Tuesday 4 March 2014

Mayors behaving badly – how does yours stack up?

'Cottages' across from the hydro dam,
where the lobby group began
Yes, it is an embarrassing thing. You know they've been elected. You know you didn't vote for them, but many did. What is the solution?

Come election time, you'll have to vote for the other person, and hope there is a good candidate to follow, as sometimes it is Hobson's choice regarding the choices.

Apparently, calling them out, on-line, or having them on TV shows, seems to be the thing to do.
Mayors Behaving Badly is one Internet site.

What is terribly surprising is that politicians, like Rob Ford, Muskoka Lakes Mayor Murphy, fail to even pretend to listen to others, and listen to all of their constituents.

Mayors attitude draws scorn

Bala Falls, where a hydro project has been begun,
despite local protests by a lobby group
Mayor Murphy, who owns a cottage across from the hydro dam, has run for office specifically to oppose the Bala Falls Hydro Project. She has ignored the various levels of government. She has been photographed, avoiding reporters, calling police on a Swift River crew there to take core samples.



Bala falls, Dam in the old days

Now, council is going after the church's parking to attempt to stall the project. 

Plans under way to install crosswalk beside Bala Falls bridge

by Norah Fountain
Crosswalk to link boat walkway just south of township parking lot to Margaret Burgess Park

Then there is Rob Ford and Jimmy Kimmel 

He is such a sad case. What do you suppose? Narcissistic? It truly does take my mind off of other important stories; Russia invading the Ukraine, the rape culture and allegations at my alma mater  uOttawa.

There are several No Rob Ford and Rob Ford Must Go websites popping up!
This one dispels the myths that the man saved a billion dollars, myth by myth.

I.E., 3) “I’ve saved over a billion dollars.”

FALSE.


As the Star has previously explained: hundreds of millions of Ford’s claimed savings are phantom “efficiencies” that did not save the city money at all; $200 million of the claimed $1 billion is from the elimination of the car tax, which is not a government “savings” in any traditional sense; $24 million is from hiking user fees, which is money out of people’s pockets — and, crucially, Ford has not counted the costs of his other decisions. If he is counting the elimination the car tax, for example, it is only fair to count the imposition of a new $745-million tax to pay for the Scarborough subway extension. The net figure is nowhere close to $1 billion.

They also have fake candidates who promise to smoke dope not crack!

Published on 4 Mar 2014
Mayor Ford explains why he agreed to being a guest on the show and tells us why he hands his phone number out to everyone. Jimmy reads some negative Internet comments he received about having Mayor Ford on the show.

He continues to spew his lies and obfuscations...
Adam Chaleff tweets:

  • Rob Ford's record: $100M+ larger repair backlog, 10,000+ more people on housing wait list
  • The City's debt was 2.9b when Ford took over. Now it's close to 4b and there'll be another almost 1b issued for Scarb subway
  • Ford's increased debt and gave unionized workers pay increases when they offered a pay freeze. Police got 11.5%.
  • Ford got rid of the vehicle tax but property tax, TTC fares, water rates, garbage fees, rec fees and more all went up.
  • Plus, Ford talks a good game but I've paid a lot more under Ford than I did Miller and services are worse.

And incompetence...
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford messes up daylight saving time (Photo: AP)

  Jimmy Kimmel Live - The first part of Jimmy's interview with Rob Ford



There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. -Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1928) 

5 comments:

Red said...

We are to blame for these idiots. We voted for them. Things can be twisted so that they can be elected with a minimum of votes. Wedge politics!

Cloudia said...

We need to fire these idiots - or better yet, not hire them!


ALOHA from Honolulu
Comfort Spiral

=^..^= <3

Kay said...

Gee... I'm listening to this interview and thinking that must be why people in Toronto voted for him. Kept taxes down, no garbage strikes, economy thriving from what he says. Really? So he's a terrible, foul mouthed, abusive, drunken, crazy, etc. mayor, but there must be people who voted for him for a reason.

Jenn Jilks said...

It's all politics and obfuscation, Kay. He isn't working alone.
He says he put in the subway, but I took the subway to high school in 1971. He had no influence at the time. What he needs to say is that he (and the rest of council) fought for funding from the federal government. He had very little to do with it.
He hasn't save a billion dollars. It's shameful that no one calls him up on all this. It's all exaggeration and some lies. He's shameless.
If you want services, you're going to have to raise taxes. That's the bottom line. He could afford to pay to put his family in a hotel during the power outage. Not all his constituents were able to do so.
He's painting a horrible picture of Toronto and Canadians. Each person who phones him with a problem, and he solves it, is happy. Unfortunately, he is racist, a boor, and those who misunderstand and believe his lies, think he's working for them. He's just happy with the media attention. It's so sad.

Pearl said...

if a balanced intelligent person considers long and hard, they might pause before running for mayor. but still, in the face of the ones who win sometimes, might be worth the struggle.