John Tory: Dangerous Dunce

John Tory is the most dangerous candidate for Mayor of Toronto that Rob Ford faces.

The reason for that is that John Tory is a smug dunce.

There are a good number of Torontonians who look at John Tory, see their own image and like what they see. John Tory personifies well to do, tailored, decorous vacuity. He has no rough edges that might chafe the many voters in this city who don't like rough edges and are well enough off not to be concerned with civic issues. They want a cosmetically acceptable Mayor of Toronto. They don't care about featherbedding, the city budget, whether Toronto's transit problems are fixed or any of that stuff. The one concern these voters have is visually appealing political wallpaper. (Think David Miller.)

Do you have nicely coiffed hair and a reassuring vapid bromide to present? Then you are their man.

Before he dropped out of the last mayorality campaign in this city, John Tory famously remarked, in a radio interview, that he "would never trust his own judgement", or words to that effect. The interviewer let it pass, but it was one of the political Freudian slips of the century in this city.

We know that Toronto City Council doesn't trust the judgement of the elected Mayor of Toronto, and has taken steps to separate him from his responsibilities in defiance of the will of the electorate.

What are they going to do if they are faced with A MAYOR WHO DOESN'T TRUST HIS OWN JUDGEMENT? How are they going to deal with that conundrum?

I know how the electorate in this city should deal with it. They shouldn't vote for the boob in the first place.

He's not smart enough to be Mayor of Toronto, but the horrifying fact is that there are a lot of voters in this city who are not smart enough or responsible enough to vote in elections in this city.

Unfortunately, this group of voters, the "cosmetologists", concerned only with appearances, John Tory's constituency, is numerically significant and can cause Mayor Ford serious problems in the coming election.

I want to add that this is not an unfair personal attack on Mr. Tory. This is a political analysis of the effect he is likely to have in the coming race for mayor. By all accounts Mr. Tory is a very nice guy on the personal level and a fine family man, but my view is that politics should be discussed on the political level, not the personal. This is the whole point of my continued support for Mayor Ford.

Mr. Ford has numerous personal issues in his private life. On a purely political level, as Mayor of Toronto, his record is stellar.

I don't believe Mr. Tory is up to dealing with the real problems of being Mayor of Toronto. Cutting the budget in "nicy nice land" is a very difficult job requiring cunning and brutality, but in the aid of a greater good, a city that runs more efficiently on the money it spends, and consequently has more money to spend on the projects with the highest priority.

Dealing with the construction industry and the problems presented by it, is a whole other thing. How can anyone who doesn't have a streak of deviousness in him possibly deal with the construction industry?

However Mr. Tory is more than capable of presenting a presentable front and that is all that a sizeable number of voters require.

Dealing with Tory, in the voters' minds, will be a high priority for Ford.

I must say John Tory's recent speech came off as touting the exact same course of action that Mayor Rob Ford has already paved...so, he is just taking the safe road here - nothing to see here folks. As far as I am concerned, I have no issues with Rob Ford's track record and his personal life is none of my business, so ..."...better the devil you know" is where I stand at this time.

Rob Ford has publicly said that he is not addicted to drugs.

Boy am I glad not to live in Toronto! While I get your OP and agree somewhat with it, the personal problems of mayor Ford should not imo be so easily brushed aside as though an addicted brain can be turned off and returned to normal at will. How addiction impacts judgement is a factor that should be seriously considered by the voters.

The recent resignation of the fellow who did the budget without the promised help would also cause me some concern. if he was the one who did the budget and not Ford, then that takes away from Ford. Tory is personable but seems to be establishment eye candy.

Do you think the race will come down to just these 2 candidates in the long run?

reply to post by aboutface

The big question mark in the campaign is whether Olivia Chow, widow of the former leader of the NDP party, the sainted and sanctified Jack Layton, will run.

The most prominent declared candidates are Rob Ford (the incumbent mayor), John Tory who ran in the last race but dropped out (a former provincial Conservative Party cabinet minister and a former executive with Rogers Communications, Toronto's cable television and major internet provider), and lastly Karen Stintz (the personable and photogenic city councillor and former Chairman of the Toronto Transit Commission). There is at least one other councillor who has declared but he is a young up and comer whose name I am too lazy to look up.

