Toronto mayor Rob Ford is out

YIPPEE! Rob Ford, the hateful, horrible Mayor of Toronto, has lost his conflict of interest case, and he is now out of a job. In 14 days, he will no longer be mayor of Toronto, and will have to go back to a life of spending his parents' money and complaining about parasites who don't understand hard work. (Though I'm not holding my breath -- I'm sure the appeals process is already in motion). Adieu, Mayor Laughable Bumblefuck! Try not to let the city hit you in the ass on the way out!

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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fakefighter

SQUEEEE
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jonathan-Vanasco/728395557 Jonathan Vanasco

My canadian friends are scared that this will favor Rob Ford’s “outsider narrative” — the judge didn’t bar him from running for office, so he can (and will , if he loses appeal ) run again to reclaim it.
- jandrese
  
  How does Prime Minister Ford sound to you?
  - http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
    
    American
Brian Connolly

This is fairly encouraging to hear as a US citizen who could never hope to remove a corrupt politician through such means.
- Just_Ok
  
  kwame
- http://twitter.com/sirkowski Sirkowski
  
  Americans have a much better track record than Canadians at removing corrupt politicians from office. What just happened in Toronto and previously in Montreal and Laval is the exception.
- http://cobramcgiantballs.tumblr.com/ Xploder
  
  I hate to disagree with you but here in Flint, Michigan, we’ve removed one mayor, Woodrow Stanley, and missed removing another, Don Williamson, by one day. Williamson “retired for health reasons” the day before the recall election. So, as you can see, it IS possible for US citizens to remove corrupt politicians. Also, as the person below me says, Kwame Kilpatrick was removed as Detroit’s mayor. We may be a dying state here in Michigan but we at least TRY to get rid of the worst of the moronic politicos.
  - Brian Connolly
    
    Yeah but do you think it’s even a remote possibility that a US politician would be ousted over a $3,500 campaign contribution?
    
    I mean, purportedly, Kwame Kilpatrick literally had someone murdered by his own police force. All Rob Ford had to do was take some money he wasn’t supposed to.
    
    EDIT: Sorry, it wasn’t a campaign finance contribution. He was endorsing a fundraising campaign using the official City of Toronto logo.
dragonfrog

He wasn’t barred from running again in the byelection to replace himself. Unless council decides to appoint someone already elected, I wouldn’t count on Torontonians not voting him back in.
- davidasposted
  
  I would. Ford continues to have supporters of course, but many people initially voted for the man on the basis of his campaign promises and have been disappointed more or less from the first week onward. It seems unlikely that a majority are willing to give him a second chance.
  - dragonfrog
    
    Does Toronto use instant-runoff for civic elections? If not, it only has to be a plurality – which, if there are several credible opponents, could easily happen.
    - davidasposted
      
      Fair enough, though sadly Toronto rarely seems to have multiple credible candidates in the mayoral race.
- swlabr
  
  I heard a comment that the fine print of the court ruling does actually bar him from running in a by-election. He can run in the next election two years later. Sorry, I don’t have the cite right now.
  - http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy
    
    I thought I heard the same on the CBC this AM, but I couldn’t be sure, was focussed on driving and singing to a child.
nixiebunny

Conflict of interest is an unusual way to remove a politician, but a very satisfying one.
- http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki
  
  Yeah, I never thought he’d go out on something like that.
  I always thought it would end with child molestation, physical assault, cocaine overdose or running over a reporter.
  
  So it’s great that this way no one got hurt.
  - iCowboy
    
    ‘Yeah, I never thought he’d go out on something like that.
    I always thought it would end with child molestation, physical assault, cocaine overdose or running over a reporter.’
    Or all four.
    - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1515015318 Missy Pants
      
      All four at once.
      - orangedesperado
        
        You guys forgot about the DUI, indecent exposure and embezzling. All at once, with the other four.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Katrina-van-Malksvig/100000571611598 Katrina van Malksvig

not being Canadian or familiar with Toronto politics, I fully expected to read about the mayor coming out as a gay person…
- http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki
  
  how would that hurt his career?
  
  .. oh right… you’re American right?
  - Paul Cummings
    
    Based on her earlier posts, Katrina is not from the United States. Please stop perpetuating these kinds of stereotypes to insult people. I live in Houston, Texas, and we elected an openly gay woman mayor. I’m as unhappy with obnoxious social conservatives as anyone, but the idea that this country is somehow dominated by bigoted religious nuts is either lazy or intellectually dishonest.
  - SamSam
    
    Actually, I think Katrina was referring to the fact that Ford seems to have been fairly hostile on gay politics, constantly voting against HIV funding, not making appearances at events such as Gay Pride etc.
    - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UWDFQHLRCTYZIOWFK3UZK223WI Rusty Shackleford
      
      Actually, I think she just thought as I did, that the headline was referring to a Canadian politician coming out as gay, before reading the copy underneath.
http://twitter.com/_m4tth3w_ Matthew Wong

This is the BEST Rob Ford related story I’ve EVER read!
dr drofub

As we are fond of saying here in the states, Muck Fitt!!

