Goodbye Ford Nation

[MattRoxx]

I heart Robyn

Councillor Doug Ford claims the mayor’s former campaign manager, Nick Kouvalis, is refusing to turn over valuable 2010 voter database information.
Kouvalis, who also served for a time as Ford’s chief of staff, is now working for the John Tory campaign. The man who actually ran the database aspect of Rob Ford’s first mayoral campaign says the Fords were given everything right after the election.
“I made two DVDs with all of the data from the campaign — entire voters’ list with contact info, supporters, non-supporters, signs, volunteers, all voter contact records, etc. — and gave them both to Doug Ford,” said Conservative data expert Mitch Wexler.
Councillor Ford did not respond to a text message from the Star asking whether he’d actually lost the voter information.
If it is in fact gone, it would be a serious blow to the mayor’s re-election hopes. Numerous political strategists involved in the 2010 race say what helped set Ford apart was that voter intelligence, much of it collected by Ford himself over his 10 years as a councillor in Etobicoke.
While many people point to the crack scandal as the mayor’s biggest liability in 2014, some involved in the looming election say his bigger issue is what appears to be a lack of structure and organization in his camp. No notable political talent has signed on to Ford’s campaign.
Wexler says the hand-off of the data took place over lunch in early 2011. Amir Remtulla, then the mayor’s chief of staff, took one of the copies. (Remtulla did not respond to a request for comment.)

Richard Ciano, president of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party and Kouvalis’ business partner at Campaign Research, says the first time he heard about the missing lists was in a Sunday call from Doug Ford.
“He said, ‘I want to let you know you’re going to be receiving a letter.’ He just said: ‘I just want you to take a copy of (the database) and send it over to me. And I’m going to demand that you delete it (from your files),” Ciano said. “It’s very odd. Three and a half years later, suddenly: ‘Where’s the data?’ ”
It was shortly after Tory filed his nomination papers Monday that Councillor Ford went public with his concerns.
“We look forward to getting our campaign list off Campaign Research and Nick Kouvalis, because he refuses to give it to us, and that’s going to be an issue,” Councillor Ford said.
“And if John Tory wants to hop in bed with Nick Kouvalis after Nick Kouvalis took him out as a provincial leader, then went after him after our campaign — which we didn’t agree with that when he did that. I think Nick Kouvalis has his own reputation that he has to worry about, and that’s not a very good reputation.”
Responded Ciano: “I think this is an attempt at trying to drag Nick and me through the mud because we wouldn’t work for the Fords this time around.”

He added that while Campaign Research certainly had access to the database during the 2010 race and made copies of parts of it for strategical purposes, that treasure trove of information was “never an asset” of the firm. He and Kouvalis subcontracted those duties out to Wexler’s company.
“(The Fords) were given a copy at the time — as they should have been. Trying to retrieve it now, so many years later, would be very difficult, if even possible,” Ciano said.
The mayor collected the foundation of the data himself during his decade as a councillor. Rob Ford made a name for himself by personally phoning back anyone who called for help. At the end of every day, he would go through his voicemail and write down every number on a sheet of blank paper.
When he had called each one back, he’d put the sheet into a cardboard legal box. By the time he ran for mayor, he’d amassed four boxes filled with information on thousands of people — all of whom he’d personally tried to help at one point.
When Kouvalis joined Ford’s campaign, he sent those boxes to Campaign Research’s call centre in Windsor to have the numbers inputted into something usable, then turned over the spreadsheets to Wexler.
Through automated phone polling, Wexler built vast voter profiles out of those numbers, adding to it as volunteers and supporters signed on.

TLDR version: Doug is an aggressive, bullying moron, and Rob doesn't know how to use a computer.

 

[5hummer]

The other thing about Olivia Chow is she is 60 years old. When you're that age, very unlikely that one will trust and go with new ideas.

That's a false statement. Plenty of 60-yr old influential innovative decision-makers out there.

 

[oldjones]

I think he could actually have been a pretty good and effective mayor if he had been given a chance to lead. He really is quite a tragic figure.

Only in the literary sense of having fatal flaws he was blind to and whose disastrous and inevitable consequences he was powerless to avoid. One can pity Macbeth, but he was still a corrupt, murdering tyrant.

The idea that Rob—or anyone with his known record for obstruction, lying and deviant behaviour—could ever have been a good an effective Mayor suggests you really had comedy in mind.

 

[Polaris]

Fuck your ageist bullshit, asshole. I'm close to her age and have more progressive new ideas than you and both Fords combined. "Unions bad, people want subways without paying for them". None of that is new.

Well that explains your tunnel vision doesn't it?

