No Ford Nation...just Toronto the good!

Still not Working

So once again it seems the Mayor is putting one job over another. Yesterday was a very important Executive Committee meeting, which as we all know the Mayor chairs. Ford was present in the morning, and then lo and behold after lunch our Mayor disappeared. Now you may ask, what would be so important that he would miss chairing his very own committee meeting, a committee meeting that can determine the very day to day running of this city, a meeting that some of the most important items are discussed, debated and voted on. Items such as Pride TO and contracting out cleaning for TTC, which were discussed at yesterdays meeting.

So where was our Mayor during this very important meeting…he was coaching football. That is right, he left his $167,770.00 a year job, that our tax money, money he claims to respect, pays for, and went to coach a football game. Apparently his job as Mayor takes second place to his all important job of coaching high school football. Apparently the executive committee takes a back seat when there is a game to see. So here is my question, if this were any of us, and I have asked this before, would we still have a job?

He rolls in the office around 10am, he leaves at 2:30pm and doesn’t even bother coming back after practice even though the meeting itself ran till 8pm, and everyone else was there until it was done. What was Ford’s solution to his dilemma, he tried to get everyone to work through their lunch, he didn’t tell them why they were being asked to forgo any sort of break during this over 9 hour meeting, he just suggested it, as if he was so hard working that he was willing to work through lunch, not that he was trying to blast through the meeting as fast as he could so he could get the hell out in time for his game.

I don’t know about you, but his complete disrespect for his office and for his role as leader of the city is contemptible, yet no one is calling him out for it. Instead they are all still gushing about what a great party he threw, with the frozen burgers and illegal campaigning. So what do we want for a Mayor, a guy who can throw a good party, or a guy who can bother to actually do his job and chair his own committee meeting until it is done.

I hope in 2014 the people who held their nose and voted for Ford, make damn sure this time they do their homework. Otherwise we will have 4 more years of a half-hearted Mayor and his lackadaisical attitude to our city.

Wherefore Art Thou Mayor Ford
By Christina Robins

Robyn Doolittle of the Toronto Star posted an article today about how our Mayor seems to missing in action at City Hall these days. This article was followed by long time Councillor Shelley Carroll pronouncing the same thing a week ago, a story that ran in two newspapers.

How is it possible, that this man is the same person shouting about entitled unions, absenteeism and over paid workers less than a few months ago when it came time to draw up a budget.

According to Ford’s office, the Mayor doesn’t make it in most days before 12:30 and calls in from the comfort of his home before that to attend to any office business, in other words, he reaches over, dials the phone and listens for a few minutes before what? Rolling over and going back to bed? While the rest of the city is preparing to take a break after 4 hours of working already, not counting the sardine trip into work on the TTC, the man that was elected to run the City, can’t be bothered to show up at scheduled events. He doesn’t actually call to cancel, he just doesn’t bother showing up…don’t know about you, but that would be grounds for dismissal from any other job!

Is this leadership? Is this fair? Is this what the residents of Toronto hired him to do?

With each passing day, unless Mayor Ford is mugging a poor man of his cell phone in a public park, or lying through his teeth about stats, or spewing hate and lies on his radio show, we hear nothing from him.
His brother is more out in the public eye, but I would also like to see his schedule, he seems more about the big gestures and big mouth than he is about his own ward.

Most councillor are in at 9am, heck Shelley Carroll, I’ve heard, comes in before her staff most mornings…why because she cares about her job and the people who elected her. She cares about this city on a whole and not just about getting press and showing up her fellow councillors by calling them names or as Doug Ford said in a Globe and Mail article “dumber than a bag of hammers” when speaking of his opposition.

Unlike Ford she has proven over the years she has been in office, that she is willing to work with everyone of every political stripe, not take pot shots and divide us into categories, some worth more than others, some to be completely ignored.

If we are collectively dumb enough to vote back in a man who is lazy, self entitled and clearly hates what Toronto truly stands for, well then we haven’t learned our lesson and we deserve to lose all we hold dear in this city! If we have half a brain, we’ll elect someone who has proven themselves capable of considering others, and fully willing and able to bring the city Ford is dividing back together, to be the family we’ve always been.

When we go to the polls in 2014 can we ask before we tick the box, who showed up to work everyday and who stayed home.

Links:

http://www.thestar.com/iphone/GTA/article/1193920

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/05/22/carroll-accuses-ford-of-being-absentee-mayor

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/carroll-accuses-mayor-of-not-showing-up-at-the-office/article2440321/?service=mobile