Again theyâre targeting the anti Ford campaign at downtown Toronto?
Etobicoke and Scarborough voters, those are the ones you need to target.
You know, everyone here seems to assume that Rob Ford wonât get re-elected. Crack-smoking, hard-partying mayor caught on camera in a nationalized scandal. No way will people vote for him. No way, right?
Two words, people. Marion Barry.
Most of whom would read those and nod to themselves. âAt least someone is sayinâ what everyone is really thinkinâ!â
I donât think everyone here assumes that. Depending on who is running against him, I could very much see Rob Ford winning again.
IIRC the perception of Marion Barry was that of a guy who was setup in a sting by overzealous cops. Something the mostly black residents of the city could relate to.
I think he actual line was something like âbitch set me up!â when the cops were busting down the door.
I hope the residents of Toronto wonât be able to relate to Rob Ford nearly as much.
Plus, I thought Barry cleaned up his act and then later was reelected? I donât think he had consecutive wins. Or did he?
You do recall correctly, but heâd already been caught more than once attending parties and nightclubs w/ various drugs, prostitutes, and related stuff. Throw into the mix a lot of crony-ism, and questionable accounting on the part of DC government, and itâs hard for me to get in Barryâs camp. I canât say he did all bad; he identified and cleaned up a lot of the graft and corruption from previous administrations, and streamlined the government and various departments. In the end though, once he got out of his six-months in jail, he put on African robes, took to the streets as âone of the peopleâ and got re-elected. Once back in office, the city was in such poor shape that most of the control got turned over to a financial control board, who cleaned house in a display of government efficiency that has yet to be rivaled.
Huh, Iâve just had the horrible suspicion that if Ford doesnât get re-elected, Toronto could end up with someone even worse.
Coming to terms with âdemocracyâ is painful business.
You know, my family and I were pretty dead set on moving to Canada as soon as possible, preferably near Toronto. Now, considering their electorate brought him into office to begin with. Any other suggestions on major cities to center on in our move?
I understand Sochi is nice this time of yearâŚ
Montrealâs gone through a couple mayors I think with corruption charges. Londonâs mayor has been charged with fraud from when he was a federal MP. There are probably some more Iâm forgetting. So those are options.
The Greater Toronto Area does not consist solely of the city of Toronto. There are something like 20+ municipalities in the area. I personally live in Oakville, and I love it here. No recent crazy scandals that I can remember, crime is pretty rare⌠Some of the housing prices have gone through the roof in recent years (though, compared to downtown Toronto itâs not too shabby, and letâs not even talk about, say, Vancouverâs housing market right now). And if you arenât a car person, you really do have to move to Toronto. Anywhere outside of downtown (well, and even in downtown, if weâre being honest, considering Toronto is now the fourth largest city in North America) the transit systems are pretty dismal.
Although, having said all that, even Toronto itself is not really a single city, as the flavours of each part of the city are VERY different. And really, you can classify most big cities that way. Rob Ford doesnât represent all Torontonians, in the same way that Michael Bloomberg (or Rudy Giuliani, before him) doesnât represent all New Yorkers. Toronto in particular suffers in this respect because many parts of it (Etobicoke and Scarborough, for example) are MUCH more suburban than downtown itself. But we need not get into the pains of amalgamation here.
Oh Moxy FrĂźvous, how I miss you so.
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