Those of us who write our pieces for Very Us Mumblings have lived in Toronto, Ontario Canada for our whole lives. We haven't checked out and moved somewhere else for three years or more and returned. We may have traveled or spent some time in other cities, but for the most part, we've pretty much been here the whole time. And during the time that Ford was Mayor (Which was for one term only, no matter who tells differently) We were living in the city Toronto the whole time. So now the former mayor Rob Ford has passed on, we are pretty much shocked at the giant amount of B.S. talked about this person who has succumbed to a disease. Suggesting that he was a champion of the middle class and worked hard to fix things and make City Hall run efficiently and save money. It's all B.S.
Cancer is not something we would wish on anybody. But no disease, no matter how terrible, is in itself absolution for a life lived as a self-aggrandising, self-serving, wealthy jackass, who used every privilege that was given him to become more and more of a bully and stubborn jerk as time went on. If there is any absolution in his passing, it is that it has put an end to his lies and antics for good... except for the fact that others seem to have taken up the cause
We will probably not shed a whole lot of tears for any politician, nor would we have any particular desire to pass judgement on any of them. But Rob Ford has reached a special level of Bovine Crappola with his passing, before now, believed unobtainable by Very Us Mumblings. And now we've decided to start chopping down the giant tree of B.S. that is the legacy of Rob Ford.
Election to Mayor and the Pitting of Downtown vs the 'Burbs
Rob Ford would likely have lived a relatively obscure life as a local city Councillor, and most of his idiosyncrasies would have been forgiven and forgotten had he stayed in the position of being a Councillor in his Etobicoke riding in Ward 2. Instead, his political career was launched to the world stage in 2010 when he became the mayor of the biggest city in Canada and won the election on a wave of support from voters concerned about City Council spending.
The first difference between Rob Ford and all previous Mayors was that this one was going to pick a fight with cyclists. Previous mayors were realizing that more and more of the downtown traffic was changing and that more people were using bicycles to get to work. Either because of rising fuel costs or the fact that many in the downtown area had simply gotten rid of their cars in favour of two-wheeled transport. Other mayors were actually competing with Mayors round the world, each trying to make their city more cycling friendly to attract wealthy European tourists who appreciated using bikes as transportation.
Rob Ford, on the other hand, apparently thinking that these cyclists didn't have jobs to go to, and were merely obstacles for him and his SUV, took the attitude that they should be forced off the road and suggesting that if they get killed then 'It's their own fault'. And It was easy pickings to cancel future bike lanes and call it a money-savings measure, but this created a feud between Rob Ford and cyclists that continues to this day.
When Rob Ford was elected mayor on the promise of 'stopping the gravy'. He promised cost savings for the taxpayer with 'no cuts to essential services'. It would have been a wonderful thing, if it had been accomplished, but in his first year as Mayor, Ford realized that there wasn't as much 'gravy' in the system. Instead, he raised prices on the most of the things that the city was already charging service fees. (Basically the furthest thing from 'gravy' that you could name). He quickly realized that the rest of his 'savings' were going to have to come from cutbacks to services. The term 'essential' quickly became forgotten, and suddenly everything that the city does was up for cutbacks, including public transit.
When Rob Ford quickly tried to force through cuts to public transit, libraries, garbage pickup, bicycle lanes, he suddenly met real opposition from other council members. There was a coalition formed against him to stop the worst of his cuts, including the shutting down of homeless shelters and libraries.
This, very simply, was the end of Ford's term as Mayor. The cuts to transit and bike lanes pitted the downtown of Toronto against him. The coalition to stop the cuts was just a result of the backlash of the inner-city. There was no going back, and there was no way that Ford was going to win the next election. It was already over.
Much has been made of the chances that Ford had to win. His chances were not as good as the polls suggest, for one simple reason: most of it depended heavily on the majority, or even all of the undecided voters going his way. This was highly unlikely considering the downtown hated him. The numbers stayed the same through the next election, though Rob Ford's brother Doug, took his place.
The previous four paragraphs are the simple truth. None the of recent hype surrounding Rob Ford's memorials changes this. Despite all his antics and publicity, he was, at best, a one-term Mayor. He had little chance at a second term, and his illness did not prevent him, or his brother from winning an election.
