Will Rob Ford's opponents on council achieve a 2/3rds majority against him?

[fuji]

Currently there are 24 councilors who are voting against the mayor's transit plans. If they can muster another 6 votes and reach 30 they will have a 2/3rds majority on council, which is the point at which they can over-ride Ford's committee appointments and install their own people instead. Assuming Karen Stintz leads the group she would effectively become mayor in all but name.

In the short term the 24 are going to restructure the TTC board to make it a mix of citizens and council members, at which point Ford will lose control of that. But if they manage to scrape together 30 votes they can oust his henchmen on every city council and effectively take over running the city. Ford's power at that point would literally be that he has just one vote.

It isn't clear whether they can find the extra 6 votes but as more and more on council see Ford as an obstructionist who is simply getting in the way of the city's business then that could change.

 

[fmahovalich]

The one problem I have in this mess. The TTC should not be in charge of making decisions on traffic, city planning, etc. They should Run the TTC as provided to them.

Urban planners, demographic experts, and other leaders in civic planning should plan the city. Then, and only then hand the TTC over to a manager.

 

[groggy]

The TTC wasn't involved in making decisions. Webster was fired for making honest reports and recommendations, that Ford didn't like.

 

[oldjones]

And at that famous meeting where Council could have voted on The Mayors' Subways, we note that Ford proposed that yet more study was needed before any vote could be taken on any plan.

Presumably the studies would have been by those planners and demographers fmahovalich mentioned, although how they'd be chosen and why they'd say different things than the ones the TTC and Councils past have hired I do not know. Nor does anyone else.

What we do know is that we elected a Mayor, not a Reichskanzler, and he spent over a year without getting together any plan for any transit. Given that the Council's Plan is essentially the one that's been in the works since the nineties, I'd say he and those who share his views have had lotsa time.

There's a Rob Ford piece in today's Globe that amply illustrates that he's been spinning his wheels for a year, when he shoulda been sharing his vision, gathering support and putting his views into substantive motions for Council to support. The article, like his "we all want subways" mantra is full of piety and platitudes but what we need are shovels at work.

No sign of those in what Rob's said and done.

 

[Anbarandy]

And at that famous meeting where Council could have voted on The Mayors' Subways, we note that Ford proposed that yet more study was needed before any vote could be taken on any plan.

Presumably the studies would have been by those planners and demographers fmahovalich mentioned, although how they'd be chosen and why they'd say different things than the ones the TTC and Councils past have hired I do not know. Nor does anyone else.

What we do know is that we elected a Mayor, not a Reichskanzler, and he spent over a year without getting together any plan for any transit. Given that the Council's Plan is essentially the one that's been in the works since the nineties, I'd say he and those who share his views have had lotsa time.

There's a Rob Ford piece in today's Globe that amply illustrates that he's been spinning his wheels for a year, when he shoulda been sharing his vision, gathering support and putting his views into substantive motions for Council to support. The article, like his "we all want subways" mantra is full of piety and platitudes but what we need are shovels at work.

No sign of those in what Rob's said and done.

He really does seem intent on gridlocking transit expansion and spilling as much gravy as possible in the process. Tantrums, shennanigans, thumb-sitting as part and parcel of his 'car city' and of his deluded quest to have the TTC uploaded to the province. I mean how far and how low will this idiot travel? Does he really have a "Messianic Complex" and thus will he try and take everyone and everything around him as he enters his self-destruction mode?