Well by now just about every Canadian has probably seen the horrifying video of Rob Ford stomping around like a bull in a dining room.
Rob Ford, the mayor of Canada’s largest city, has been caught on video in an impaired rant saying he is going to kill someone and “rip his f---ing throat out.” Ford slurs his words as he staggers around an unknown dining room, apparently high, ranting gibberish and gesticulating wildly.
And since my friend Aidan the shepherd, in the barren highlands of Scotland, has also seen it, I figure the whole world has too eh?
And while that may not bother the Fordzilla.
“All I can say is, again, I’ve made mistakes. I just wanted to come out and tell you I saw a video. It’s extremely embarrassing. The whole world’s going to see it. You know what? I don’t have a problem with that.”
It does bother me, a lot. Because I want my country to be respected not mocked...
But despite that horror, or this embarrassment. Or the intervention of Brutus Beefcake.
Former wrestler Brutus (The Barber) Beefcake was escorted out of Toronto City Hall today after gathering outside Mayor Rob Ford’s office with a pair of shears and a submarine sandwich.
I'm glad that scary video has seen the light of day, because it exposes Ford for who he really is.
Not the spoiled son of a millionaire posing as a champion of ordinary people, or the leader of the moronic Ford Nation. Not a man child or big teddy bear brought down by substance abuse.
But a bully and a thug who seems to enjoy the company of criminals....
And who as the hapless front man of Stephen Harper's plan to batter down the walls of the progressive bastion of Toronto, has not only corrupted City Hall, but may also have corrupted some elements in the police force.
Dig a little into the Lisi documents and it’s safe to say that there is more to those police leaks suggesting a protection racket around Ford within the force than most of us want to believe.
Some hint of that surfaces on page 351, paragraph 208 e) when drug squad officers are staking out Richview Cleaners, waiting for Lisi to walk into their trap. And out-of-the-blue there’s a “[police] radio call to the mayor’s house” that interrupts the sting operation. That’s followed by telephone chatter between Lisi, the mayor and Price.
For this question should trouble ANYONE who cares about democracy in Canada.
What was it that made the mayor believe he had more friends in the police department than Bill Blair does?
It's the real scandal. The Harperite conspiracy to enable, protect, and maintain in power a Con like Rob Ford, for their own crass political reasons.
The sinister operatives who have propped him up like a dummy, instead of sending him to rehab long ago.
Even though he's a bully, a brutish bigot, a compulsive liar, a man who likes to hang with violent criminals.
And a man totally unfit to be the mayor of Canada's largest city...
This astounding megalopolis that in the few years I have lived here I have watched grow ever bigger. The one that in a sense belongs to everyone in Canada.
And like everything you see in this picture, including the island where I took it from, does not belong to Stephen Harper now, and NEVER will.
For it is still a progressive bastion, its resistance has weakened Ford and his redneck supporters like Don Cherry, and put a spoke in Harper's plans to pose as a populist.
These are tough times for peddlers of right-wing populism. Ford’s disgraceful fall comes at a time when Stephen Harper — a big Ford supporter until recently — has been vocally targeting the ‘elites’.
The example set by an ‘outsider’ conservative like Ford can only be a deep source of aggravation to the PM. It hardly increases the public’s appetite for that brand of populism.
Ford likely will be gone before long and the international image of this country — battered for having suffered such a buffoon in high office — will be the better for it.
How we actually rid ourselves of Rob Ford remains to be seen. Will the province step in and remove him from office?
Or will it take a people's revolt?
Who knows eh? But one thing is for sure.
Enough is ENOUGH.
And the basic plan is quite simple.
First we will take one King Con gorilla off our backs.
Or push it off the CN Tower.
And then we'll remove the other...
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.. when Ford goes, he just.. well, hell.. I guess he'll hang at home.. do stuff .. drive around
ReplyDelete.. when Harper goes, there's an entire nation for all of us to start cleaning up.. being responsible for ..
vast environments, cultures, legislation, bio-systems, processes etc that must be examined for toxicity ..
One of them is a failing flailing buffoon.. the other an appalling and (so far) successful nation wrecker ..
Let's look after this country.. boot 'creep' Harper .. the carpetbagger from Toronto
Ford is doing a great job of removing himself ..
Keep up the awesome work, Simon ... you shine every morning .. !!
hi salamander...thanks for the encouragement, although I wish I did shine in the morning, instead of staring in the mirror and scaring myself. ;)
DeleteBut seriously, I'm not saying that Ford has done as much as Harper to destroy this country, but he is on the Con team, and what he is doing to Toronto is scary enough. I figure when he does finally go he'll probably head down to Florida, so I can send an e-mail to the highway patrol and make sure they bust him. As for the Cons, I figure it will take a progressive government at least two years to clean up the mess and prosecute those responsible. But after that we can finally get back to making Canada great again...
There is a video showing Harper smarming over Ford at a barbecue and talking about a conservative hat trick. It can be found on the Kinsella web site. Where else I don't know. It was time it was widely circulated.
ReplyDeletehi anon...yes Kinsella has the video and so do I, and I'm making a new one so I can include the latest scandal and tie Stephen Harper to Ford so closely they'll look like Siamese twins. We have all the ammunition we need and believe me we will use it when the time comes...
DeleteJob number one now for Mulcair and Trudeau is to make harper wear ford, ask him about the fishing trips, ask him about the illegal drugs, the "tough on crime" and whether or not the mandatory minimums apply to ford like any other citizen. Ford is a mere symptom of the larger harper problem.
