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Rob Ford Finally Comes Out, Announces He’s Running for Mayor

By Patrick Metzger

20100208robford.jpg
Photo by Miles Storey/Torontoist.


Well, he’s gone and done it. Thrifty belligerent councillor Rob Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) has stopped batting his eyelashes at the press and gone public with his intention to run for mayor.
Ford met with supporters this morning for a coffee and a pep talk before a muffin-fuelled triumphal march to his AM640 radio show where he finally said, yep, he thought Toronto was ready for a Ford mayoralty and he was just the Ford to provide it (quote invented).
That said, the announcement wasn’t an enormous surprise. Ford is known for his bombastic diatribes against overspending and shoot-from-the-hip commentaries on everything from AIDS to bike lanes and more, and internalizing his thought process has never been his strong suit. He’s been musing publicly about a run—and building a campaign team—for weeks.
Ford, who characterizes himself on his Facebook page as “fiscally conservative and socially liberal,” said on the radio that after almost eight years of David Miller, he felt an obligation to run for the city’s highest office, noting that “the city is filthy dirty, there’s graffitti everywhere, there are empty stores, windows are smashed.” Needless to say, all these are situations that he proposes to rectify while simultaneously conserving taxpayer dollars.
For those interested in hearing more, Ford is holding a wine and cheese party tomorrow, March 26, at the Toronto Congress Centre to celebrate his ten years on council and his mayoral campaign
Councillors, hide your cab chits. This race just got interesting.

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Comments

  • http://undefined Darren

    Even if one likes his views and policies you also have to admit that he isn’t a consensus builder. The majority of councillors elected next fall will not share his views so do you really want a Mayor who can’t work with his councillors?
    Right now Im voting for Thomson, and with Ford as a second option.

  • http://undefined russless

    cap chits?

  • http://www.torontoist.com David Topping

    Yep!

  • W. K. Lis

    We need a mayor who will “play well with others”. Rob Ford does not fit in that category.

  • http://undefined PickleToes

    Then why not have “fiscally conservative and socially liberal” councillors accompany him?

  • http://undefined Darren

    We have to be realistic and admit that most councillors will be more left-wing then Ford.
    He doesn’t unite people on issues as much as Thomson would.

  • http://undefined Robsonian

    Rob Ford’s campaign in doomed to fail – even Darren’s not supporting him.

  • http://undefined The Junkyard Triangle

    Toronto needs a mayor that works well with others, but also a bad lieutenant to ensure the consultation ends at a certain point and the work gets done.

  • http://undefined thelemur

    Thomson doesn’t have enough of a profile (yet) and frankly doesn’t seem to be very realistic herself.
    Also, http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/than.

  • http://undefined lifeonqueen

    So when is someone, like maybe the city’s elections officer, going to address Ford’s violation of the Municipal Elections Act by commissioning a poll on his run for mayor before he declared himself a candidate?

  • http://undefined Nick

    Haha, good one jonnyr00!

  • http://undefined Darren

    Well I support him but I’m just being realistic here based on his polarizing views. Heck I’ll probably donate to his campaign if asked

  • http://undefined Darren

    Yet another person pointing out typos. Wow

  • http://undefined rek

    So his campaign rests on Broken Window Theory? What are the odds he’ll call for more policing and harsher sentences (or things along that line), rather than mandate shop owners to clean up the messes their patrons spread onto the sidewalks and beyond, and landlords to keep their properties in better condition?

  • http://undefined thelemur

    If you consistently get it wrong, it’s not a typo, it means you don’t understand the difference between two similar-looking words. You’re not encouraging anyone to take your statements seriously if you keep committing such basic yet distracting errors.

  • Darren

    I try not to use profanity, and these are one of those cases where I’m really holding myself back.. For the millionth time; English is not everyone’s maiden language. You lose credibility when you question someone’s language skills and not their message. If you were on a website where say the language of choice is Mandarin, would your use of Mandarin make your message any more “consistently wrong”??
    So please take your holier then thou attempt to look smart on my behalf and place it where the sun doesn’t shine. This is a site about Toronto, the most multi cultural city in the country and potentially the world. There is no need for you to correct my spelling mistakes and claim that I’m “not encouraging anyone to take your statements seriously if you keep committing such basic yet distracting errors.”
    Others see errors and ignore them. You saw them and made a point of grandstanding.
    So please F-off.