Missing Work and the Rob Ford Bumper-Car Show
Rob Ford was not the sharpest tool in the shed and though this may be partially explained by his addiction, the truth was his negligence and lack of knowledge only seemed to further drive a wedge between himself and the people he was to represent. Despite pretending to champion the people, he continued cutbacks to public transit, while apparently knowing nothing about the transit system that he seemed to think he was improving.
He insisted that he would build a subway in one part of town while cancelling funding for a plan that would've helped transit city-wide. He never did find the funding for any of his transit programs, but decided to try to push it through Council anyway. This led to a great and unnecessary (and stupid) feud with a Karen Stintz, who also happened to be on the City Council of Toronto at the same time as Rob Ford. Karen Stintz position was simple: There wasn't any money in the budget for subway construction. Rob Ford did not understand this. Karen Stintz was, of course, arguing with an idiot, but that didn't seem to matter much because Rob Ford's supporters were apparently all idiots and they didn't understand this and thought Karen Stintz was a mere obstacle and not a person with an actual brain. Turns out having a brain is not really an advantage when dealing with Ford's 'Nation' of supporters, but... that's why there is such a need to write this blog.
Getting to work on time and on schedule seemed to be getting more and more difficult for Rob Ford all the while and if you thought that he just didn't have time to learn all he needed to about the transit system, then apparently Ford thought so too, and decided he should bone-up on his knowledge of the city council agenda while he was driving home from work. He was photographed trying to read while driving at 50km/h and admitted to it without apologizing or even suggesting that he might stop this behaviour.
Speaking of getting home from work and missing work, most of the reporters in Toronto seemed to find it more and more difficult to actually get in touch with Ford for any kind of comment on matters of Council or anything. Unable to get in touch with him at the office, Ford suddenly wondered why they were asking him questions when he went other places. Of course, Ford claimed that all this attention was liberal-biased and unlike any other mayor before him, he was exceptionally hounded above and beyond. Of course, some would say 'Hey, you're the Mayor of Toronto, maybe you should answer some reporter questions?' But not Ford. Ford was just annoyed by all these reporters, so he employed a new press-shaming technique that might be called 'bowling for reporters' or 'Bumper-Cars with the press' in which he launched himself headlong into a group of reporters, using his body as a kind of bowling ball. This of course, would make the press look awfully pushy and terrible except for that one time he walked into a camera without anybody pushing him at all.
Despite walking into a camera, Ford would continue to blame the lefty-liberal media for all his problems no matter what he walked himself into.
IT'S THE LEFTIES!!!! IT'S THE LIBERALS!!!! IT'S THE LEFTY LIBERAL MEDIA LIBERAL LEFTY WITH EXTRA LEFTIES AND LIBERALS-NESS IN THE LIBERAL LEFTY AND THEY'RE ALL OUT TO GET ME!!! BOOHOOO!!! That's what everyone in Canada listened to for about six months while Rob Ford and his favourite Newspaper: the Stupid Untrue Newspaper screamed at anyone who dared say the mayor might be on crack. It's amazing how a cyclist gets killed in traffic and it's his own fault, but Rob Ford gets caught doing crack and it's the lefties out to get him.
Of course, rather than being the 'lefties' some person was apparently wanting to sell a video to media and this video was watched by two persons at the Toronto Star Newspaper and one person at an internet-based Magazine called Gawker. The two outlets both confirmed that the video existed, but Rob Ford, being a LIAR, denied it for the next six months or so.
It was Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair that confirmed the existence of the video after an investigation that took months. But did Rob Ford apologize to the lefties? No, he admitted it in front of the whole world, but insisted: "I don't do crack and am not an addict."
So, the liar goes on lying, but after being caught, his supporters all huddle around him and try to play the 'poor addict' card, thus proving once and for all that Conservatives are not tough on crime, but just a bunch of hypocritical idiots!
So while other crack users would have a criminal record, face charges or even go to jail, the idiot-liar Mayor gets, instead to spend the next three months embarrassing his city with video after video of drunken behaviour and stupidity, including attempting to speak drunken Jamaican patois in a fast-food restaurant.
Of course, the inclination of most addicts is to blame someone else for their problems and stupidity, but to blame all your problems on the left is only one thing. It's a cop-out. A cheap and terrible excuse by a terrible Mayor. And from this point, the now admitted crack user, went on to embarrass himself on late night television in the U.S. and never thought twice about the idea that he was representing the city of Toronto.