ReplyDeletehi bcwaterboy...yes you're absolutely right, the sleazier the Ford scandal becomes the more Stephen Harper is going to wear it. For as you point out where is Great Law and Order Leader when we need him? Answer: hiding under the bed. The NDP and the Liberals should be preparing their attack ads now, because neither Ford or Harper have ever been so vulnerable. And as I pointed out, if you take one down the other will follow...
DeleteI think that it is possible that the timing and exposition of the Ford scandal was intended to mask the Harperite corruption scandal. In other words, a conspiracy to protect the Harperites, because maintaining federal power is the most important goal for the burgeoning Canadian corporate state.
ReplyDeletehi anon...I've heard that theory and one of the people who was pushing was Stephen Taylor of all people. But I don't buy it. As I pointed out in the post, the ties between the two men are so close that one can't get into trouble without tarnishing the other. My guess is that the Cons are so desperate they're just making it up as they go along...
Delete"What was it that made the mayor believe he had more friends in the police department than Bill Blair does?" — My, what an insightful question, especially when you think of the G20 police theatre and how it seemed to be mysteriously organized.
ReplyDeleteThere should be inquiries . . .
hi Edstock... I remember the G20 well. How could I not when it took place in my neighbourhood? And for the crime of trying to take a short cut home, and smiling at a female police officer, I was almost arrested.
DeleteBut I never Blamed Blair as much as I blamed Fantino, the RCMP boss, and the Cons for what happened. And in this case Blair did well by appointing the city's number one homicide detective to head the investigation, who did a helluva job. But what I was trying to explain in my post is that this is a much much bigger story than just about a crack head mayor. It's strongly believe it's also a story about how Cons, criminals, and rogue police officers collaborated to try to cover up a story about a Mayor who because of his various activities was putty in their hands. Who knows what favours he might have done for them if he hadn't been busted by a lot of good cops who busted their asses to get him. Let me repeat... this is NOT just a story about Rob Ford's human failings. This is also a story about a political conspiracy to suppress the truth, and of undue influence at the highest levels, in a city awash with billions and billions of developer dollars. And of course also a great crime story, with a search for the video resembling something out of the Sopranos, with dead gangbangers, wounded ones, people beaten up with lead pipes, or stabbed in prison. Those who fixate on Ford or Blair, are fixing their sights on the wrong targets...
To be honest, the more I think about this the more I don't know what to think. It really is sad when you have people out there that will defend this guy at any cost (yea, I've been reading my fair share of comment boards on this issue.) Kudos Simon, you really do say what needs to said and ask what needs to be asked.
ReplyDeletehi Way Way Up....thanks I'm just doing my best as a Montreal boy to explain what's really going on in Toronto. Because this is a much bigger scandal than just a mayor with a substance abuse problem. This is a city with more money flowing through its streets than there is water in the St Lawrence, and when criminals have the mayor in a compromised position who knows want really went on, and from the size of the police operation I think that what has been revealed so far is just the tip of the iceberg...
DeleteHe wants to see the states he's in but I don't. This guy gives drunks and drugies a bad name. I'd like to know if the person he is threatening is the dead person or just the drugs didn't arrive on time.
ReplyDeletehi anon...good question. Who was the guy he was threatening and is he still alive? I don't really give a damn what drugs the mayor took or didn't. It was the people he was hanging out with that is the real problem...
DeleteThe first day or two the jokes were funny. Then the videos kept making the rounds and it became apparent how sick Rob Ford is. The second video shows him being very drunk and making outrageous comments. That is what very drunk people do. If he is a black out drinker, he may not even remember any of it.
ReplyDeleteAlcholism is an illness. The bad behaviour we have seen is a symptom of the disease. If Rob Ford had had a broke leg, a stroke, heart attack, cancer he would not have had this type of attention. Perhaps it is time for the media to find something else to write about. There are more serious problems. Rob Ford isn't the first, nor will he be the last politician with a substance abuse illness. He just is getting more "air time'. The first video, one could see how it was made. The second one, that was in some one's home. Was the home "bugged" or did someone "set him up".
The police have been following him. What is the real story on what is going on? I'm not so concerned about the jokes being made. The real concern ought to be another human being's health. Now if we can hang harper along the way, that is fine by me, but Rob Ford is simply very ill. Part of the illness is you don't recognize it.
The other issue here is, in Toronto, as in so many other areas in the country, there is nothing that can be done when a political leader is incapable of doing their job. There needs to be laws in place. Not for bad behaviour, but for simply not being physically or mentally capable of doing the job. A stroke which impacts someone's brain activity could just as well render them incapable of doing their job.
hi e.a.f....it so happens that I have had to deal in my work life with a lot of enraged people on drugs , and I don't think that Ford was drunk in that video. I think we just got a glimpse of the real Rob, the bully and the thug. And no it's not about Rob Ford's health, although I don't want him to die. It's about a really rotten mayor, who is not up to the challenge of running a city like Toronto, and may have allowed criminals to place him in a compromising situation. As for a mechanism to remove a mayor from power, it's a delicate situation because that power could be abused in the future. But something must be done to convince Ford to step down and seek help, before he does anymore damage...
DeleteThe Liberals and NDP need to remind Canadians that those "elites" that Harper is currently railing against are the very people appointed by Harper. They must find a way to alienate Harper from Canadians, and the best way to disarm him is to destroy the illusion he's carefully crafted as a populist leader. Without his fake Reform populism, Harper is nothing.
ReplyDeletehi sinned34...I completely agree with you, Harper's fake populism must be dismantled by the opposition because it could lead us to a very bad place. And it shouldn't be too hard. Harper as an outsider battling the elites, when he has been in power for eight years, and is a tool of Big Business and Big Oil,? Gawd. Gimme a break, I've never heard anything so absurd...
DeleteExcellent blog, Simon. Always keeps one thinking....
ReplyDelete