I mean… at least we know now how much it costs to buy an election? What was the vehicle registration fee? $60? Crazy eh? I would have thought it’d be much higher.
(Remember when he wanted the entire city council to take a drug test? Oh man, good times!)
Well, he certainly wasn’t sophisticated. "Man about town " implies a superficial hedonism, the downmarket version of which is “hard-partying drunk”. Draw your own conclusions.
But the use of “sophisticated” as an insult by Ford Nation types is a dog-whistle for “pointy-headed intellectual downtown-dwelling bicycle-riding commie unionist queer”. These are the people that Don Cherry, in his speech at Ford’s inauguration, gloated were going to get theirs now that Rob was in charge.
Speaking only for myself, I prefer a touch of intellect and sophistication in a mayor.
I’m wondering why. I’ve never understood this rule.
Where does this injunction to not speak ill of the dead come from? Why is someone less worthy of criticism as soon as they die?
Well, at least I got the “Bumblefuck” part right. 
This is a really good read: http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/feminist-current/2016/03/on-death-rob-ford-and-mourning-abusive-men
People make mistakes, they say things they should not have said, they behave in ways they regret. There is no reason to expect perfection from human beings and there are many circumstances under which we should forgive mistakes. But these behaviours, exhibited by Ford, repeatedly, were not simply “flaws” or “mistakes” so much as they were a deep sense of entitlement and a bigoted ideology. And if Ford was simply “an ordinary man,” as the media is fond of saying, what does that say, then, about “ordinary men?”
Yes, really good indeed, this part too.
Certainly he did not support struggle of the working class, anti-union as he was. The CBC is correct that he became an “international celebrity for his drug and alcohol use while in office,” but he shouldn’t have been infamous for that reason. Rather, it should have been his treatment of women, people of colour, and the poor that brought him infamy…
“A dedicated man of the people,” he was called, in a statement from “his family” (I do not know which members of his family prepared this statement). No. He was not a man of “the people,” he was a man who was out for himself and others like him: white middle- or upper-class men.
I think it’s mostly out of consideration for the friends and family who are mourning. Those people are in emotional pain, aren’t guilty of the wrongs of the dead, so throwing abuse around at that point adds to their pain unfairly. It also sows seeds of discord at a time when everyone’s already emotional wrecked. It also can be unfair since the dead can’t defend themselves.
But while that makes sense for friends, family, and others who are just regular people, it makes no sense for public figures who dedicated their lives to screwing over the little people and benefited from it. They don’t deserve that kind of respect, their friends and families aren’t likely to see the snark, and they won’t give a crap about some random stranger’s opinion anyway.
He was anti-every social program there was. From early intervention with at-risk youth, to replanting trees destroyed in the ice storms. It was amazing and terrifying to watch and live through. Honestly, most of us at this point are mourning the Toronto that could have been if not for him. We’d have actual public transit… ugh, I can’t start with the things we’d have if he’d never been mayor or I’ll never stop…
@nemomen - I’m not happy he’s dead, I’m glad he’s no longer mayor, but I so feel for those kids. 
As well as a bad person, what with the racism, sexism, homophobia, etc…
HA! You’re kidding, right? Right? Otherwise, it’s people like you that are well on your way to making President Dumbletrump. Critical thinking and basic reasoning are apparently foreign concepts to your ilk. Also, you might want to look into the difference between facts and opinions.
His expression of sorrow for their situation is not an apology.
I’d stop digging for one, nobody offended you.
Nobody, including you here has asked for that.
Nope, all we get is snarky bullshit guilt trips no different really than what we’re doing. Shame? No more likely here than on your end of the internet, so maybe go seeking something else if you want satisfaction.
Oh, goodness, they have accounts here?
My deepest apologies – I had no idea.
I wonder why they never chimed in while he was alive and fucking things up.
With the utmost sincerity I can convincingly muster without sniggering,
the OtherMichael
A different blowhard of the same name.
He fucked things up for other people, while taking it all for himself and his family?
For making Toronto worse off than it was before him?
For his complete utter and total lack of respect for his office?
For a large litany of sins that are easily searchable via your engine of choice, once you are done being so smugly self-congratulatory and ill-informed.
Disgustedly,
the OtherMichael
A friend sent me this awesome eulogy. I’m still refusing to honor this dead guy any more than I did when he was alive.
I will never forgive him for cancelling TransitCity… a $7billion transit plan 3 years in the making… and here we are nearly a decade later and we have no plan, funding is in shambles and we’re still voting on what to do next… thats 100% on him.