I think you may have bitched about Ford wanting to build subways without being specific on funding, which incidentally is the same position Tory and Stinz are promoting.

Have you condemned them yet?

 

[Polaris]

That's a false statement. Plenty of 60-yr old influential innovative decision-makers out there.

Play the percentages.

Playing the percentages means you're not relying on false hope. Plenty of that going around in this city.

LOL!

:hippie:

 

[MattRoxx]

I guess Ford Nation is too afraid to look back but Ford's grand vision was to put a huge Vegas style casino on the CNE grounds. How'd that turn out? Oh yeah, he was so out of his league and so full of bullshit he's scorched that idea so much that no one will even consider bringing up the subject of a Toronto casino for the next 5+ years.
Thanks for nothing,, Ford you stupid bumbling jackhole.

Well that explains your tunnel vision doesn't it?

I think you may have bitched about Ford wanting to build subways without being specific on funding, which incidentally is the same position Tory and Stinz are promoting.

Have you condemned them yet?

Yes, actually. In another thread I posted:
Tory as mayor would be Miller Rite.
Simply by running in this election, Stintz has once again shown her poor decision making.

But it doesn't even matter. Ford's campaign manager is running around slandering, insulting & alienating everyone so they'll have few supporters by the time the ballot booths are open.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/02/27/doug-ford-threatens-new-complaint-against-bill-blair

Play the percentages.

Playing the percentages means you're not relying on false hope. Plenty of that going around in this city.

LOL!

:hippie:

Playing the percentages: there is a high degree of certainty that Rob will have more drunken stupors, many more childish outbursts in the next 4 months, and tell more lies than all other mayoral candidates combined.

 

[MattRoxx]

And now, this:

Remember when Doug Ford tried to scrap Waterfront Toronto’s carefully drafted plan for Toronto’s port lands so he could fill the area with shopping malls and ferris wheels instead? The move was an unmitigated disaster for the Fords. The proposal caused widespread uproar and led to one of the mayor’s first major failures at city council.

Once someone touches a political third rail he generally doesn’t go back for more, but in the newly released third batch of “Ford Nation” YouTube videos (yes, the Ford brothers are now releasing weekly salvos of campaign-style YouTube videos), Doug is practically hugging the thing, begging for another jolt.


After insinuating that Waterfront Toronto’s management has improperly spent millions of taxpayer dollars on kickbacks for personal friends (“They spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars on their consultant buddies!”), Doug reminds viewers about his own plan for the port lands, which he presents as the only viable idea ever proposed for the district. “The most valuable property in Canada on the waterfront, and they want to leave it as a garbage site?” he asks, rhetorically. (Doug’s rant starts at the 1:20 mark in the video below.)

Keep talking, Doug. Keep digging that hole.

 

[groggy]

Speaking of stupid, the Bob and Doug show attacks on Blair have to be way up there in stupid.
Blair is playing it very smartly not responding, and you know that after they go through Lisi's iCloud and phone backups there's going to be some good dirt there.
That's the next chapter that I'm waiting for, Blair won't forget these personal attacks and any investigation is going to be particularly thorough.

 

[common]

Since Ford has been in office, I'm paying more taxes. Ford isn't saving me money.

And, he hasn't saved the city $1B, but he's costing the city money.

Maybe you're a moron and don't realized that the value of your property increased.

 

[oldjones]

Maybe you're a moron and don't realized that the value of your property increased.

As it did throughout Miller's mayoralty, and Lastman's, and Eggleton's, and… . Were you trying to make a point?

Perhaps you forgot Rob's moronic promise that he could—and immediately after the election that he would—rescind the Vehicle Registration and Land Transfer Taxes, and hold the line on, or even reduce Property Taxes while paying for everything including a new subway by cutting waste and attracting new private investment.

Never happened, the Land Tax is still there, and your property tax rate has gone up, while services have been cut, Ford's scared investment away, and neither the feds nor the province will trust 'his' Council with a dime, so the City Miller had begun to shape up is turning into a backbiting anarchic den of pettiness. And I don't just mean petty criminality like Rob's disgustingly public stupidities.

Oh wait! To do him justice; Rob did give you back your 'free' shopping bags (albeit after a colossally dumbass fumble) and he did get enough votes to repeal the Vehicle Tax. If you were one of those lucky enough to have a birthday after he did it he 'saved' you the whole crushing burden of 17¢ a day. If your birthday fell before Rob's Repeal Day, tough shit that you'd already paid for the year.

 

[MattRoxx]

Oh, to have a real mayor again.

Calgary mayor baffled by Scarboro subway plan

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi stuck his head in to one of the most heated municipal debates in Toronto, saying he is baffled by the decision to build a $3.5-billon subway in Scarborough championed by Mayor Rob Ford instead of a light-rail transit line.

