In the eye of the storm, a clearly shaken Ford pin-balled Tuesday from twitchy forelock-tugging in front of the cameras to civic boosting at the Grey Cup championship parade — some cheers, some jeers, several smooches on the cheek from Toronto Argonauts defensive tackle Adriano Belli — to semaphoring in front of a different kind of bench as his beloved Eagles were dumped by Newmarket’s Huron Heights Warriors; cheerleaders pompom-ing and upwards of 600 fans in the stands, a decent crowd for a high school event, perhaps some of them responding to urgings from Doug Ford to show his brother the love. Anyway, there were no boos, not even from the Warriors side of the seating.
Hardly the stuff of populist revolt, and hardly as billed:
“Not hundreds, but thousands and thousands of e-mails, thousands of texts and phone calls of support asking for rallies,” [Doug] Ford said. “
And so Doug Ford called for one at yesterday's game, and hardly anybody showed. Ford Nation appears more than a little bit dead.
PS: Another interesting factoid, although Forum is the pollster FWIW:
The poll also found that 60 per cent of Torontonians agreed with the decision to turf Ford from the mayor’s chair for breaking provincial conflict of interest law, even as support among his core base remained unshakeable.
So maybe Ford Nation isn't dead. Maybe it was too busy bathing its pet hamster to show up at the game yesterday.
Well.
ReplyDeleteAnd here I sit in Alberta - home of Mayor Nenshi, while "progressive" Ontario, and in particular, the GTA, get to live under the great circus umbrella of the "Ford Show".
It's really tought to pick a favorite, from the outside.
A thick-headed doofus of a mayor who has too much hubris to simply admit that he shouldn't have used city resources to help out a non-profit football program...
Or a conniving little weasel like Adam Challeff-Fruedenthaler who uses massive public resources to push this petty matter through the ringer to advance his own political agenda.
At least it's entertaining.
Adam took down a mayor. I'm proud of the guy.
ReplyDeleteI don't know.. seems to me that politics isn't really enhanced by inflated attacks a la Kenneth Star on Clinton for issues that, really, aren't of real significance to the job at hand.
ReplyDeleteDont' get me wrong.. I'm not losing sleep over Ford's pickle - because he could have easily turned this problem into dust.. and chose not to because of his own arrogance.
But, geez, I'm aware of several government employees (including my own mother pre-retirement) who used some time during their day and some minor resources (paper, staples, etc.) to assist with school or sports programs... it's hardly earth-shattering.
Unless, I suppose, it's the "other team".. then it becomes an "aggregious waste of tax payer dollars" etc., etc., etc..
Seems that effort might be better made to undermine the policy of those we disagree with by presenting a better plan to the electorate rather than the ever-growing sort of manufactured scandal that we engage in today.
Oh.
Speaking of which.
Taking back some of my own Albertan hubris.. why is it that seeking out $3,000 in donations to a non-profit football team is, eventually, cause for dismissal... but sending out a $10billion litigation to your friendly ex-husband (who happened to support your leadership bid as Premier) is no big deal.
People like RG Harvie love to move the goalposts when it suits their needs.
ReplyDeleteHarvie might move the goal posts; Liberals steal them and claim there were none to start with.
ReplyDelete