Smitherman admitted, and beat, a five-year addiction in the early 1990's to an illegal drug before running for political office. Smitherman has not indicated the specific drugs he was addicted to during this time, except to say that they were part of the "Toronto party scene", and that "the drugs were not injected".
Would you support Rob Ford in the next election?
- Thread starter theycallmebruce
- Start date
Ford is one of the few politicians who seems to consider and represent the average taxpayer. Many of the other councilors and potential mayors more represent special interest groups, builders, unions, themselves, etc.
There have been some good Councillors over the years I can assure you. (Ford is not one of them.)
Michael Walker was a true gentleman as one example. A guy who never aligned himself with any party.
Doug Holyday as another.
Would it be too much to ask for a Mayor who's life wasn't a three-ring circus? He hasn't done half of what he said he'd do and he's done many things that he said he wouldn't AND he's an embarrassment to the city and it's reputation. Amalgamating Toronto has been a huge mistake.
The Star has a "compliation" of some of Rob Ford's finer circus moments over the years. He is a buffoon and a dummy and we elected him. (We get the government we deserve.)
But nothing, nothing comes close to the crack head story (if true, and I believe it to be true).
http://www.thestar.com/news/city_ha...kable_moments_from_toronto_mayors_career.html
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s political career has had some colourful moments prior to the allegation that he is the man seen in a cellphone video appearing to smoke crack cocaine.
While today’s allegation tops the list, there have been some other remarkable events:
2. May 2013: Ford sprints out of a meeting of the Etobicoke York Community Council to slap “Rob Ford Mayor” fridge magnets on cars in the parking lot. He is investigated by city bylaw officers after a resident complains.
3. April 2013: Saying “we need more females in politics,” Ford invites women to call him if they would like him to “explain how politics works” over coffee.
4. April 2013: Ford walks face-first into a camera while attempting to evade reporters at City Hall. Grabbing his eye, he says, “Ah f--- man. Holy Christ. Holy — guys, have some respect. You just hit me in the face with a camera.” The incident is mocked by U.S. late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.
5. March 2013: The Star’s Robyn Doolittle and Kevin Donovan report that staff members have tried to get Ford to seek help for alcohol abuse, and that Ford was asked to leave a military gala in February because organizers were concerned he was intoxicated. Ford does not address the specifics of the story, but he calls Star reporters “pathological liars” and the article an “outright lie.”
6. March 2013: Former mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson accuses Ford of sexually assaulting her by grabbing her buttocks at a party held by a Jewish political organization. Ford denies the allegation; on his weekly radio show, he questions whether Thomson is “playing with a full deck.”
7. March 2013: Ford tells Sun News that players on the high school football team he coaches at Don Bosco Catholic Secondary “just wouldn’t go to school” and would have “no reason to go to school” if not for football. “You can’t tell them to get an education,” he says. The comments anger the school’s teachers and prompt an investigation by the Catholic school board, which says Ford’s statements contain “a number of inaccuracies.”
8. February 2013: The Star reveals that Ford is still asking registered lobbyists for donations to the Rob Ford Football Foundation — even though he had narrowly avoided losing his office after a legal saga that began with his decision to solicit such donations. His chief of staff says the new letters were sent in “error.”
9. February 2013: A forensic audit of Ford’s campaign financial practices concludes that he overspent the legal limit and that he committed dozens of other “apparent contraventions” of elections law. An expert committee later votes 2-1 against prosecuting him.
10. November 2012: A judge ousts Ford from office for violating conflict of interest law by casting a vote at council to excuse himself from repaying $3,150 to lobbyists and a company from which he had accepted donations for his foundation. He is granted a stay that allows him to keep his job pending his appeal, which he wins in January.
11. November 2012: Paying TTC passengers are told to get off a bus in the rain so it can pick up Ford’s football team after an away game and drive them back to Don Bosco. After the police request the bus, Ford calls the TTC’s chief executive officer on his cellphone, then calls him again when the bus does not arrive immediately.
12. October 2012: Under fire from the city’s integrity commissioner (for disparaging the chief medical officer) and ombudsman (for meddling in the civic appointments process), Ford says their jobs should be eliminated; the city should have a single accountability officer, he says, not three.
13. September 2012: City officials acknowledge that Ford personally asked senior civil servants to approve a road and drainage project on the land beside the headquarters of his family’s business, Deco Labels and Tags, in time for the company’s 50th anniversary party.
14. September 2012: It is revealed that Ford’s taxpayer-paid junior aides help coach high school football practices and help organize his summer football program. They sometimes use a city vehicle to travel to practices and games, an apparent violation of government rules.