“I, for the life of me, cannot understand the decision on the Scarborough subway and maybe I’m missing something. I don’t understand why you’d not spend less to serve more people,” he said, speaking at a Toronto Region Board of Trade luncheon in a downtown hotel.
“Clearly I’m missing something, I’m not that bright,” he said, rolling his eyes.

The city’s original plan was to build a light-rail line with seven stops that would cost $1.48-billion. The province had agreed to foot the bill for it. But Mr. Ford, the city’s most vocal advocate of subways, was not pleased with the original Metrolinx agreement and council reopened the debate over which type of transit would replace the aging SRT, which currently connects to the Bloor-Danforth subway, this summer.

After a prolonged tug-of-war, council voted in October to build three more stops on the Bloor-Danforth subway line instead of the light-rail line, a major victory for Mr. Ford. The federal government has pledged $660-million and the provincial government pledged $1.48-billion to pay for it. The City of Toronto has to pick up the rest of the bill and council has approved a 1.6 per cent tax hike to make it happen.

Mr. Nenshi, who is in town for several speaking engagements to promote Calgary, also offered Toronto’s mayoral candidates candid campaign advice. He said the obsession over partisanship and splitting votes on the right and left is distracting from real issues.

“Here’s the thing: nobody cares about those old labels of left or right and liberal and conservative. Is removing the snow a right-wing or left-wing idea? Is fixing the potholes more New Democrat or Conservative? It’s ridiculous,” he said.

“If we went on to Bay Street today and asked 100 people, ‘Are you left-wing or right-wing?’ I guarantee you, 85 of them would have no idea what we were talking about and 11 of them would answer incorrectly. And the rest would be John Tory.’” he said, to wild laughter. Mr. Tory – considered by some to be a “red tory” -- was in the audience. He entered the mayoral race this week, the same day former TTC chair Karen Stintz also registered. They join a race Mr. Ford and former Toronto budget chief David Soknacki entered in January. NDP MP Olivia Chow is expected to declare her candidacy in the coming weeks.

Mr. Nenshi, who was re-elected as Calgary mayor last fall with 74 per cent of the vote, exspoused on the techniques he used during his campaign would be worth adopting by Toronto’s mayoral hopefuls: telling residents why they love the city, what drives them to be mayor, and how they plan to make the city better.

“Forget about all the shadow parties you have in Toronto political life that I find very, very strange,” he said.

 

[basketcase]

...
Chow would be good for the city. Smart, compassionate, knows politics and how to get things done. It would be such a nice change.

Having met her and knowing several people who worked with her on community projects, I have a hard time viewing her as compassionate.

 

[basketcase]

...
he seems more like the pro-typical corporate ass kisser than some leader, like Stalin or Putin or Thatcher or Reagan. ...

Would you rather a Stalin/Putin type leader?

 

[basketcase]

Fuck your ageist bullshit, asshole. I'm close to her age and have more progressive new ideas than you and both Fords combined. "Unions bad, people want subways without paying for them". None of that is new.

And back to the Campaign Manager Doug Ford shitshow, today courtesy of the Conservative National Post:

Too bad people buy Ford as fighting against the 'Old Boy's Club'. You'd think they got where they are because of ability and not because of daddy's political patrimony.

 

[basketcase]

Maybe you're a moron and don't realized that the value of your property increased.

You might have missed it a couple weeks ago but this year's tax hike is 2.25% (Ford wanted 1.75%). Last year was 2% and 2012 was 2.25%.

 

[wigglee]

If Ford is re-elected, the city centre should cut Etobicoke Scarborough North York and Rexdale loose and de-amalgamate. The city of Toronto would be from Keele to Victoria Park and from Lawrence to the lake. Who needs the tards?

 

[MattRoxx]

Too bad people buy Ford as fighting against the 'Old Boy's Club'. You'd think they got where they are because of ability and not because of daddy's political patrimony.

Another revelation about the Ford's 'network':

A former blackjack dealer with a troubled past in Florida that includes charges involving drugs, drinking and driving, and soliciting a prostitute is working as Councillor Doug Ford’s constituency assistant.
Paul Saracino, an old Ford friend from Etobicoke, was put on the city payroll in September but has kept a low public profile.
“No comment,” Saracino said when the Star called to lay out a series of questions and allegations to him Friday. He then hung up.
Saracino did not respond to detailed questions sent by email. Doug Ford also did not respond to a call and detailed questions from the Star.

