Is Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly the best campaign worker for Rob Ford Re-Election?
Military has enough to deal with without Norm Kelly calling
BY JOE WARMINGTO, TORONTO SUN
http://www.torontosun.com/2014/01/03/military-has-enough-to-deal-with-without-norm-kelly-calling
Maybe it would have been better that Norm Kelly had just stayed in Florida after all?
Calling in the army to help gather some fallen twigs?
That’s what it sure sounded like Deputy Mayor Kelly was arguing for Friday.
Wasn’t it Mayor Rob Ford who admitted to smoking crack?
What the heck has got into Kelly?
“I’m not calling in the army,” Kelly told the Toronto Sun’s Don “Pistol” Peat.
But I heard him all morning with my own ears on media saying he made a call Thursday about the potential of calling in the army as Mayor Mel Lastman did in 1999.
He told Ted Woloshyn on Newstalk 1010 that he would need to ask this of the premier who would then call the prime minister.
But then he tells Pistol, “What I am doing is exploring the potential for tapping in to the manpower and the resources of the armed forces.”
OK. That clears it up.
It is, however, kind of insulting to call on Canada’s war torn military, at a time where there have been numerous suicides and while so many are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, to come in and clean up our mess.
Of course, in a way it was slick work by Kelly because while all the talk was on the army Friday, there was no one questioning why Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong said it will cost $75 million to clean the city up. Who is going to get that money and why so much?
The army?
They don’t work, bunk, eat or fight for free.
Whatever happens, hopefully it will go better than the failed gift card program Norm and Premier Kathleen Wynne — both unelected to their posts — were pushing.
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There seems to be a real drive on to help poor de facto Mayor Kelly to save face.
And at City Hall, there was a lot of talk about how Kelly and staff were urging Ford to call a formal emergency during the ice storm.
Declaring an official state of emergency “was my advice to the mayor at the time” and “staff originally made that recommendation as well” Kelly told reporters Friday. “I thought there was symbolic value to declaring an emergency because it really sends a message to everyone that we take this very, very seriously.”
Other media were quoting an e-mail sent out last month by deputy city manager John Livey saying he was “getting ready to ask the mayor to declare the emergency largely because it will assist the staff at the province to make resources available to us, crews, generators, facilities for warming centres.”
Where did I read all of that before?
One quick Google check and I found a story Dec. 24 by Shawn Jeffords quoting Kelly calling for an emergency and saying, “I phoned and left a message with (Ford) and did not get a return call,” Kelly said. “My thoughts were that in order to clear the air and let everyone know we were concerned and resolute in solving these problems that there was a benefit to declaring an emergency.”
What none of the media mentioned in their Friday coverage of this story is that Kelly was on a plane for Florida the next day after this need to take this all so “seriously.”
And, don’t forget, in the Toronto Sun Dec. 23 Livey was quoted saying, “We are getting ready to ask the mayor to declare this an emergency largely because it will assist the staff at the province to make resources available to us — crews, generators, facilities for warming centres.”
That was a dozen days ago.
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Why the re-hash of an old e-mail?
And why no re-hash that the premier could have also called an emergency and didn’t? Nor did any of the other GTA mayors.
It only seems to be news if it involves making Mayor Ford wear it. But much of the public sees through this.
The attempts to take control of the city from the elected mayor during the storm did not work.
Nor did the effort by the likes of Kelly and Wynne to get more headlines or kudos.
Perhaps Kelly should put his name on the ballot and run for mayor in 2014 rather than trying to be mayor — a position he was neither elected or appointed to.
The public would prefer all the politicking cease and that someone look into a better deal for the taxpayers on the clean up than $75 million. We need a full accounting on that one for sure.
A lot of the mashing about Friday may have had to do with the latest polls which show Ford very much a factor if the election were to be held today.
A Toronto Sun poll which asked the question, “Do you think Rob Ford will win re-election?” came in at 72% yes and 28% no.
Yeah, but it probably doesn’t mean anything, they say. Time will tell. There are a lot of days for a lot of things to happen for sure. In the end the people will get to decide who they want to represent them and whoever that is, is who should be calling the shots.
Which leads me to a more interesting poll result for me.
It was on my column on torontosun.com in which said, “Would you like to see Mayor Rob Ford’s executive powers restored before election or only after being re-elected?”
Some 2,637 people responded and 1,954, or 73%, said they wanted his powers restored before and 683 votes and 26% said after.
For it to happen, Ford would need to change the mind of two thirds of council. But if Norm Kelly keeps talking about declaring emergencies, planing trips for Florida or bringing in the army, maybe they will soon consider returning the executive responsibilities to the mayor that Torontonians elected.
If councillors think that messing with the democratic will of the voters will hurt their re-election, don’t rule out it happening.