15. September 2012: Ford leaves a meeting of his own executive committee more than five hours early to coach his football team in a pre-season scrimmage “jamboree.”
16. July 2012: In response to a shooting at a Scarborough block party that killed two people and injured 23, Ford calls for gun criminals to be exiled. “I want these people out of the city. And I’m not going to stop. Not put ’em in jail, then come back and you can live in the city. No,” he says. In response, the federal immigration minister notes that the proposal “obviously” violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
17. June 2012: A TTC driver confronts Ford after the mayor drives past the back door of a streetcar from which passengers were disembarking up front. Ford did not act illegally, the police say, but a staff sergeant advises the public that is “probably most prudent and safe” to stop before the back door.
18. June 2012: Ford falls off an industrial scale and twists his ankle on the last day of a six-month public diet campaign, the Cut the Waist Challenge, in which he lost 17 pounds, 33 short of his stated goal. He had announced on his radio show in May that he had given up on the challenge three weeks early: “I’m not even dieting anymore. It’s gone! It’s water under the bridge.”
19. May 2012: Ford charges at me with a raised fist in a park behind his Etobicoke house, demands that I surrender my phone, and calls the police to accuse me of trespassing. I had been researching Ford’s unusual application to purchase public land, which was later rejected. The police find “no evidence” to lay charges.
20. February 2012: Ford’s signature transit proposal is defeated by council after he fails to produce a funding plan. After the meeting, he says, “Technically speaking, that whole meeting was irrelevant.”
21. February 2012: Ford and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, are criticized by the integrity commissioner in separate reports released on the same day.
22. January 2012: Ford calls centrist and progressive councillors “two steps left of Joe Stalin.”
23. December 2011: Police are called to Ford’s house early on Christmas morning. Ford’s mother-in-law called 911 between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. to report that Ford had been drinking and was taking his children to Florida against the wishes of his wife, Renata. Police were also called to the home about a domestic situation in October.
24. October 2011: Ford calls 911 on This Hour Has 22 Minutes actor Mary Walsh, who ambushed him in his driveway dressed as her character Marg Delahunty, “princess warrior.”
There's also the New York Magaizine's Intellegencer explaining Rob Ford to Americans:
20 Things Worth Knowing About Toronto’s Crack-Smoking Mayor, Rob Ford
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/rob-ford-crack-video-toronto-mayor.html
and
Rob Ford Calls Crack Allegation ‘Absolutely Not True,’ But Rob Ford Is Also a Liar
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/rob-ford-liar-responds-crack-video-toronto-star.html
He was also name dropped on Bill Maher, which was impressive because the show would be near to filming when the story broke internationally. Clearly logic dictates it a vast international left wing conspiracy. Maybe Soros money is behind it as I'm sure he has investments in some companies that provide LRT / Bus components? LOL.
20 Things Worth Knowing About Toronto’s Crack-Smoking Mayor, Rob Ford
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/rob-ford-crack-video-toronto-mayor.html
and
Rob Ford Calls Crack Allegation ‘Absolutely Not True,’ But Rob Ford Is Also a Liar
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/rob-ford-liar-responds-crack-video-toronto-star.html
He was also name dropped on Bill Maher, which was impressive because the show would be near to filming when the story broke internationally. Clearly logic dictates it a vast international left wing conspiracy. Maybe Soros money is behind it as I'm sure he has investments in some companies that provide LRT / Bus components? LOL.
You say that like it is a bad thing. Ford needs to go. The media needs inform the public. Wendy Mesley said on the Journal that Ford must go. The Star is doing its job on that, and now so is the Globe.
Oh, right! Its a media conspiracy.
I cannot stand Ford. I am (to some extent) a fiscal conservative and I have some sympathy for Ford's official platform. That said, I can't stand his incompetence, laziness and idiocy. The actual job of mayor requires diplomacy, hard work, attention to detail and the intellectual capacity to understand complicated social and financial issues. Ford has none of these. He is certainly capable of sloganeering and running as a buffoonish "everyman". He is not up to the job of leading a complex economy like Toronto's.
I agree with Ford's claim that people want subways, not LRT. Fine. How do we pay for it? Ford had almost two years to come up with a financing plan (during the first 10 months or so, his ideas were largely unopposed by city council). When it came time to put his proposal before the council and to the public, he had nothing to show. He and his team had been unable to locate any significant "gravy" or to raise any significant private funds. Since he won't consider any revenue tools, he cannot pay for subways. That did not stop him from shouting "subways, subways, subways" when council was voting against his "plan".