Good news:
Dr Buford
jsd

“VICTORY! WE HAVE VICTORY!” -King Theoden, Toronto cyclist.
Ramone

I don’t get it, I thought Toronto was supposed to be super worldly and diverse–how the heck did someone like Ford get elected in the first place? (Admittedly, I’m in the US and don’t know much about Toronto politics).
- Cory Doctorow
  
  Gerrymandering. In the 1990s, the Conservative premier of Ontario (like a governor) Mike Harris amalgamated (left wing) Toronto with its surrounding (right wing) suburbs/exurbs/dormitory communities, as a way of neutering the city’s power base. When you look at the vote map, you see that the old “City of Toronto” voted overwhelmingly against Ford, while the suburbs voted him in to run a city where they didn’t live and that they don’t like very much.
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1515015318 Missy Pants
    
    Have you seen the maps of voting history and GTA districts? It’s always been this way, the suburban/urban divide. Toronto votes left, the suburbs vote right. Just now with amalgamation the suburban voters out-number the urban votes like 3:1
    
    Can we please have Olivia Chow now? Please? At least she likes the city!
  - Dave Teeuwen
    
    Yes, yes, the WRONG PEOPLE were voting. If it weren’t for those goddam voters outside of a very small portion of the downtown area – none of whom had likely ever lived within the correct portion of said downtown area – this horrible person would not have won. Instead, George Smitherman would have won, as slimy career politician as one could hope to find.
    
    I know you haven’t lived here in a while Cory, but if you ever move back you will find that your 1980′s view of what Toronto is ended sometime around December 31st, 1989. This is not that city anymore and has not been for a while.
    
    Ford was not the right choice for this city, but your constant ignorance as to what got him into office and made life hell for the career politicians on the Left in the downtown core is sad and says a lot about what you really stand for. Mayors shouldn’t make stupid, bush-league mistakes like voting for your own charity to receive a pittance of cash that you could easily hand over yourself. But, as long as you have the energy to make fat jokes and ignore facts, maybe explain to everyone that this fund-raising in no way benefited him. If this were Miller no one would have taken it to court and no one would have batted an eye, because it’s a charitable act. Also, because he was as shiny and Upper Class a person as Toronto can produce.
    
    Your strange, out-moded elitism about where the correct voters live and your hate for this poor bumpkin/buffoon of a mayor is embarrassing for us here in T.O. People will think we are all as narrow-minded and xenophobic as yourself. Maybe stop referring to us in the future, pls?
    - hughstimson
      
      Cory’s description is accurate. If the city had not been amalgamated, Rob Ford might have become mayor of something, but it wouldn’t be Toronto.
      - Dave Teeuwen
        
        Yes, accurate 15 years ago when amalgamation took place. As a Lefty, I find the constant knee-jerk response to literally every possible outcome that is unfavorable to us – this is a problem that was forced on to us by the evil, all-powerful Mike Harris of 15 years ago – to be a really weak and sad argument. I wonder how many decades on we can use that one for?
        
        Instead, maybe we should recognize that a Lefty who did things with some passion and relateability to the voters all over the city instead of an island contained within of a few streets downtown is the way to go. Blaming Ford’s victory on Harris and the sort of voters that We Find Distasteful is weak. I sure hope we can leave that brand of excuse-making behind us and find someone who actually appears to like people.
      - http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy
        
        Numbers are not excuses. It’s not in their range to be so.
        
        Ford pandered to angry little everymen for his votes in any part of the city. His policy platform was practically nonexistent and what did exist was laughable. You can’t sell nothing with a rate sheet or a schematic, you need “Gravy” and other pandering statements which amount to nothing. Some of the votes he got were voted against someone, which is not democratic. Some of the votes were people willing to accept nothing in exchange for their confidence. Fools.
        
        Whether the votes in the suburbs were to the Right before amalgamation or because the votes in the suburbs were by persons willing to accept pandering hardly matters, right? Because it is likely both.
        
        The only thinking people I know who voted for Ford did so specifically to shake shit up. IMO the only legitimate votes for Ford.
    - http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy
      
      ‘scuse, but look at teh election map for the race in question.
      
      Now overlay a pre-amalgamation map.
      
      Now consider how amalgamation came to be. Who, of what affiliation, rammed it through? Why?
      
      Now consider where Bay Street & other places of influence are. Is it the suburbs?
      
      Go ahead and overlay a few previous mayoral elections, just to be sure. Go ahead and check the bona fides of the mayors outside Toronto pre-amalgamation.
      
      As for what got Ford into office, it is a combination of his own doggedness and his father, who was an MPP and provided a comfortable sack of comfort to his boys, which allowed Rob to afford to run. That and he had little to no competition.
      
      He only began making life hell for everyone (not just the left) at City Hall after becoming Mayor. As a councillor he was inept, never passing anything of his own and opposing the work of others (ineffectually, like 43-1 ineffectually) and was generally good at filling potholes and pretending to work. He was laughed at. He would not be Mayor had the centre or left fielded a worthy candidate. He would not be Mayor if Tory had decided to take a stab at it. He fell into a hole, that’s how he became Mayor.
      