The declared candidates are all thought of as being to the "right of center", with Stintz perhaps being a little more centrist. I don't know what her political party affiliation is. She might be Liberal but I would guess Conservative.

Ford has a problem if the ballot is stacked with so-called "right wing" candidates because he is a Conservative also.

The question is, "Does Olivia Chow, currently a member of parliament for a mid-town Toronto riding under the NDP (Parlour Pinks) banner, want this job?"

Would it be possible for her to score "lunch bucket" voters off Ford while scavengers on the right also bled support away from him? It is an intriguing situation.

My advice to Ford. Make a campaign poster that consists of a graph showing the steady rise in the City Budget (funded largely by taxes) for decades that suddenly dropped when he became Mayor.

I don't think any of the other candidates, including Olivia Chow, has what it takes to be Mayor of this very tricky city. Ford does have what it takes, but he comes with personal baggage.

reply to post by InTheLight

You mention that John Tory seems to be taking a leaf from Rob Ford's book and I have just read that Karen Stintz also believes in the Ford roadmap:

en.wikipedia.org...

On October 27, 2013, Stintz announced that she would run for mayor in 2014. She said, "I believe in the fiscal agenda of Rob Ford, but I worry that another four years of Rob Ford may not move the city forward. And I want to continue to build our city."[34]

I don't think either Tory or Stintz are being realistic about what is required in order to stay the fiscal course set by Ford. Ford is a veteran guerilla cost cutter. I think the big boy is making things look easy for these other two and that they will never be able to carry his burden as mayor.

According to the newspapers (Globe, Sun), Olivia Chow is going to make her intentions known in March. Giving up a relatively safe seat in Parliament to re-enter the rough and tumble of city politics is a serious decision. Being an opposition member in Parliament is living the "life of Riley" in political terms. Being a critic, and not having to get results, is the easiest thing to do in any line of work.

Olivia has got it made in left wing politics in this country. She is hardly an Eva Peron type, but she is the widow of someone lionized by the left. She will never be out of a job.

As far as the city of Toronto goes and the mayoralty race, she is a firm "cosmetologist" who would not want Rob Ford to be a role model for her grandchildren, according to a quote that appeared in the Globe a week ago. She didn't say whether the kiddies would be damaged more by Ford's night time escapades or by his outrageous attempts to save taxpayer's money, a real "no no" in the "pink parlour".

I hope Ms. Chow does get into the race. I think it would benefit Ford. I think she might find herself running against the record of David Miller rather than Ford. However, thanks to the mighty effort of the Toronto Star, the coming election could well be decided on issues of cosmetics alone.

ipsedixit
reply to post by InTheLight

 

You mention that John Tory seems to be taking a leaf from Rob Ford's book and I have just read that Karen Stintz also believes in the Ford roadmap:

en.wikipedia.org...

On October 27, 2013, Stintz announced that she would run for mayor in 2014. She said, "I believe in the fiscal agenda of Rob Ford, but I worry that another four years of Rob Ford may not move the city forward. And I want to continue to build our city."[34]

I don't think either Tory or Stintz are being realistic about what is required in order to stay the fiscal course set by Ford. Ford is a veteran guerilla cost cutter. I think the big boy is making things look easy for these other two and that they will never be able to carry his burden as mayor.


I don't know why, but I have faith in Rob Ford. I am a native Torontonian, and I know what that city needs.

One of my friends, who is an ex-patriot Planet Rosedaleian, read these posts at my request, because I found myself wondering if I had been too hard and too brusque with Mr. Tory. Here's what he had to say. These are not my words but are included out of a sense of interplanetary diplomacy.

"Ippy!?!? (Not my real name.) This is you?"

"Yes."

He looks at me, incredulous, and reads on, pausing to look at me from time to time as if I had taken leave of my senses. Finally:

"Have you taken leave of your senses?"

"You be the judge."

"Do you realize who, I mean about whom, you are talking? John Tory is someone I pattern myself after."

He looks at me. I say nothing.

