If there were any doubts that remain regarding the buffoonery of Toronto's right-wing mayor Robert Bruce Ford, all those were put to rest with the events of today (March 5).
In a stunning move, Toronto City Council voted 29-15 to dissolve the nine-person TTC Board, the city's transit administrative agency and replace it with a new make-up of 7 councilors and 4 citizen members.
The move was precipitated by two actions Ford and his right-wing posse undertook in the past couple of weeks; namely-
The firing two weeks ago of long-serving TTC Chief General Manager Gary Webster, for nothing other than his vocal opposition to the mayor's incoherent Scarborough subway plan.
Ford's proposal to remake the transit board by excluding council members from the agency and replacing them with private citizens.
The second action was a blatant (and inherently stupid) attempt to subvert city council. It was designed not only to usurp council's authority on the transit file but to pull the rug from under TTC chairperson, Coun. Karen Stintz - Mayor Ford's acknowledged political antagonist. Using politicking as the main excuse in overhauling the transit board, Ford stated that taking politicians out of the mix ensures the transit issue will not be tainted by political motives. Yet the mayor suggested that he alone should have the discretion in appointing members to this, his imagined Ford Transit Board. In other words, (or should I say in Rob Ford's right-wing world)-
politicking for politics' sake is wrong; politicking for Rob Ford's political interest is right.
The trouble for the mayor is that he doesn't preside over a banana republic; he is chief-magistrate of the City of Toronto-North America's fourth largest city and by far it's most liberal and educated metropolis.
The most telling of all is the result of the council vote itself. The 29 anti-Ford votes represent the two-thirds majority needed to override just about anything Ford and his allies throw at the wall. It simply means Ford has lost most if not all of his political capital. And to add insult to injury, the proposal that council voted for was the one forwarded by (insert drum roll here)----yes, you guessed it. Council Member for Eglinton-Lawrence Karen Stintz; Toronto's de-facto mayor (and quite likely mayor-in-waiting after everything is all said and done). Rob Ford, from this day forth will be reduced to playing the role of ribbon-cutter; The Mayor-in-name only. A pariah and head clown in the circus that bears his name.
By no means he is completely useless, of course. Ford and his equally clownish brother and political sidekick, Etobicoke councilor Doug Ford started a radio show. In his desire to use the airwaves to forward his agenda of a Ford World, Rob recently made his debut as a predictable right-wing talking head. In gleeful homage to Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck plus a little sprinkling of Canada's own right-wing blowhard, Don Cherry, Ford spewed one irrational thought after another. Afterall, irrationality is in his wheelhouse. Indisputably ensuring himself a place in Canada's national monument of embarrasment.
Not to be outdone, his brother Doug acting as co-host (or more aptly co-pilot) starts the show off with his signature line "We're going for a ride". LOL. At which point, may I suggest to Toronto's mayor by accident this reply line----" To oblivion, Doug, and step on it".