      Given the relative vagaries of his charities we don’t know (or care) whether he benefitted directly. Some places he claims to have raised x amount, in other places it is x amount. Look at his constituency website and his page as Mayor, then look at the website of the charity in question.
      
      But it doesn’t matter. The asking, the asking & the manner of asking for the donations to begin with is where he went wrong, where the Integrity folks caught him screwing up. He probably benefitted for the asking (if you don’t understand then you can’t be helped by me) or the perception by and of the parties asked were skewed by the asking or donating.
      
      Then he made it 1000x worse by standing up in council and doing something -absolutely- wrong.
      
      If it were Miller he would not have stood and made an ass of himself with a blatant COI. Miller is a lot of things but stupid and oblivious to parliamentary ways are not among those.
      
      BTW, your own vitriol maxed out way above Cory’s.
      
      To bad about you losing your Mayor. Good to see that you didn’t like or approve of him either. What were you saying again?
    - Nadreck
      
      The “correct” voters are those who will be governed by the outcome of the election. Before the illegal amalgamation Toronto had, like every other Metropolis on the face of the earth, a borough system where local issues were decided locally and a area wide upper level for the Economies of Scale things. Now it’s a Winner-Take-All for the whole region and whoever wins gets to ram their priorities down the throats of everyone else at every level. Amalgamation is a huge problem in that it deliberately imposed a completely unworkable system (show me one other one like it anywhere in the world) that has a bitter war over every mayor as only one of its insoluble problems.
      
      Having said that, you other point below that Ford wouldn’t have won had the rest of the field been about the quality of this year’s GOP presidential hopefuls is quite true. But whoever wins will have to pander to either the suburbs or the urban areas on micro-issues to get elected, thus spending their entire term being despised by half the electorate, and nothing will get done on area wide problems.
- Ryan Lenethen
  
  Toronto also elected a guy named Mel Lastman. Twice. Sadly Toronto’s record of electing crazy is pretty good.
  - Nadreck
    
    As Mel himself pointed out, Ford made him look like a genius. Lastman at least built his own business up that he handed over to the kids after he became mayor. Ford just got his life handed to him by daddy.
- orangedesperado
  
  The suburbs…
Kaden Harris

Not a problem, Rob… just relocate to the west coast. You’d fit into the political infrastructure just fine
- edkedz
  
  Ugh, no. Stop in Alberta and stay there, please.
  - TNGMug
    
    I don’t want him. I voted for Nenshi :P
    - dragonfrog
      
      He could move to Fort Mac.
Nadreck

Seems like Toronto has a Used Ford for sale!

http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/cto/3435527958.html
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Flagged for removal. Probably by someone in his office who’s being paid with tax dollars.
Nadreck

IANAL but here’s hoping the appeals court decides not to hear the case and the ruling stands. The judge of today turned in a huge, multi-pound ruling which always means the judge is trying to bullet-proof it at the appellate level. Bullet-proof enough that the appeals court figures it’s open-and-shut enough to stay out of it? We’ll see!
- http://twitter.com/thedarkerside Michael
  
  Dunno. I almost want the appeals court to hear him stick his two feet in his mouth again and then add on a seven year ban on running for a public office again.
  
  Yeah, I am dreaming.
wysinwyg

Congratulations, Toronto residents.
hughstimson

He was on his way to self-destructing in the eyes of his supporters. This will give him a reprieve from self-destruction and a shot as a come-back candidate with fresh anti-elitist frustration to support him.

He should have been sanctioned in some way, but this disproportionate sudden death was not the way to do it. It is neither just nor good for the city. It may even result in a second Rob Ford term that we otherwise were going to be spared.
- Dave Teeuwen
  
  Good points. Candidates have to realize that many of the people moving to Toronto these days and living on its edges are not Leftys and never have been.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    You know, you’ve made a total of four comments on BB. They’re all backhanded defenses of Rob Ford and they all use the word Left or Lefty with a capital L. You identify as being a “Lefty”, a word usually used by reactionaries, while demeaning progressive voters. One might almost wonder if you’re entirely sincere.
    - orangedesperado
      
      Sincerely Right Wing…
    - TNGMug
      
      Ya that last one sounds if nothing else, like an idle threat that Toronto’s politics is shifting.
      
      “Lefty” is never used in self-reference. It’s little more then a reactionary sneer. As an actually left-handed person I find it more then a little insulting.
    - dragonfrog
      
      I would suspect him of being Doug Ford, except he can write.
http://darylfritz.com Daryl Fritz

So does this mean he doesn’t get to hold the Grey Cup in the Argos parade tomorrow?
Ken Snider

Thank the stars. May we (and by we I mean the misguided people in this city who voted thusly) never do anything so shortsighted again. *crosses fingers*
http://www.facebook.com/charles.lenchner Charles Lenchner

Cory, I really appreciate your unvarnished gloating. Appears to be utterly with merit.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  This would be unvarnished gloating.
TNGMug

I have to say, if anything this does play entirely into Rob Ford’s hands. And if anything, the judge was trying to avoid doing it. But the wrong here was so blatant that his hands were tied with respect to making any other ruling.
gumbowing

Has anyone done a Rob Ford Der Untergang mashup yet?
I would, but I lack the skill.