"Look, Ippy, John Tory has very considerable credentials. I mean, you noted them but you didn't, I feel, really give them the weight they deserve. The man was a provincial cabinet minister. When he left public service and entered the private sector, he was, I believe, Vice-President of Rogers Communications. That is a very important company in this city. I don't know exactly what his duties were but I should imagine that a considerable panorama of corporate activity came within his purview."

Silence from me. It's turning into a tongue lashing and I'm trying to decide what I want for lunch.

"What do you mean "without a streak of deviousness"? Construction industry? The current mayor is too devious by half and obviously doesn't have a personal trainer. Beside that, criminal activity is not the responsibility of the mayor. We have a police force for that."

I roll my eyes.

"Ippy, I know you are a shrewd individual and I value your judgement, especially since you come from a distant part of our land. (I'm from New Brunswick.) I think we Upper Canadians tend to underestimate people from other . . . uh . . . no matter. Thank you for showing me this. I do think you should amplify Mr. Tory's considerable qualifications to be mayor and try not to be such a sourpuss just because you weren't, uh . . .no matter. Let's go get a scotch and talk about Cicero at that fabulous pub over the way."

"Good idea."

"Ippy, I am going to vote for Mr. Tory and I believe that you are the only person I know who isn't going to vote for him. I should have thought that Karen Stintz, she of the Pepsodent Smile, would be your cup of tea. You really support Ford? A vulgar example of trailer trash if ever there was one. However so? Never mind. Politics is so mundane and petty."

And there you have it. His every word. A visiting Martian cosmetologist couldn't have said it better.

At lunch he told me that Mr. Tory had a "talk show" on the radio and was going the extra mile to "connect" with other classes. I told him I thought it was a shame what happened to Cicero, all on account of his insistence on free speech. He laughed and told me I should take a lesson from history and be particularly careful of Mr. Tory's wife, the historical analogue of Marc Antony's wife in Cicero's life. I told him that Mrs. Tory is adorable in every conceivable way and that she and her husband make a "sparkling" couple.

As we took leave of one another, and of one of the city's finest scotch lists, I said to my friend, "You know, I'm a little worried about "blow back" on this "dunce" piece."

He chuckled. "You can't be serious! Do you think that John Tory cares a fig for what you write on that rediculous website? My, my, you do take yourself seriously."

"You're probably right. There are only two ways he could find out who I am anyway and both of them would require improper acquistion of personal information."

"Well, he could probably get the information through Rogers Communications. They are your internet provider, right?"

"Yes, but I doubt if he would take that route. It's not secure enough and it's too obvious. I think he would go through the police chief. According to Doug Ford, as quoted in the press, John Tory and Bill Blair are connected in some way."

"The police chief!?!"

"I've written some stuff that could be construed as mildly politically uppity. I have no doubt that the authorities, that is, the cops, are aware of me."

It was his turn to roll his eyes.

"You're too much." He sighed. "Ippy, I wouldn't worry about it. John Tory is someone who is punctilious about his personal conduct. He might acquire information through a back channel, out of curiosity, but I don't think he would make mischief."

"I hope so."

"Nothing to worry about. He's not a dunce."

www.thestar.com...

Blair also complained that his family was subjected to Rob Ford’s “disgusting” insult, “c—sucker.”

You know, I may not know anything about politics. I may not have any common sense. I may be a low level loser. I may be hung over, with a hellish headache, sleeping on the verandah with the dog, but I am "with the times" as far as insults go and I hafta tellya, Rob Ford and the Police Chief, Bill Blair, are both on the same page with regard to the epithet "c----sucker". . . and it's the wrong page.

Wake up guys. In the 21st century, it's just not an insult anymore. Do these people actually give this epithet any real thought? HELLOOO!

We have a gay community in Toronto. We have wives and girlfriends.

Nowadays, it, the epithet, is a testimonial to human devotion, nothing more. Where's the Tylenol?

I think some remarks by way of an overview of the situation are in order.

By and large the people who run things in any jurisdiction in the world are loathe to run a political campaign on real political issues. Just thinking of it is to chuckle. Running a political campaign on the actual pertinent political issues of the day would be to allow ordinary voters to have a say in determining where considerable amounts of money flow.