  • http://undefined thelemur

    For the millionth time; English is not everyone’s maiden language
    I’m not sure if you’re saying that you should be excused because English isn’t your native language (is it?) or because non-native speakers aren’t held to the same standard.
    You lose credibility when you question someone’s language skills and not their message
    Well, I’ve criticized your message here and on other occasions. There’s a difference between making your point and making your point in a way that’s hard to read, which is what you’re doing.
    If you were on a website where say the language of choice is Mandarin, would your use of Mandarin make your message any more “consistently wrong”??
    If I were on a Mandarin-language website, I would expect my Mandarin skills (if I had them) to be the first thing that makes an impression, and the content of my arguments or statements would come second. Someone might agree with me but would still be put off that I keep making my points in a way that’s garbled and unfocused, over and over again.
    And no, there’s no need for profanity. I don’t see why you should have to resort to it in order to assert (or because you can’t assert) your point. Thanks for lowering the tone of the discourse.

  • http://undefined torontothegreat

    Oh NOs! i’Ts Uh gR4M3R TrOlE N Ur InTErWEbS!

  • http://undefined Darren

    I hardly used profanity, and I explained as much upfront. And the discourse was already lowered in your earlier message where you exposed your shallowness, pettiness, and vanity.

  • http://undefined thelemur

    Using abbreviated profanity doesn’t let you off the hook.
    There’s nothing petty or shallow about pointing out how the quality of an argument is a reflection of both the form and the content of that argument. A point poorly written is diminished just as much by repeatedly lousy spelling and grammar as it is by repeated logical fallacies, factual errors and outright dishonesty.

  • http://undefined Darren

    Oh cut the charade! You’re spinning your web trying to hide your obvious wrong doing.
    You never made an attempt to criticize my comment subjectively and you never made an effort to suggest my comments were written in “a way that’s garbled and unfocused, over and over again”
    You simply honed in on one word “then”, and in your feeble attempt to pontificate on my behalf you said NOTHING but posted a link which DID NOT WORK to the definition if the proper word “than”
    Good on you for touting your one language skill and suggesting that other’s use of the English language on the WWW be “the first thing that makes an impression”. The rest of us should therefore make an effort to adhere to your high standards.
    And you should learn how to click “reply”. Its a very common word used in your beloved english language.

  • http://undefined thelemur

    You never made an attempt to criticize my comment subjectively
    In what way was my comment on your comment about Thomson and Ford NOT subjective? Did you mean objective?
    you never made an effort to suggest my comments were written in “a way that’s garbled and unfocused, over and over again”
    Well, I’d hardly be the first to point it out: http://torontoist.com/2010/03/david_miller_budget_announcement.php#comments
    Pretty much any comment thread you participate in will serve as an example.
    You simply honed in on one word “then”, and in your feeble attempt to pontificate on my behalf
    If I were pontificating on your behalf I’d be promoting your opinions to others. Try again.
    you said NOTHING but posted a link which DID NOT WORK
    Yeah, because there was a period after it. That was hard to figure out, wasn’t it?
    to the definition if the proper word “than”
    If you know that’s the right word, why do you consistently write the other one? Bad aim when it comes to typing?
    Good on you for touting your one language skill
    Interesting assumption to make yourself feel superior, but wrong.
    and suggesting that other’s use of the English language on the WWW be “the first thing that makes an impression”. The rest of us should therefore make an effort to adhere to your high standards
    They’re not just my standards; I see many others writing readably here and it’s nothing to do with me. If you picked up a book or newspaper that was badly written, would you bother to keep reading?

  • http://piorkowski.ca/ qviri

    Please do not feed trolls.

  • Darren

    Im going to bother discussing with you further the event that led up to this. You can crawl away and consider this one of your victories to a superficial battle you started by trying to grandstand and point grammer and typos. A negative habit which another poster agreed is with me. The icing on the cake is the moronesque copy and paste which you couldn’t wait to start doing. There are probably 6 year olds giving you high-fives right about now. Your doing your fair share of assumptions and you’re trying to pass that on to me. You also claimed that you wouldnt bother entering a forum if you didnt have excellent handling of the language being used there, so in essence you suggest I shouldnt be here. How redneck of you.
    You started this whole cluster of a mess over ONE…ONE…ONE word. And then you then trace back and stalk earlier comments of mine to find other grammatical issues. Thank you for proving my point of how much of an uptight and petty person you are. Congratulations again for ‘winning’ a petty argument you youself started, orchestrated, and drew out. Feel free to copy and paste and over magnify every sentance I just typed. Don’t spend too much time doing it, since at some point you need to go out and get a life!

  • http://undefined thelemur

    *shrug*
    Well, I could always leave criticism of the form of your comments to others and just stick to debating the content. Plenty to focus on all round.

  • http://undefined BeachBum

    Gotta figure Ford will take away some right-wing votes that would have gone to Rossi. He’ll also skim some Smitherman support from voters who are attracted to loud abrasive populists. It says here Ford’s candidacy helps Joe Pants the most.

  • http://undefined rek

    When can we expect an updated candidate chart-o-graph?

  • http://www.torontoist.com David Topping

    Within hours!