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Newsstand: September 16, 2011
It may not be a complete Ford Friday, but there sure is a lot of Ford in today's news: the mayor says employees are the real gravy at City Hall, a poll shows most Torontonians don't support city service cuts, and two more councillors turn away from the mayor's vision for the Port Lands.
Remember when Rob Ford told us that, if elected as mayor, he could find and show us all the elusive gravy at City Hall? Apparently all he had to do as his first order of business was hold up a staff photo. After being taken to task by conservative radio host Jerry Agar—who supported Ford’s bid for mayor—for being less effective at discarding fat than a Ronco Showtime Rotisserie Oven, Ford conceded the real gravy at City Hall is the people working there. It makes us wonder why he didn’t just spare everyone the euphemism and campaign on laying off City workers during the election.
But formerly friendly radio hosts might be the least of the big man’s problems at the moment. A recent poll finds the majority of citizens in every ward across Toronto want their councillors to vote against cuts to city services and, if an election were held tomorrow, only 27 per cent of respondents said they would vote for Rob Ford for mayor. The findings suggest a pretty big change in the city’s political tide even if the poll, which was paid for by CUPE Local 79 (the union representing the City’s inside workers), asked some kind of biased questions. It’s not quite the final scene of Scarface for Ford just yet, but it’s not looking good.
Compared to the majority of Torontonians, a measly couple of city councillors breaking rank with the mayor doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but it’s probably worth mentioning anyway. Two members of the mayor’s executive committee, Michelle Berardinetti (Ward 35, Scarborough Southwest) and Karen Stintz (Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence), will not be supporting the Ford vision for development of the Port Lands, which is perhaps best summarized with the word “monorail.” Instead, they’re joining the long list of academics and thinkers supporting the vision laid out by Waterfront Toronto.
We imagine you, like many Torontoist readers and contributors, enjoy the comfort, style and self-warming seats that only a luxury automobile can provide. But if you bought a sportscar recently and mysteriously lost the keys, take solace that York Regional Police have arrested a man for stealing the keys to 99 luxury vehicles over the past few months. Police say the suspect intended to steal the cars themselves too, often off the dealers’ lots, but now he can’t because he’s been arrested. Cue mandatory Jay-Z-based joke.