PCPO Budget Is Mild Stuff

I don't like the directions taken; cutting healthcare spending below the rate of inflation, and etc.  But this government in this budget is definitely no Mike Harris Mark II.   Mind you, they'll never meet their deficit reduction targets at this rate, but they've probably figured that nobody really gives a shit.  So the PCPO has learned something over the last 20 years.  Mind you also, they're still on course for a battle with the OTF and a possible teacher's strike, maybe as soon as the summer (I think the contracts come up July 2019).  Open battles with Ontario's teachers are a losing proposition, which is another thing Mike Harris never learned.  People say they love their kids but actually raising them through their school years is a pain in the ass.  They get resentful if the government makes them do it.  We'll see if Ford and co. figure this one out as well.

Doug Ford's OHIP Changes: A Bummer, or Not?

I'm especially wondering about his plan to cut back on pain relief for colonoscopies.  I've gone through the procedure twice.  First time around they hit me with a General and I still didn't pass out.  I watched on a B&W TV screen as they maneuvered the probe up and down my ass.  It was like watching a guy wandering through a big sewer system with a cheap flashlight.  I pointed at the TV and asked what's that and the doctor said motherfucker you're awake you must really know your way around narcotics!  But I don't remember any actual pain, so maybe I'm with Doug on this one.

Mind you, they also want to cut funds for pain relief when they remove the polyps they find during the colonoscopy.  I didn't have polyps, but from what I hear what they do is they stick the end of the probe in some liquid oxygen so its really cold, they nail the polyp with the cold end so it freezes/burns like a wart, but one that's up your ass.  And then they send another probe with snippers at its end to snip the thing off. 

So I think Doug loses me here.

Doug Ford Shits The Bed

And its not just the nation as a whole that thinks he's a right douche-bag.  It's here in Ontario:

In Ontario Doug Ford is 24% positive – 51% negative (-27).

Once a star, Doug Ford is now a case.  It happens to all leaders, but as it ever happened as fast??

Doug Ford Shouldn't Let Andrew Lawton Run For PCPO Nomination in London

Andrew Lawton is running for  the Ontario PC party’s nomination in London West.  Doug Ford should not let him.

For many reasons, but this one is my favorite.  Back in 2010 Andrew and some buddies wanted to bring alt-right notable Mark Steyn to London (Ontario).  First to the  University of Western Ontario and then, when that fell through, to the London  Convention Center.  But it all went South on them at the LCC as well, and they blamed Islam.  From Andrew's old blog, which doesn't appear to exist anymore:

“The reason offered by the LCC [in a Tuesday morning phone call] was that they had received pressure from local Islamic groups, and they didn’t want to alienate their Muslim clients. It’s interesting to note that the LCC is owned by the City of London, and is therefore a government operation,” wrote Strictly Right’s Andrew Lawton at the website.

But as I argue here, Andrew's explanation doesn't work.  Basically, the site for Steyn's speech had already changed once, and it would have been impossible for any of these "Islamic groups" to have known which new potential venue to threaten.

Andrew actually responded to my argument in the comments, and pretty much admitted the major points of it.  As I wrote at the time:

Andrew,

So will you acknowledge that, whatever you might have been told by the LCC, it would have been impossible for local "Islamic Groups" to have had any real influence on their decision. This is not to say anything about the LCCs decision making processes, which may well have involved considerations about what how their Muslim clients might have reacted to Steyn's appearance.

So, in short, Andrew Lawton tried to arrange to have an alt-right lunatic speak at the LCC, bunged it up, and blamed Muslims.  If Doug Ford wants to convince Ontarians he isn't a Trump clone, one way to do it  would be to kibosh this nomination run.

Caroline Mulroney: Off To A Grand Start!

Caroline Mulroney defined energy poverty at #MNC2018 as only an elitist can.

"People are living in energy poverty, people have to choose between buying hockey equipment or going out to dinner with their families"https://t.co/AF582tnkGo#PCPO #PCPOLdr pic.twitter.com/RSMtT9dUSm

— JohnToryWatch (@JohnToryWatch) February 10, 2018

Serious, though, this is the kind of thing that makes Doug Ford PCPO leader.

Toronto Mayoral Election: A Brief Note

I just told a Doug Ford Robo-Call I'd vote for him.  But I lied!  Tee hee! #TOpoli  PS. He's now promising 32 K of new subway lines.
— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) October 23, 2014

Chief Blair...Unchained

Seen at the bottom of Sue-Ann Levy's latest:

I posed a question while on a media panel at the last mayoral debate which stated Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair has of late spent considerable money on lawsuits trying to muzzle members of the Police Services Board. This was incorrect and I apologize to the chief.

This, plus the dust-up with the dumber brother, suggests to me that the chief  is in the official "fuck you I'm retiring" phase of his personal PR strategy.  Let us hope he spends the next six or eight months cutting chunks out of the butt of everyone on council and in the newspapers who ever looked at him funny.  Keep things exciting.

