Today Fri Sat
It is forcast to be Fog at 11:00 PM EDT on May 24, 2012
Fog
29°/14°		 It is forcast to be Chance of a Thunderstorm at 11:00 PM EDT on May 25, 2012
Chance of a Thunderstorm
20°/16°		 It is forcast to be Partly Cloudy at 11:00 PM EDT on May 26, 2012
Partly Cloudy
21°/14°

17 Comments

news

Duly Quoted: Mel Lastman

By Hamutal Dotan

“Maybe if [Ford] doesn’t come around this year, next year, I think he’ll work up his courage and go. Once you go, you’ll be fine.”
—Former mayor Mel Lastman with some thoughts on his successor’s less-than-enthusiastic reception to participating in this year’s Pride parade. Yesterday Rob Ford announced he’d be missing the parade to spend time with his family at their cottage; he is also not scheduled to appear at any other events during Pride’s ten day run of festivities.

Filed under: , , ,

Report error Send a tip

Comments

  • isyouhappy

    The left gets all worked up over the obvious, the right get all worked up over the left's outrage, and Ford gains way more publicity and PR then he needs pitting one side against the other further dividing the city.

    FordInc can smell drama a mile away, and strategize on how to best use it against the city. We need to stop playing their games and move the f*ck on. Let's focus on PRIDE and all of the amazing diverse events taking place over the week. 

  • http://twitter.com/JonHorvatin Jon Horvatin

    Conflict always taking away from the actual importance. It's a shame. As if Mel Lastman has the privilege of commenting on public gaffs. I still see the boiling pot of water when I think Olympics. Keep the gems coming Lastman.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Stemmler/644800361 Robert Stemmler

    My initial response to the news that Ford was foregoing Pride: Good, one less fat, ugly straight guy trolling Pride in hopes of seeing some naked lesbo boobies.

  • torontothegreat

    I guess it's just replaced by offense and ignorance

  • http://valdodge.com/ Val Dodge

    Rob Ford has a 30-year tradition of spending Canada Day at the cottage? That's funny because he was glad-handing at the East York Canada Day Parade last year. Oh wait, maybe he went on his vacation after the big public event. What a concept.

  • rich1299

    Personally as a gay man myself I think Ford has fence mending to do before he shows up at the Pride parade, attending the flag raising ceremony would be a good start, or attending one of the 10 Pride events that don't happen on that weekend would also be a good start. Unlike Lastman, Ford has a long history of making offensive remarks to the LGBT communities of Toronto during his time as councilor and his statement against equal marriage during the campaign.

    While I never liked Lastman's politics I never once doubted his devotion to all of Toronto and to being mayor of all Torontonians, the same cannot be said for Ford who seems determined to prove that he's only mayor of certain select parts of the city and certain select parts of its population. As it stands now I doubt Ford would be as warmly welcomed at the Pride parade as Lastman was, maybe next year if he starts mending fences with the city's LGBT communities now by at least attending the flag raising ceremony, after all it'll be right outside his office and its not like he'd have to travel anywhere to attend. Then he needs to keep from saying anything offensive to LGBT Torontonians for a year and then maybe he'd be welcome at next year's Pride parade.

    I never thought we'd have a mayor who would make Mel Lastman seem a class act and a statesman, but then along came Ford. I guess we really don't know what we got until its gone.

  • rich1299

    True but you got to admit Lastman was devoted to serving all of Toronto and made sure he was actually the mayor of all Torontonians, the same thing cannot be said of Ford who clearly only sees himself as mayor of certain segments of Torontonians, mainly heterosexual, financially well off, non-immigrant, car drivers from the inner suburbs. Lastman also didn't have Ford's record of saying offensive things about LGBT Torontonians during his time as councilor and during the campaign. In my opinion compared to Ford Lastman was a class act and a statesman, he may have been embarrassing at times but he was never as offensive to large minorities of Torontonians as Ford has been.

    I still don't understand how that fool Ford got elected in this city. He was supposed to correct Toronto's “spending problem” instead all he's done so far is spend spend spend, first cancelling the vehicle registration tax, then cancelling Transit City in favour of an expensive and un-needed subway that will be a big money loser for the TTC's operating budget and insisting on burying the Eglinton line so others in city have to do without improved transit, besides which burying the entire Eglinton line will also greatly increase the TTC's operating costs with all those un-needed elevators and escalators to maintain when they can't even keep the current ones operational all the time. Not to mention now paying to remove the bike lanes on Jarvis. Of course he won't spend a dime, not even of the province's money, for improving the health of Torontonians and no money either for public housing which is desperately needed, but Ford has made it clear he's not the mayor of “those” sorts of Torontonians.

    Yeah Lastman was embarrassing at times but I'd take him any day over Ford.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Stemmler/644800361 Robert Stemmler

    Please do elaborate if you take exception to my comment.

  • torontothegreat

    nothing to elaborate on.  You made an ignorant comment about straight people attending pride…

  • isyouhappy

    I hope Ford is aware of the type of reception most(hopefully) gays will give him if he decides to show up. And I hope that he will take that with all seriousness and contemplate why we feel the way we do about him (by we I would say most gays that I've talked to at least). And it's not because we're 'from the left and are downtown elites' it's because he's made drastically homophobic intolerant remarks towards this community, has made veiled threats towards funding this event (the list goes on). 

    I agree, Ford needs to mend a ton of fences before he can show up and expect a warm reception.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Stemmler/644800361 Robert Stemmler

    Really? Do you actually think that 1) I was talking about all straight people and 2) that there *aren't* straight-guys with frat-boy attitudes who show up at Pride (the Dyke March especially) with the express purpose of seeing hot lesbo action?

  • torontothegreat

    Well, yea, cause you didn't specify, you painted with a long brush on that one.  And I'm sure there are frat-boy attitudes who show up at pride, there are lots of attitudes that show up at pride.  Not sure how that makes your comment any more helpful?

  • Functionalist

    And what of it? Should they be ashamed of their sexuality?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Stemmler/644800361 Robert Stemmler

    I think you just have a combination of reading incomprehension and thin skin. If I mean to make a comment about all straight people, I'll make “all straight people” the subject of my statement. If I mean to make a comment about Rob Ford, then I'll make “Rob Ford” the subject of my statement.

    And because I'm still not sure you're able to figure it out, I'll elaborate. Rob Ford doesn't want anything to do with Pride because he has a frat-boy, heterosexist understanding of what it means to be gay–that is, a list of sex acts that dudes do with dudes and chicks do with chicks. So since he's a real he-man lady lover who doesn't do those sex acts that dudes do with dudes, the only reason he'd be at Pride is to see the chicks who do it with chicks–a la the notorious men who go to the Dyke March to take pictures of naked breasts. Instead of, you know, understanding that sexuality isn't the snickery locker room jokes and tall tales he and his uneducated ilk tell each other over beers at their local not-gay bar.

    See, if you had suspended your immediate outrage and employed your reading comprehension skills when you first read my comment, you probably could have figured that out all by yourself and saved me all this extra typing.

  • torontothegreat

    Funny cause I know lots of people in the LGBT community that do that too. Stll not sure how it's helpful. You sound no different then the bigots who paint Pride as a perv-fest. Meh. I think you have an to have an axe to grind anyways, so grind away.

  • torontothegreat

    If he doesn't bother to mend any fences, that'll be a line drawn in the sand. Which I half expect, already.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Stemmler/644800361 Robert Stemmler

    Not at all a bigot. But you keep on with that (willful by now) lack of reading comprehension. It seems to be working well in your efforts to avoid the possibility that maybe you just didn't read my comment right.