Results tagged “robford”

John Barber has been observing and commenting on City Hall for the Globe and Mail for thirteen years. Those with an interest in our municipal government will have noticed his recent absence from the paper's political pages, most acutely during the rather juicy, comment-worthy last few weeks.

View Torontoist's 2010 Toronto map (1.9 MB .PDF)

                    

Last week, Adam Vaughan held a party. Its full title, according to the now-deleted Facebook event, was "SORRY! A fundraiser to celebrate Adam's apology from Rob." Rob, you see, is Rob Ford, who on the morning of Thursday, September 25, of last year, used his weekly spot on AM640's The John Oakley Show to accuse Vaughan of a rather serious conflict of interest.

Things That Everyone Is Secretly Afraid of #237: being shoved onto the subway tracks. And for one unfortunate commuter at College station yesterday, it happened. He's okay, but the suspect is still on the loose.

Photo of Howard Moscoe at March's OCAP protest by Miles Storey.

The above video—not safe for work unless you're using headphones—was shot by the late Peter Walker and is a clip from Min Sook Lee's documentary Hogtown: The Politics of Policing (winner of the best Canadian feature prize at Hot Docs 2005). Uploaded to YouTube fewer than three weeks ago, it's been passed around online over the last few days, since being linked to by Toronto Life's Philip Preville in a Friday blog post.

TTC workers may opt for a work-to-rule or slowdown campaign rather than an out-and-out strike—moves which could include actions such as refusing to collect fares, adhering to rules of the road, and not wearing uniforms. Union President Bob Kinnear's comments indicate that they'd prefer the less drastic action so as not to antagonize the public. Hmmmm, let's see...empty pier...tearful relatives waving goodbye from the wharf...yep, sorry, Bob, that ship has definitely sailed.

When we named councillor Rob Ford as one of 2007's Villains for his consistent insensitivity, political grandstanding, and outright idiocy (witness statements like, "I can't support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it's their own fault at the end of the day," and, "If you are not doing needles and you are not gay, you won't get AIDS probably"), we couldn't have possibly imagined that he would up the ante in 2008. But in February, he proposed that every new street in Toronto be named after dead Canadian soldiers, a symbolic but entirely empty gesture that completely missed the point; and then, earlier this month, said that "Oriental people" are "slowly taking over" because they "work like dogs," comments he later refused to apologize for. All this, while rumours had been swirling that Ford was planning to run for mayor.

City councillor, unintentional humourist, and Torontoist favourite Councillor Rob Ford has grabbed himself some headlines again. He refuses to apologize for his comments on Wednesday, "the Oriental people, they're slowly taking over...they're hard, hard workers," because his sweeping generalization was intended as "a compliment." However, a spokesperson for the Canadian Council of Lazy Asians has said that the remarks were "deeply offensive."

City councillor Rob Ford has at times been accused of making a career out of saying tremendously stupid things, but we here at Torontoist fully back his latest proposal to automatically name all new streets in Toronto after dead soldiers, even if the dead soldiers aren't from Toronto.

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset.

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset.

Torontoist has been saying for years that City Council provides better bang for your buck than any other piece of live entertainment in this city. At absolutely no cost (unless you count, you know, taxes), you can attend this extravaganza that combines the spectacle and epic scale of a mega-musical with the manic energy of a really good Fringe show.

Despite loud public complaints, Toronto City Council has begrudgingly approved Astral Media's street furniture bid with a few conditions: reduce the total amount of per square foot advertising, guarantee that all billboards follow city bylaws, estimate how much energy will be used illuminating advertisements, and ensure there is no loophole in the contract which would allow Astral to screw the city over.

City budget passes: 7.9 billion smackers for the year. Noteworthy: city councillors decided that keeping their free golf passes was extremely important. I don't think most of Rob Ford's proposed budget cuts are anything but hamfisted, but come on, City Council—pay for your own goddamned golf game, willya?

Each weekday for the next two weeks, Torontoist is facing off local memes and blog drama in a tournament-style ladder and you, the reader, decide the outcome. View the full ladder here. Some highlights from Saturday's matches: 416 trounces 905 (95-12): In perhaps the most dramatic victory of the evening, the Toronto area code showed up the surrounding suburbs in a true show of telecommunications muscle. Miller's Hair buries Zombie Walks (59-47): The closest match, with the mayor's seemingly flawless haircut against the undead, Miller's golden wave came out on top. Only time will tell whether it can compete against the major league Layton's mustache. Today's matches, Region II, 1st Round:

The Annex vs. Skunks
Island Airport vs. Belinda Stronach
Leafs Fans vs. The Club District
Rob Ford vs. Bike Lanes
Street Meat vs. Taste of the Danforth
Turnitin.com vs. Jane Pitfield
Nuit Blanche vs. TIFF
Crack vs. Kensington Market

For all time we spend slagging councillor Howard Moscoe even on the worst of days he doesn't come close to the Mouth of Etobicoke, Rob Ford.

Everyone is talking about how TTC Operators will now turn a blind eye on those who are evading fares. The union is complaining about the rising number of assaults and "passenger rage." TTC Chair Howard Moscoe says that people still have to pay their fares. The Sun's story is here and has some wacky numbers like the fact that assaults have gone up over 30% in a decade. The Star's piece has more of the back and forth between TTC Chair Howard Moscoe, TTC Manager Rick Ducharme and Bob Kinnear president of the union representing TTC operators.

One of the cabbies stabbed yesterday sadly did not recover from his wounds and died in hospital yesterday. The fact that his killer was caught on tape and his picture is now everywhere is only small consolation.

Have you looked at City Council lately? Rob Ford? Denzil Minnan-Wong?! Frances Nunziata?!! Surely there must be better people out there, people that won't make us roll our eyes everytime we watch council by debating the merits of peanuts in city vending machines, or name calling fellow councillors.

The nuts down at City Hall are at it again.

This is more inflammatory Rob Ford-esque reaction to a mildly embattled Mayor Miller. Let's get a few things straight here: a) Fantino would never run. b) Nevermind never getting elected.

Councillor Rob Ford is at it again - drawing attention to himself and his economical ways, that is. The frugaliste has got his no doubt extremely inexpensive panties in a twist over the delivery of a $4700 scanner/copier/printer/fax machine to his office. Apparently, some councillors are saying they were unaware that they were getting new equipment. Ford was incensed because he doesn't want to part with his $150 machine. As for Torontoist, we didn't know they made such high-end combo machines. We thought the malfunctioning three-in-one was the sole purview of college students. Of course Ford doesn't want one.

One more word out of either Councilor Rob Ford or Lindsay Luby, and David Miller is going to turn this car right around. Mssr Miller was prompted to scold both councilors yester day after the two adults, pictured, took to exchanging child-like taunts in chambers this past Tuesday. The spat began with some sort of pot hole complaint, and ended with an emotional Luby confronting Ford off the record.