being groomed, right now, to run against Ford?   It better be someone with bona fides as a progressive, and not another smarmy right winger in Liberal clothing, or we can expect another term for Ford. 

Paid agents of Rob Ford couldn't do any better than these twits.

Adam Vaughan pwns KPMG. Super wow.

Wait for it.....ka-POW!

Well Spector, it does at least bring to light the hypocrisy and therefore the "quality" of MSM journalists.

 

Build Toronto, the city-owned company charged with selling surplus property, is teaming up with residential developer Tridel to invest in a new skyscraper on a pie-shaped city lot at York and Harbour Streets. If approved as planned, the project will join a cluster of nearby skyscrapers, part of a wave of development on land south of the railway tracks and will rival a new building at College Park as the city’s tallest condo tower.

Mr. Meggs said he didn’t know what the impact would be of the city providing a $46-million loan guarantee on top of the other debt it is carrying on the Olympic village.

“No one’s assessed that at this point,” he said.

The city is currently carrying $1.6-billion in taxpayer-supported debt, triple the level it was carrying in 2006. That debt load, which works out to $2,623 per city resident, which is higher than in most Canadian cities, rose dramatically last February when the city took over the construction loan for the private developer building the 1,100-unit village.

In the past the International Day of Persons with Disabilities - a United Nations event held around the world - has been supported by the city at locations like Variety Village and the CNIB, and attended by city officials, including former Toronto mayor David Miller.

This year the City of Toronto posted a notice to its website saying the annual Dec. 3 event, which honours unsung heroes who struggle against adversity, would not be held.

Instead, the event will be recognized with a proclamation by Mayor Rob Ford, on Dec. 8, at an evening event celebrating Human Rights Day in the council chamber of city hall, according to the city website.

......

City Councillor Adam Vaughan said he had no idea the event had been cancelled even though he is chair of the accessibility advisory committee, one of 21 citizen committees Ford tried to shut down this summer.

Ford had to back away from shutting down the accessibility advisory committee after it was pointed out to him that having one is a requirement under provincial law, said Vaughan.

"There's been a drift, if not a concerted effort, to move away from support of people in this city with disabilities," said Vaughan. "The mayor's office has been silent on this stuff. They're walking away from democratic input and they're walking away from supporting people that have needs."

Vaughan said he is trying to get the committee back up and running.