That is the sort of thing that very powerful financial and political operators take great pains to avoid. The real political fights go on behind the scene among groups of the powerful. The outcomes of these battles, fought in the realms of business and finance, between combinations of powerful interests, ultimately determine who is going to be elected . . . most of the time.

Once in a great while, when the elected puppets of the financial and industrial oligarchs or powerful trade unions become too corrupt and too free and self indulgent in the way that they spend taxpayer money, it becomes impossible for the string pullers in the background to control the outcome of an election, no matter how slavishly and unscrupulously one or more media outlets may cooperate in vilifying one candidate to the advantage of another.

This was the situation during the electoral campaign that brought Rob Ford to the Mayor's office and some degree of power. Try as they might, with media help, the powers that be could not keep him from being elected.

Toronto had long suffered the results of a culture of entitlement that had grown like fungus or mold among the elected representatives of the people, over a period of time. The incumbent Mayor, David Miller, was seen, rightly or wrongly, as indecisive, capricious and overly reliant on tax levies as the solution to all problems of funding.

Miller was someone who came out of the left wing of Canadian politics.

Olivia Chow, if she were to run, would be operating out of the same New Democratic Party (the party of big unions) political support structure as David Miller. Olivia Chow, like Miller, would be beholden to big unions in the aftermath of an election.

This is very important to keep in mind, the relationship between big unions and candidates of the left. It is the key to understanding why there is little difference between a candidate of the left and a candidate of the right, particularly in a Toronto mayoralty race.

John Tory is a candidate of the right. He is a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. He was a cabinet minister when that party formed the provincial government. The "Conservative" party is the party of big business. It is the party to which financial and industrial oligarchs look, to further their interests.

The interests of the big unions and of big business are one and the same.

Both groups want to obtain large amounts of tax dollars (my money and yours) through government spending on all manner of projects, but mostly on building and maintaining infrastructure in the Toronto metropolitan area.

Rob Ford regards himself as a candidate of the right but also as a candidate of the people.

I think he is probably a "conservative", in terms of party politics, but I am not sure that he truly understands his position vis a vis the conservative establishment in the province. Nobody on the right came to his rescue as the center/left newspaper, The Toronto Star lampooned and ridiculed his campaign and his supporters day after day leading up to his, and the people's victory on election day.

That, more than anything else, should confirm in people's minds that Ford is indeed a people's candidate, who is trying to serve the city as a whole, not a special interest group whether on the right or on the left.

We had a mayor like that once. He was considered both "tiny" and "perfect". During his time, Toronto started to think of itself as "New York run by the Swiss". His name was David Crombie.

Rob Ford is neither "tiny" nor "perfect", but he comes out of the Crombie school of thought that regards a city as greater than the sum of it's special interest groups. This is dangerous thinking for people who like the way things had been going in Toronto. Ford's appearance as a candidate was a major threat to those groups and might and main was moved by the Toronto Star to keep this man from altering the flow of tax payers' money out of city coffers into the hands of people who had got used to getting their "taste".

I think John Tory, is seen, in the halls of the mighty, as a compliant figure who will restore the status quo ante bellum, that is, the situation as it existed before The First Fordic War, in which the Toronto Star was left with elephant footprints all over its sorry editorial corpse. The paper, as Torontonians know, has been screeching ever since.

The Second Fordic War, this current electoral campaign, will be much different because The Star has carried on a continual succession of assaults on the Mayor's conduct of his public and personal life in its pages since he took office. This has been most damaging.

Against the background of artificially inflated emotional turbulence a bland, picturesquely charming, jodhpurs wearing, riding tack toting social anachronism, like radio wave airhead, John Tory, might be just what a frayed electorate will vote for. Having him in office will be like having a Currier and Ives print on the wall or fondling an Hermes scarf while sipping a glass of Madeira and trying to decide whether to fire the gardener or bang the pool boy, not that those two examples are equivalent.

(Note to self from cerebrum: The above paragraph is a disgrace, though true in spirit.)

Ford is trouble because Ford does not represent any particular special interest group. Those groups, both on the left (Olivia Chow) and on the rght (John Tory) want Ford gone.

This brings me to the most important point. Both Right and Left want the city to spend money, because both Right (contractors) and Left (unions) get paid with city (taxpayer) money.

Toronto has a history of bad planning. That is why we are in the transit fix that we are in.

