Re: Rob Ford Again
 

How much support does he have amongst the electorate (%, roughly)? Would the majority of Torontonians like to see him go?

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Hes slipped slightly in the last day or three to about 38%, but thats still higher than his nearest declared rival. However 60% also think he should get some help. To put that in perspective Barack Obama has a 38% approval rating.

None of which really matters if he toughs it out until next October when the next election is scheduled. By that point much of this will have escaped the electorates short term memory, and the usual political incentives will apply (choosing between tax savings and service levels).

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

There ought to be enough public pressure for him to step down. I don't have any knowledge of Toronto politics, but it seems to me that an opposing faction with backbone could organise some kind of protest to "persuade" him to resign. He is such an embarrassment to Canada, let alone Toronto.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Why would he cave to public pressure? He knows he doesn't legally have to stand aside, so why wouldn't he hold out until the election? He has nothing to gain and little to loose at this point, and the electorate has a woefully short memory when it comes to someone promising reduced taxes.

The threat wont come from the opposition, but I could see someone on his side of the fence seing this as an opportunity to "push him under the bus" and they may organize a coup behind his back from within his own followers and take his place.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Well the idea is the public put the pressure on the other civic leaders (whether from within his party or the opposition) to do something to effect his replacement. Refusing to show up to meetings might be a starting point. It can be done.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

no cos he's an angry drunk. that's no fun.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

That would require the public to not be totally apathetic about local politics...

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

I have, well not him exactly, but a few facsimiles of him. The key is to judge when to make your escape in a cab before the insanity takes a hold of them. :)

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Oh come on folks anyone can see in the new video Rob Ford is doing an impression of Randy Macho Man Savage or Hulk Hogan as to what he is going to do with his next opponent.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

My deepest apo logies I meant to write *****, , **** was a bit wankerish :thumbdown:

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Out on the piss, the press certainly would.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

If they ever want to resurrect The Sopranos, they know who to turn to for the part.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Rob Ford's Italian?

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Apart from a rough similarity in size, I see no similarity in person whatsoever.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

I'm curious about what's left - there's one more video... The city officials that are barking for his head represent their electorate so I'd be surprised if his standing in the polls is quite as good as it looks when it comes to voting. I wonder if there's any work being done on a reality tv series 'The Fords', the family seems to have enough dysfunctional elements to make it work, and if Novocastrian's right about murder-related charges in the offing, (damn, that's clever!), things could get racy.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Lots of swearing, association with villains, threats....

Rob Ford is Tony Soprano

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

That's a desperate stab at glamourisation. Rob Ford is more like Don Cherry or Rod Steiger in In The Heat of the Night; a blowhard who's missed his calling as a small town cop.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Or, according to Martin Short, the lovechild of Chris Farley and Chaz Bono. :)

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

A few waspish comments at the start about Canadian politics. The Guardian is interested in Ford........

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...=ILCNETTXT3487

Not a dickie bird about the Canadian PM............

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Yes, seeing the story all over now. As DBD said in No.79, the press are more interested in the human interest angle than another country's normal politics.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Just a heads up if you haven't already heard. It'll be worthwhile tuning in to CBC Newsworld's Fifth Estate at 9 pm eastern this evening.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Thanks. CBC app doesn't seem to play in Britain.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Such is the global dominance of things Canadian.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

I thought you lived in Canada?

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Not at present, as many of my posts would reveal. ;)

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

That rather explains the cheery disposition. :thumbup:

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Ford is mildly entertaining, if the Mayor of Tulsa was on crack he'd be in the paper, when the Mayor of Washington was on crack he was in the paper. The contrast between the pomposity and bombast inherent in being a Mayor and the squalid conduct of the crack smoker makes crack smoking Mayors easy figures of fun.

Harper isn't very interesting, slightly corrupt leaders of minor countries are ten-a-penny. Harper's religiosity and his startling hair catch our attention because he's local but, seen from a distance, he's just another Jimmy Swaggart; there's always another of them.

I suppose the key point here is that no one really notices what happens in Canada unless it has a comedic edge. Ford seems a stereotypical cradle to us because we live here but to an audience who think of Pierre Trudeau as being the embodiment of all things Canadian; cultured, francophone, libidinous. A fat druggy redneck guy comes over as a novelty act.

I do like Ford for poking his finger in the eye of the idea that Canadians are somehow different from the worst Americans.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

I hope to god it's not a sex tape. :blink:

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

The previously redacted police evidence is being released this afternoon. Early reports are that it contains police interviews with city staffers alluding to Oxycontin abuse in his office in City Hall, sending staffers out to buy vodka to bring into the office, incidents of sexual harassment of staff, etc etc.

Surely he's got to go if that lot is true. So far he's always managed to maintain he was doing this stuff on his own time. Unsurprisingly, that appears to be some distance from reality...

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

I think the acts described just cause Ford's constituency to identify more closely with him. Those who are not, at this moment, fat, drunk and leering, wish they were. I note that Ford was on the front page of the Sun this week posing with Don Cherry. I think they sell into the same market. Cherry's a fat man who owns a chain of bars who's made a living from encouraging brawls.

This is what cradle Canada's about, not the wishy-washy liberalism of immigrants and francos.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Is it too much to hope that he turns out to be a cross-dresser as well?

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

CAN'T WAIT!!! GOOD TIMES.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Get the popcorn, sit back and watch the firework display :)

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

:blink: pass the mind-bleach, please :blink:

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Eleanor would know.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

He's the gift that keeps on giving. Long may it continue. :thumbup:


http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/11...nto-reporters/

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

OK....they crossed the line by "calling his wife a prostitute":frown:

I mean common on people, that is not right and the poking obviously should be focused on Rob, not members of his family.

Listen to the end of the press brief though...Rob said "I have more than enough to eat at home". Rob, that is just a silly thing to say

http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hal...x_comment.html

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

Odder each day, isn't it? I think Toronto's gotten really lucky with Rob. If it wasn't for the lurid coke and booze scandal enough voters might overlook his mishandling of the LRT/subway fiasco and he'd get in again with his whole mobbed-up family and they'd be fighting for air just like Montreal trying to get organized crime out of city hall. Some say Doug would make a good mayor, I wouldn't touch any of them. I haven't been in Toronto for a long time now, is the Zanzibar Tavern still there?

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

well, maybe she was a prostitute, one of those high-classy ones. At this point I would believe anything.

Re: Rob Ford Again
 

I don't think they did call his wife a prostitute, they said that about some other woman, named Alana. Apparently she was at the infamous St Patricks day party, and is according to Rob Ford, a 'friend'.