Setting aside his abject stupidity, Ford is simply unable to do the job. Rather than run Toronto like a (competent) business - you know ... with forcasts and planning tools, budgets and realistic proposals for financing - all he has is simple (and simplistic) wishes. Let's build subways without new taxes, new corporate investment, reducing spending or any other way to finance his plans. Let's all close our eyes and wish really hard and maybe the subways will appear. ...
I agree with Ford's claim that people want subways, not LRT. Fine. How do we pay for it? Ford had almost two years to come up with a financing plan (during the first 10 months or so, his ideas were largely unopposed by city council). When it came time to put his proposal before the council and to the public, he had nothing to show. He and his team had been unable to locate any significant "gravy" or to raise any significant private funds. Since he won't consider any revenue tools, he cannot pay for subways. That did not stop him from shouting "subways, subways, subways" when council was voting against his "plan".
Setting aside his abject stupidity, Ford is simply unable to do the job. Rather than run Toronto like a (competent) business - you know ... with forcasts and planning tools, budgets and realistic proposals for financing - all he has is simple (and simplistic) wishes. Let's build subways without new taxes, new corporate investment, reducing spending or any other way to finance his plans. Let's all close our eyes and wish really hard and maybe the subways will appear. ...
.... it's beyond-comprehension
How could anyone proudly-support him?
Do you people watch City Council Debates??? Do you see his utter (and embarrassing) lack of ANY leadership skills?
Seriously - How could anyone see him as fit for his position (crack scandal or not?)
He's done fak-all.
I am liberal but could vote for a right wing mayor ~ Ford may be right-wing but he ain't worthy of your vote.
It baffles my mind to see people still so staunchly-supportive of him.
Can anyone tell us what Ford has done of significance for this city? Most people voted for him because he said the gravy train stops, but in reality there was no smoking gun. He's been an embarrassment as the mayor of a large, international city and can't seem to remember anything of substance that he's done. What is his legacy, besides the stupid, obvious things, I mean about his contribution to the city of Toronto?
If that video exists, and its not doctored in any way, then he has to resign.
I can't support a junkie in an important position like mayor of Toronto
I can't support a junkie in an important position like mayor of Toronto
I'm so despondent that he continues to have supporters - look at the numbers on the poll, that I'm giving up on the ford threads. Clearly there are enough stupid, and I mean really stupid people that not only voted him in but still support him through all his scandals that its lowering the average intelligence of the city.
I don't even mean really stupid people but stupid beyond belief, to the point where they would put a man in charge of the economic engine that drives Canada and still believe in him after all the asinine things he has done and all the work he never got around to accomplishing in two years in office. Ford has damaged the reputation of toronto and fucked all the great projects that would make the city more enjoyable to live in, simply because he has no concept of how to behave in public or private.
It will take years for Toronto to recover.
I want off this planet.
I don't even mean really stupid people but stupid beyond belief, to the point where they would put a man in charge of the economic engine that drives Canada and still believe in him after all the asinine things he has done and all the work he never got around to accomplishing in two years in office. Ford has damaged the reputation of toronto and fucked all the great projects that would make the city more enjoyable to live in, simply because he has no concept of how to behave in public or private.
It will take years for Toronto to recover.
I want off this planet.
The only thing wrong with that clip is that the reporter backed down. Ford is a fat fuck, it is a fact, and he should be reminded so at every opportunity. Who else but an egotistical, spoiled, fat fuck would call the media to gather for a press conference to announce...he's going on a diet.
One thing that the US media missed out on, and one of my favourite Fordisms:
The same could be said in reference to the provincial Liberals.
However, it is time to put the Ford circus to rest.
Toronto needs a leader who is an ambassador of the city and has the leadership skills to manage one of the most dysfunctional group of municipal Councillors ever elected.
"He is not up to the job of leading a complex economy like Toronto's." Quite true, of course he is also not up to the job of running a button factory.
He reminds me of my kids when they were 4 years old. You know, when Joey has chocolate icing on his chin and you ask, did he eat some cake before dinner? No dad, I didn't touch it. Then what's that icing on your chin? That's not icing. There's no icing. I can't see any icing. Oh that icing! My sister put it there, etc. etc.
He reminds me of my kids when they were 4 years old. You know, when Joey has chocolate icing on his chin and you ask, did he eat some cake before dinner? No dad, I didn't touch it. Then what's that icing on your chin? That's not icing. There's no icing. I can't see any icing. Oh that icing! My sister put it there, etc. etc.