This next bit is very, very important, so, dear reader, open both eyes WIDE OPEN. (Torontonians, that's the "lids up" position.)

BAD PLANNING IS IN THE INTERESTS OF BOTH CANDIDATES OF THE RIGHT AND CANDIDATES OF THE LEFT. (Re-read until it sinks in.)

The reason is that both contractors (right) and unions (left) are paid whether you are building it or whether you are tearing it down or whether you are fixing it.

If you are a candidate representing one of the major special interest groups, whether financial services (right), contractors (right) or unions (left), bad planning is better for your constituents than good planning.

That, in a nutshell, is why Toronto is the way it is. That is why transit is the way it is. That is why all the things that don't make sense about Toronto are the way they are. Bad planning pays certain politically influential pressure groups better than good planning.

That is why certain groups tried to prevent Ford from being elected and why they want him out of office.

Ford serves all of the people and the city as a whole and that is bad for the business of people whose business is profiting from an endless cycle of bad planning.

reply to post by ipsedixit


I agree with your take on this and did anyone notice that as soon as the Council took away Rob's mayoral powers that they immediately raised property taxes for new infrastructure? If Rob Ford is not re-elected Torontonians, get ready to dig really deep into those frayed shallow pockets and raid your piggy banks because you, property owners, are the only cash cow that they can see with those thick blinders on.

reply to post by InTheLight

Amen and right on. Torontonians should brace for a wave of fraudulent "Ford Impersonators" running for office.

ipsedixit
reply to post by InTheLight

 

Amen and right on. Torontonians should brace for a wave of fraudulent "Ford Impersonators" running for office.

Ditto and sad face for Torontonians.

You can't understand Toronto unless you understand how deeply criminal Toronto is.

I was on the bus one day coming home from somewhere, late at night, and a guy, sitting in front of me, turned around and started telling me how he had been taken down to Cherry Beach and beaten up by the police for nothing.

This guy was some kind of small time petty rounder and using the term "rounder" to describe him is overkill. He was a nobody from an economic class that would be familiar with shady people and rounders. He didn't know me. I was just a "straight life" person sitting on the bus, but he wanted to tell me his story, because HE couldn't believe it!!

This happened twenty or more years ago.

The G8/G20 conference happened in 2010. That was the year protesters were "kettled", assaulted, arrested en masse, and strip searched in undignified ways by the police.

In 2003 John Tory ran for Mayor of Toronto and accepted an endorsement from the Toronto Police Association, the police "union" (left/right and so often wrong).

This is interesting:

en.wikipedia.org...

Tory's campaign came under fire when it was accused by opponent Nunziata of attempting to bribe him into pulling out of the race by offering the Deputy Mayor's position. At first, Nunziata did not reveal who attempted to bribe him but several media sources speculated that it was Tory's campaign. Besides denying these allegations, Tory also made the pledge to drop out from the race if a police investigation found out that any member of his team was charged with wrongdoing. When Tory was cleared of wrongdoing, Nunziata was in turn accused of mischief for making an unsubstantiated smear claim and sunk further in polls.

Tory also accepted an endorsement from the Toronto Police Association.

Montreal has a reputation as a bad place for crime but that's because in Montreal they arrest criminals. In Toronto they are like ants. They're everywhere.

Edit: I don't want to give the impression (although I may have just done so) that there are no honest people in positions of authority in Toronto. There are some, but in this place the voter should consider the level and gravity of the criminality displayed, or more often, concealed, by the candidate.

I'm speaking very generally here and absolutely NOT implying that any of the current candidates for mayor are guilty of any sort of wrong doing whatsoever.

I'm just a Torontonian with a perception. I have praised the Police Chief in another thread. He has made a laudable effort to reign in hooligans on the force and to encourage police officers not to lie in court. This is highly commendable. I hope I am not misunderstood.

"Go Leafs! Go!" Hey, what can I say? I feel like Joe Pesci trying to explain why I shot the busboy.

So, Olivia Chow is officially running for mayor of Toronto and in her brief speech she mentions that she will be mindful of the public purse as well as not spending funds that the City does not have. Absolutely no mention of not raising property taxes. Smoke and mirrors.