It all started back in May where there was a rumored video of Ford smoking crack. He then denies all allegations said about him; "I did not use crack cocaine, nor am I an addict of crack cocaine." He then later says that the video "doesn't exist." These allegations made Ford, Toronto, and Canada look like a joke to other countries. After this, things die down for the summer and its not until the recent few weeks where the topic comes back up.
The morning of October 31st, Toronto police chief William Blair announces police have recovered the video. Now Ford's in serious trouble. On November 5th Ford admits to smoking crack cocaine. So far, Ford has smoked crack and lied about it to pretty much the entire world, still seem like a pretty good mayor?
After this video is released Ford says to the pubic that he has "nothing left to hide," although just this past week Ford was rumored to be involved with prostitutes. There was also a video found of Rob Ford on an aggressive rant where he threatens to kill a person. Then, on live TV, he makes the comment that I'm not going to repeat on my blog.
And after all this nonsense, Ford still expects to be involved in the Santa Claus Parade. Thankfully the
co-chair of the parade asked Ford not to march.
This past Monday the council finally stripped Ford of most of his budget and powers as Mayor of Toronto. Is this enough? Should he be fired?
After this video is released Ford says to the pubic that he has "nothing left to hide," although just this past week Ford was rumored to be involved with prostitutes. There was also a video found of Rob Ford on an aggressive rant where he threatens to kill a person. Then, on live TV, he makes the comment that I'm not going to repeat on my blog.
And after all this nonsense, Ford still expects to be involved in the Santa Claus Parade. Thankfully the
co-chair of the parade asked Ford not to march.
This past Monday the council finally stripped Ford of most of his budget and powers as Mayor of Toronto. Is this enough? Should he be fired?
All information and quotes taken from Global News website article: Here’s everything Mayor Rob Ford has said about crack video allegations
Ben, thanks for the succinct summary of Ford Fiasco. I agree with you that he is not a good representative of the people of Toronto, despite being an elected official. He has shown time and time again that he is not up for the job. Seeing that he cannot be fired (apparently he has to be convicted before he can lose his job as mayor), I think council did the best thing by stripping him of most of his duties.
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, I loved your title.
I completely agree with you, Ben. Rob deserves to lose his job as a paid politician for the largest city in Canada. He has admitted to having some serious addiction issues and he needs to be getting help with these.. I mean, he cannot even remember smoking crack cocaine due to his "drunken stupor". Clearly, he is not in a capacity to be in a mayoral position, and certainly not deserved of representing the city of Toronto.
ReplyDeleteFord should be fired. My reason is not that he did these things but that it continues. I think lots of politicians have things like drugs in there past but have gotten help and moved on. Ford continues to lie to the people and try to cover his actions. I think we cannot trust him anymore, I think the addiction issues will continue to influence his work and the city cannot function with him at the position of mayor. He needs to be fired because of his actions as mayor not because of his past.
ReplyDeleteI have never been a supporter of Tea Party Style politics, let alone those practiced by a bull in a china shop. I think it is self-evident that he does not belong in office, in spite of all the wonderful material he provides late-night talk shows.
ReplyDeleteHowever, what I think is irrelevant, and I must disagree with removing him from office.
There are two issues I would like to address.
The first is the legality of removing him from office (as mentioned by Ms. Le)The City of Toronto Act (orig. 1834 but revised since) does not allow for people to be fired unless they are imprisoned or have missed a ridiculous number of days from work (I think the number is 90). . It really does set a dangerous precedent to arbitrarily make up rules and apply them retroactively when things don't go our way. Any government can rewrite legislation to fit it's agenda without having to navigate the checks and balances that democratic instituitions have implemented to guarantee the rights of citizens (insert your favourite dictator here)
This can be quite sad - what if he was mentally incapacitated during a crisis, and made the wrong decision (or no decision). The City of Toronto Act did not forsee this and needs to be amended by the province somehow. Council has taken the only steps it can (and even these may unravel in court). The Province of Ontario (the guarantor of all municipal governments in the province) not the City of Toronto, must enact legislation that will deal with these types of situations.
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ReplyDeleteMy second issue is much more troubling and central to the very existance of democracy - that the citizenry continues to elect obviously inappropriate individuals into positions of power . Either they are clearly unfit, or are controlled by self interest groups. The 20th century has seen democracy elect many tryrants and dictators (Hitler by the people and Stalin by his party - to name a few).
ReplyDeleteA free press and an education system that taught critical thinking skills was to be the answer. Yet we have seen simple solutions to complex problems continually embraced by the masses during election time with the predicted fallout. Ford was elected by the simple "more for less" slogan that meant cutting taxes while providing better service.
Rob Ford did not keep his behaviour or his agenda secret, before being elected mayor, his superficial minimalist proposals were continually on the losing end of 44-1 votes as a councillor. He was charged for drinking and driving and drug possession in the states. His boorish nature was not cloaked. Yet, he was able to tap into the mindset of those who feel that the best government is no government and was given an enormous mandate to govern.
Rob Ford has since embarassed himself, the city, the province, and the country with his risky out of control behaviour and his locker room talk. Yet 24% of the people (1 in every 4 Torontonians) would still vote for him. With less than 50% of the eligible people voting in recent municipal elections, if all his supporters show up to vote - he wins the next election. This is why he still hasn't given in. If we get rid of him arbitrarily now and he wins the next election he will feel even more enabled and entitiled. (Aside -If indeed "the people deserve the government they elect" what does that say about us)
Again I believe that council has acted accordingly. They have taken away as many powers as they can - (safety of self and others being the operating principle-similar to taking a knife away from a child) without removing him from his elected office. We cannot just jetison elected officials like an unexpected bad taste . We can however rage against the machine next election day. If we keep looking for the easy way out, for greater powers that be (i.e. city hall, province), to continually rescue us from oursevleves, to relieve us from our burden of shame , we will not learn. There can be no easy fix, consequences for poor choices must apply. If we do not exercise our franchise (vote) seriously, we deserve the embarassment inflicted upon us. For democracy to work, the masses must be enlightened.. Only then, the new boss will be better than the old boss, and we won't get fooled again(Apologies to The Who).
Thank you for your blog, it certainly made me think!
I loved your blog post Benjamin! I think Rob Ford should definetly be fired. He does not deserve to be a paid politician for the City of Toronto, and is a very bad representative for the Toronto's citizens. Not only is he continuously lying, has bizarre outbursts and asinine responses, but he is overall quite rude. And I am embarrassed that he is a representative of Toronto. Although his outbursts and chaotic actions are entertaining, make a funny story and keep people talking, I think there has been enough of them and he needs to be stripped of his title.
ReplyDelete