Savings, My Ass!
As said in the pre-amble to this blog entry. Those of us at Very Us Mumblings lived in Toronto the whole time that Rob Ford was the Mayor, and we didn't see any savings in our Taxes. The reason why was because there weren't any. If you paid rent or property tax in Toronto under Rob Ford, your taxes went up not down.
Since complaining, we have been informed that the previous Mayor had put in a tax on buying a new car that Rob Ford removed, so basically if you weren't wealthy enough to buy a new car, then you didn't get any tax break at all.
The truth is, there were no savings for taxpayers. And if you think there were, then you're only stupid enough to have taken Rob Ford's word for it, because it's the one thing that the liar kept repeating and it still isn't true.
There were only cutbacks to services in Toronto. And this stupid clueless crack-head mayor simply continued his battle vs the downtown and public transit and cyclists even when it didn't make sense. In the budget before Rob Ford became Mayor, a bike lane on Jarvis street, cost $83,000 to install. Rob Ford had that bike lane removed at a cost of over $300,000, so he cared about tax payers only so far as he could use this money to stick it to the cyclists.
In our lifetimes, We at Very Us Mumblings have not had to use a homeless shelter in this city. But we have known those who have. For one or another reason, it can happen to anyone. A fire in your apartment building or house. A power-outage that leaves you without heat in the middle of winter. Whatever the reason, if you don't have friends or family to stay with or a credit card or savings to rent a room, you may have to spend a few nights in a Toronto homeless shelter.
In 2015, Rob Ford, After being diagnosed with cancer, and after losing the Mayor's position, was representing Etobicoke Ward 2 once again, and he stood up in Toronto City Council and the liar lied again, saying that the homeless were staying in luxury acomodations.
You're a lying sack of shit, Rob Ford. Because we at Very Us Mumblings have been to the homeless shelters and you have not. The rooms you say are luxury consist of exactly this: a bed.
That's it. It is a bed. And if you have to stay longer than one night, you may get some crackers and peanut butter. And if you have a 'room' at all, then that bed is likely a bunk bed with someone else in the top bunk. The washroom is down the hall, shared with as many as 30 other people. You have no fridge or stove. You cannot cook your own meals or buy groceries, because you have no fridge. You might be able to use a microwave, also shared, if you're lucky, and your bed and all your things are checked twice a day to make sure you don't have anything illegal in your possession. And if you need to use the phone, you have to wait until the landline is available and calls may be monitored. If this sounds far from 'luxury', then Rob Ford would know that if he actually went there. (He didn't go there, because he's a LIAR!)
Some would like to laugh or make fun of Rob Ford, thinking he was a bumbling, harmless chump. The truth is that Rob Ford was a wealthy asshole! A rich, privileged asshole and he would gladly take a bed away from a homeless person because he is evil and horrible and couldn't care at all. His tax-savings are all lies. His constant complaints of harassment by the media or the lefties is entirely a cop-out. And if you believe Rob Ford was a good guy and did great things for Toronto and you think Toronto homeless shelters are luxury acomodations, then you are a f-ing moron!
However, if you're not particularly impressed with Rob Ford, then join us in saying:
Go to hell, Rob Ford. And good riddance to you.
P.S: Since this blog was written a petition has been started to give Rob Ford a statue in Toronto. We at Very Us Mumblings are taking bets as to which of us will be the first to piss on this statue once it is placed.
P.P.S: On Thursday, August 11, 2016, the video that shows Rob Ford smoking crack and speaking, the one that Rob Ford denied the existence of and demanded the release of, was released by police and published by The Toronto Star. Much to the chagrin of the idiot conservatives and Rob Ford's stupid supporters, it is as embarrassing as it has been rumored to be. Of course, the same idiot conservatives that demanded the release of the video are now claiming that this release is now in bad taste for the family of the deceased Rob Ford. All I can say to the family and Rob Ford's supporters, is suck it up, hypocrites, if you can kick a broke man or woman out of a homeless shelter, then you can admit that Rob Ford was an a**hole and a crack addict. I suggest that conservatives should enjoy the video and go f*ck yourselves, you lying bunch of crap-bags.
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