As a follow-up to the Ford Nation II election thread, this is a watchdog thread for all the shit that this recently-elected maroon will be up to.
Obviously this Ontario Premier’s a Trump wannabe, just like Prime Minister Harper was a despicable Bush wanna-be. Without question, Ford will galvanize the alt-right; they see in him their representative. Being from BC I don’t have a pug in this octagon as much as you Ontario dopers do, so hopefully this thread will provide the adequate vent and bookmarked for blowing off steam.
Haw, this sure doesn’t come across as some sort of mini “draining the swamp” move similar to south of the border, like, at all!
While legal experts are saying he can legally do this, (just like Mike Harris’s controversial mid-90’s City of Toronto amalgamation), obviously the slob is sending a message that he has no qualms stirring up whatever shit is necessary to usher in a term that will, no doubt, leave a legacy of shit.
So, elections coming up in October? But those pesky rules, though! Also from Globe and Mail:
How on earth can you believe that this has anything to do with “standing up for taxpayers”? This will, by Ford’s [del]estimate[/del] guess, save the City of Toronto about $27 million. About the only thing that tells us is that the actual savings will be less than $27 million, but let’s roll with that number. The City of Toronto’s budget is billions of dollars. A few million dollars is a rounding error. This has nothing to do with money, and everything to do with Ford settling scores with a city council that opposed him and his brother when Rob Ford was mayor.
Also, why do you even care? You don’t even live in Toronto! This literally doesn’t help you at all.
It’s not just Ontario – this could happen anywhere in Canada. All governments below the provincial level are defined by provincial law. That means it only takes a simple majority of the provincial legislature to amend the law and change literally anything about how a city is governed.
Hm, I’d go with that disaffected Austrian scenery painter from back in the day.
The only positive thing off the top of my head about Doug is that he’s not as crack-y.
He was different, though. He was doing what he did because the idiots who governed before him had let their cities and their country come under the control of certain elements of society, elements he carefully explained were foreign and undesirable. He knew that he had to revoke the citizenship of these immigrants and descendants of immigrants to prevent the loss of jobs for Germans. Also, he was certain that leftists had long been manipulating the machinery of the government against him, and that they were continuing to do so even while he now governed the country himself - a secret conspiracy against him, which he believed could only be stopped by firing those against him, removing them from office, or otherwise eliminating these people from positions of power.
As you can see, that complex set of circumstances was completely different from the situation today.
Doug Ford’s meddling in the upcoming Toronto municipal election has been declared unconstitutional. For those keeping track at home, this is the second act by Ford to be struck down by the courts, and the government is barely two months old. I’m so glad we elected such a stable genius.
I happened to be out running errands this morning so naturally the car radio was tuned to CBC as always. There was a discussion panel and call-in segment where one moron, declaring himself a staunch Ford conservative, reminded the listeners that Ford did in fact win a majority and should have been able to do what he wanted with Toronto council. The moderator was being fair and impartial, in my view, but felt the need to point out that being elected with a majority does not give anyone the right to operate above the law. Someone else pointed out that Ford got elected premier of the province, not king. There is indeed an analogy with Trumpism and idiot populism.
The concept of the rule of law is frequently in conflict with the desires of populists.
I am not sure precisely what the legal basis for the ruling was, since the government’s argument - municipal governments are creations of the province - is in fact quite true. That said, newspaper descriptions of things like court rulings are often simplified to the point of factual inaccuracy.
Holy fuck. Ford has announced that he’s going to invoke the Notwithstanding Clause to override the court decision. Ontario has never in its history invoked the Notwithstanding Clause, and for good reason. The Notwithstanding Clause is a blight on the constitution. Frankly I don’t believe that it should even exist. For the government to invoke it to satisfy one maniac’s ego is appalling.