To add to the mystery of Paul Saracino, the bungalow in Hollywood, Fla., that he gave as his address when arrested has also been used for years as a mail drop for Deco Labels, the Ford family company headquartered in Etobicoke. The Hollywood home is owned by the Saracino family.
Court records in Florida show Saracino, 48, has faced charges in the past for offences including cocaine possession. The drug charges were dismissed in court. His only convictions were in 1995, for a charge of drinking and driving and in 2004, for soliciting a prostitute. There were no charges and convictions after 2004.
The Star was unable to determine how much Saracino is paid. His salary comes out of a councillor’s annual staffing budget of $224,264, paid for by taxpayer funds. The city does not make staff salaries public; it is up to a councillor to do so if he or she wishes.
Councillors themselves decide what to pay their staff, but the suggested maximum for a constituency assistant is $69,000. Typically, an assistant’s job is to help ratepayers with neighbourhood concerns, such as complaints about parks, community centres or annoying potholes.
The Star was unable to determine what qualifications Saracino has to be Ford’s assistant. Previously he has worked as a blackjack dealer at Florida casinos, as a bartender and as a flooring installer.

According to Doug Ford’s city councillor website, he has four staff members: Saracino (constituency assistant), an executive assistant, an administrative assistant and a special assistant.
Saracino was hired on Monday, Sept. 30, according to city spokesperson Jackie DeSouza.

That hiring came just before a very busy and tension-filled time for both Ford brothers. The next day, Oct. 1, Toronto police made the high-profile arrest of Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, Mayor Rob Ford’s sometime driver, on drug charges. Lisi has since been charged with extortion over alleged attempts to retrieve the crack cocaine video that shows the mayor impaired and making homophobic and racially charged remarks.
Around city hall, other councillors’ staff said they have had no dealings with Saracino. They said he arrived on the scene with no explanation as to his credentials for the job.

Rob loses his drug dealer, so Doug hires the replacement?

The six-foot-two Saracino spent his early years in Etobicoke. His mother and the Ford brothers’ mother are good friends, and the boys all knew each other growing up. They kept in touch even after the Saracino family moved to Oakville.
Saracino moved to Florida in the 1990s. He married Rowena Heaven and lived with her and Heaven’s son, Darrius, in a family-owned yellow bungalow on North 30th Rd. in Hollywood. (Saracino and Rowena Heaven have since divorced.)
The same house was used as the Florida address of Deco Labels, the Ford family company.
People who have lived at that address told the Star that after Saracino moved out they continued to receive mail for Deco. Jennifer King, a tenant who lived in part of the large bungalow for years, said she saw mail for Deco arriving between 2009 and 2012.
One source close to Saracino said he did sales work for the Ford company at one time, and it appears this may be why the address is linked to Deco Labels. The Deco website does not list Florida as one of its locations.
People who know Saracino said he has had troubles with substance abuse and has been in rehab. Records from the Florida court system reveal charges, but no convictions, involving drugs. A 2000 charge of possession of marijuana for the purpose of selling was dismissed, as was a cocaine possession charge around the same time.
His 1995 conviction for drinking and driving yielded him a six-month licence suspension, and his 2004 conviction for soliciting a prostitute was dealt with by a $29 fine.
His home address for those charges was the yellow Hollywood bungalow.
The yellow bungalow’s address also appears on court and police documents related to Saracino’s now ex-wife’s son. Darrius T. Heaven, 32, has a lengthy criminal record that includes multiple convictions and jail time for cocaine trafficking, drug possession, aggravated assault, and carrying a concealed weapon. He is currently on probation over gun charges.

So surreal having these thugs at city hall, riding the gravy train.

 

[5hummer]

@JimmyKimmel says he personally picked Rob Ford up from LAX, Toronto mayor to appear on show Monday


Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Says He's Attending the Oscars
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/toronto-mayor-rob-ford-says-684636


Strong possibility Toronto will get 4 more years of comedy material, too bad the city will suffer for it :closed_2:

 

[oldjones]

Toronto being 100% in perfect shape after three years of Ford leadership, Rob's wise to spend his oodles of slack-time in the care of others. We know what trouble he gets into when there's no Mayor-stuff to be done.

Not that, "what he does on his own time is any of your[our] business", but he can't seem to stop lying about it when asked, and most of us would prefer an honest Mayor, not so easily or so often tempted.

Of course such stuff as honesty never troubles Ford Nation, who are often quoted happily saying stuff like, "With Rob, what you see (or hear) is what you get". What they'll get—who else would care to watch— for a few sad moments on TV is the same lying , criminal blowhard we're stuck with for another 11 months. Only here it's no joke.

 

[IM469]

We know what trouble he (Ford) gets into when there's no Mayor-stuff to be done.

I think most of his problems occurred when he was acting mayor - according to police surveillance Rob Ford simply skipped out of meetings to make his drug deals.