Canadian Broadcast Standards Council Rules Against Rob and Doug Ford

From when they had David "The Menzoid" Menzies from Sun TV On:

Menzies went on to talk about coverage Mayor Ford has received in the Toronto Star newspaper.  He made the following statement, referring to the 2010 campaign for mayorship of the City of Toronto:

I remember an incident that happened in the campaign, which I think speaks so much of the double standard and the kind of personal brutality you have gone through.  I remember, I believe it was a retired doctor, at one of the all-candidates meetings, who got up and he said words to the effect, Mayor, “Well, you know, I’m lookin’ at you and you’re obviously very overweight and I see sweat patches under your arms and your face is red and beads of perspiration.  How do we know that, when you get the stressful mayor, er, stressful job of being the mayor of Toronto this won’t, you know, stress you out to such a degree you’ll have a heart attack?”  Right?  You know, so, the idea, yeah, see, folks?  He, he, he’s too chubby a guy.  We’re doin’ this for his own health, to keep him away, you know, from, from dying while he’s in office.  Could you imagine, Mayor Ford and Councillor Ford, could you imagine if I was at that all-candidates meeting and I went to George Smitherman.  And I said “You know what?  You know, George, being a practising homosexual and being the fact that you’ve been involved with all kinds of illicit drug use, how do we know you won’t engage in high-risk sex and drug use that will bring about, uh, HIV leading to AIDS and you’ll die in office?”  I would be run out of town on a rail, right?!  You know, oh no, we can’t say that!  But you know what?  The mayor, fat guy?  Let’s heap it on.  Let’s bully this guy to death.  And it is despicable and it speaks of the double standard with the left-wing media in this city, Mayor Ford.

Doug Ford responded by saying that he and his brother have been complimented for standing up to the Toronto Star and Menzies made negative comments about other city councillors who he said were “hostile” toward Mayor Ford.  Mayor Ford’s response was “David, that’s, uh, phenomenal.”

You can hear the tape of that show here.  I should say that I'm not a big George Smitherman fan; in fact, I'm a big non-fan of George Smitherman.  But David Menzies is a 0 class boob and in this case the Fords were his enablers.

Complete This Sentence: Bad News For The Ford Regime

is bad news for...

CASMO In Dutch Again

This story is a bit long in the tooth now, but it does give you a good notion of who the Ford regime at City Hall listen and respond to.  CASMO, if you don't remember them, are the Canadian Shia Muslims Organization, and their greatest claim to fame thus far is to have hosted a number of videos of ex KKK head David Duke criticizing the state of Israel.  They eventually removed the clips, but only after a couple of days, entreaties from The American Muslim organization, and threats from the CJC and York Region police.  Given this, one might question the sincerity of such declarations as the one below, which CASMO slapped up on their website after the incident:

...and somebody did question them.  Last week, when one of the bloggers in Shaidle's orbit noted that CASMO was renting city property for a al Quds Day dinner and seminar, they launched a phone and email campaign.  What I find striking is the prompt and  response they got:

 This week, upon learning that the event was to take place on city property and was a potential violation of the City's Anti-Discrimination Policy, Mayor Rob Ford's Office and a number of City Councillors including Councilors Doug Ford and James Pasternak, wanted to put a stop to it. For that to happen, a ruling on compliance with the City's anti-Discrimination Policy was required and that was initially left to Uzma Shakir, the Director of the City's Office of Equity, Diversity and Human Rights.

Councillor Pasternak said "There is no way that this group (CASMO) should be allowed to hold an event on City Property. The nature of the group indicates that they could not possibly comply with the City's values of respect and tolerance. I'm dismayed that a City facility would consider allowing this event to take place and am doing what I can to stop it happening."

However the event will indeed take place. The Mayor and Councillor Doug Ford have expressed their deep disappointment in the ruling made late Thursday afternoon by the City Manager; that CASMO's evening of deploring the middle east's only liberal democracy can go ahead at the Centennial Centre. Councillor Ford's office voiced disgust with the ruling and made the statement that, "We don't believe City facilities should be allowed to be used by one community to denounce another."

Sources at City Hall have said that Ms Shakir's initial notes suggested that she felt that the CASMO al QudsShakir and other staff.

[...]

For now, CASMO's evening of anti-Israel rhetoric will go ahead as scheduled. However the group was given a stern warning from City officials that if anything resembling hate speech occurs during their al Quds Day program on City property, they will be not receive any such approval for any event in the future. In an unprecedented move, the City is going to send a Supervisor to monitor CASMO's al Quds Day Seminar at the Centennial Centre to ensure that they comply with City policies.

Now, I was skeptical, but via emails from Doug Ford and James Pasternak's office, can confirm that events played out more or less as described above.  In fact, Doug Ford's Admin office even confirmed that, while the event went ahead, the group was given a warning and the city sent along an observer.

Now, I wouldn't normally approve of a community group being hassled like this, especially as a result of action by Shaidle and Co., but given CASMO's past behavior I would make an exception here.  Sometimes folks gotta be schooled, and sometimes that process is a bit like teaching a donkey.

Rob Ford's Brain Makes Its Stand

...stumps for CPoC.  Remember: Rob believes what Doug believes.  There is no separation.

More pics here.