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12 Comments

news

Duly Quoted: Rob Ford

By Torontoist

“I support traditional marriage. I always have….[but] I’m not worried about what people do in their private life. I look out for taxpayers’ money.”
—Rob Ford puts foot in mouth, then tries to explain away said foot, when asked about to what extent he shares the beliefs of an anti-gay Christian pastor running in Ward 6, who Ford says he’s “supporting.” Xtra has more.

Comments

  • http://undefined friend68

    There is so much in Ford’s performance and platform to criticize — so why play gotcha on an issue that has nothing to do with municipal politics?
    Besides, except for stumbling awkwardly against an attempt to trip him up, what he basically said was do what you like, it’s not the city government’s business.
    Meh.

  • http://undefined McKingford

    I think you have this backwards.
    Ford is the guy who went out of his way to endorse this religious nut, whose campaign is predicated on being anti-gay (which, as you say, is entirely unrelated to the affairs of the City of Toronto).
    This simply demonstrates how profoundly unserious Rob Ford is about running the City of Toronto. As best we can tell, his platform to date has been to lambaste $12,000 spent by Kyle Rae, $77,000 the city spends watering flowers, and now this. If you total the $12K and the $77K, then Rob Ford merely needs to replicate those savings 4,000 more times and he can buy a single km of subways.
    I swear, with Rob Ford as mayor we will be looking back fondly on the days of Mel Lastman and his cannibals…

  • http://undefined David Toronto

    Perhaps Ford is trying to cleave to the city’s
    anti-discrimination policy and pander to the
    faith community.
    It’s awkward and inept. Sadly, that’s par
    for the course for Ford.
    John Tory is looking better and better compared
    to Ford and that’s not a compliment to Tory either.
    It’s curious to note just how much airplay Ford
    and Tory have received on CFRB and just how greatly
    the local media have fallen for it and reported
    on it without realising it’s a media ploy from
    CFRB to gain attention.
    These conservatives will stop at nothing.

  • http://undefined Marc Lostracco

    I wish people who are against same-sex marriage would say that instead of saying that they “support traditional marriage.” I’ll take that back if Ford actually does support “traditional” marriage—you know, the kind where women were chattel and guys could have multiple wives.

  • http://www.joshuahind.wordpress.com Josh Hind

    The most fun I’ve had in days came from posting (or watching others post) comments from Brereton’s website on facebook and Twitter then timing how long it took Brereton to delete to offending comment. He started slow, but got quite zippy by the end of the morning.

  • http://undefined David Toronto

    The phrase, “support traditional marriage”, is
    loaded with emotionally charged words. The
    anti-abortionists do the same thing and use
    phrases are have emotional baggage attached
    to them.
    If these people said they were against same-sex
    marriage, they’d be sounding like Bill O’Reilly
    or others of that sort.
    This is another tactic of the conservatives; use
    words and phrases that wedge the others into a
    corner and make them look bad by comparison.
    Look back at Harris/Eves and today’s Harper.
    But you know these things, don’t you?

  • http://undefined DaveDaveDave

    I enjoyed watching this Ford gem last night.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nySs1cEq5rs

  • http://undefined rich1299

    Ford was just pointing out that he’s not gay and doesn’t support gay equality but he he isn’t planning any anti-gay crusades. I think its just Ford hoping to capitalize on the bigotry of some in our city. Of course marriage equality isn’t an issue, its just a way for Ford to align himself with anti-gay bigots and social conservatives. Ford would be huge embarrassment to the city as mayor and a disaster waiting to happen.

  • http://undefined rich1299

    Thanks for the link! Someone should do a compilation of all the outrageous things Ford has said during council meetings, there’s been an awful lot, Ford is really benefiting from the fact that hardly anyone actually pays attention to council meetings.

  • http://undefined McCurdy

    When questioned by John Tory over the AIDS issue, Rob Ford had a very clear opportunity to show support to the social progressives and to the gay community of Toronto. He very clearly did not rise to the occasion.
    With his statements today Rob Ford could have in other words stated: “I do not agree with the homosexual lifestyle; however, as citizens they have constituted rights for themselves. Including the right to vote”
    Perhaps one’s personal beliefs should not be questioned. The fact of the matter is that time and time again they are.
    I cannot fathom why Mr. Ford feels that he must take such a loudly unspoken socially conservative standpoint. He has most of the right wing minded voters. He has most of the talk radio listener’s votes.
    Rob Ford needs to reach out for the people who are most likely to bury his chances at mayor. His ego appears to be preventing this.
    There is no doubt that Mr. Ford realizes that many of his supporters are homophobic. Instead of being the true populist that he and his brother claims him to be, Rob is encouraging exclusionary and hateful beliefs. His communication style is simple yet carefully crafted to accommodate this sort of mentality.
    A big disappointment. We desperately need a dynamic business person as mayor this time around.

  • CanadianSkeezix

    Marriage might not be within municipal jurisdiction, but that doesn’t mean that Ford’s comment aren’t relevant to the campaign. To say that it has nothing to do with municipal politics completely misses the point — do we want a homophobe running this city?
    And he said a lot more than merely “do what you like”. His comments are just more of the so-con nonsense about how people can do what they want “in private”, just leave marriage and family alone. His comments are actually quite nasty.

  • http://www.michaeljeremybrown.ca/ Michael Brown

    “faith community” factor in Municipal politics…is this really an issue?…or perhaps Fordo is laying the foundation for his bid one day to be leader of the Cons…Today Prime Minister Ford appeared at the UN…Thanks David for brining his long-term agenda to light.