Toronto News: Ford accused of stacking public appointments – thestar.comEarly this year, we saw Case Ootes appointed to completely replace the TCHC board, and then Gordon Chong (part of Rob Ford’s transition team) was appointed to to a job for $100,000…
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Driving The Porcelain Bus: Toronto Sun: let’s make Toronto worse
How Rob Ford could improve T.O. | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto SunThe Toronto Sun suggests outlawing panhandling, scrapping the bag fee and licensing bicycles are ways to improve Toronto. Let’s look at these:Outlawing PanhandlingThere is already …
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Stephen Harper has a tantrum in Brazil and locks himself in the bathroom until he gets his way
Less amusing translation of Brazilian article on Harper bathroom tiff | Centre BlockCanadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper put Brazilian diplomats in a difficult (embarrassing) position this Monday, demanding a change in the Brazilian diplomatic protoc…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: How to stop Ford Nation
How do we stop the cuts to core services and the wasteful spending by Rob Ford and his supporters on city council?Talk to the councillors.Now, we know that there are basically 3 groups of councillors politically:1 – Right Wing – Ford Nation – these cou…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: The transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich and how this affects Toronto
Toronto at a crossroads: Will Ford’s austerity agenda be derailed? | rabble.caExcerpts: Lost in the rhetoric is the fact that there actually is a “revenue” problem, a problem that is deeply connected to the larger austerity agenda.The city’s budget is …
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Closing food banks dumb idea
Closing food banks dumb idea | Comment | London Free PressYes, as I said in my previous post, closing food banks is a bad idea with nothing in place to provide alternate support.The food bank world was suddenly hit with a broadside this week with the E…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Ontario NDP still rising in the polls
Hudak’s lead shrinks, poll shows – thestar.comAll the polls since Jan. 2011 have shown the Ontario NDP steadily rising (Nanos, Ipsos, Forum) from a low of 13% in January, to a high, so far, of 24% in the latest Forum Research poll.Latest Forum Resear…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Hey, Mayor Mud! I want my vote back!
Toronto News: James: A thousand times no – thestar.comFor those who couldn’t or wouldn’t see the writing on the wall during the election campaign, and ended up believing Rob Ford’s promises and voted for him, many now want their votes back. Ford said h…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Can you balance the budget (for Toronto)?
Meat or gravy: Can you balance the budget? – thestar.comThe Toronto Star has put together this interactive budget calculator. Although it seems they put this together with good intentions, they are missing some key items:Missing as a choice from the Re…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Rob Ford sleeps through deputations
Just saw this on FB via Mark B “Rob Ford sleeps through … on TwitpicOn July 28, 2011, The Executive Committee of Toronto City Council, agreed to hear citizen deputations, as invited by the mayor, Rob Ford. 344 people managed to register to speak. Ori…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Opinion piece blaming food banks misses the point
It’s time to close Canada’s food banks – The Globe and MailElaine Power may be an associate professor, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t on crack. In her piece (link above)l, she goes to town blaming food banks for various problems and says they should b…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Rob Ford refused to pay election fines
City officials waived fines related to Ford’s election campaign – The Globe and MailRob Ford was fined $13,362.25 for 483 infractions of the bylaw governing the placement of election signs. He delayed almost a month past the due day for appealing the…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Is Mayor Rob Ford a liar, con-man or just ignorant? The facts say yes
The Grid TO | Top five Ford truthiness fact checks of the weekMost of the article by Edward Keenan at The Grid:This week, the brothers Ford have had a particularly bad week with fact checkers. Here’s a rundown, in no particular order, of their greate…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Poster > Cyclist response to "Rob Ford’s Bike Plan"
Fuck Ford poster protests Rob Ford’s bike planAt the link is a poster created in response to Rob Ford’s bike plan (removing bike lanes from convenient streets for cyclists, and then building bike lanes in out-of-the-way places).Ironic how Ford’s bike p…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Rob Ford will raise taxes next year
Ford opens door on 3% tax hike | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto SunAfter promising to not raise taxes or cut services, and, after finding that there is/was no waste at City Hall, and, after squandering over $533 million, Rob Ford is eyeing raising …
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Trying to make sense of Rob Ford
Trying to make sense of Rob Ford, his followers on city council and the reasons behind the cuts and spending.We now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is/was no significant waste at city hall in Toronto. The Service Review done by the consultan…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Toronto Cuts Just Beginning
Here is a note Mark MacLennan posted on Facebook.Toronto Cuts Just Beginningby Mark MacLennanPlease circulate this any way you can. I took the time to read through all of this stuff so it would be less of a slog to get through for anyone who is inter…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Rob Ford continues to lie to the public as he wastes more money and increases the deficit
Ford’s financial numbers don’t add up – The Globe and MailRob Ford claimed the other day to have saved the city $70 million in the first six months. In this Globe & Mail story, they reported that most of that was the money from the vehicle regi…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Torontonians to Rob Ford: Hands off our libraries!
Poll shows Torontonians oppose closing local libraries and library privatization – councilors take note < Libraries, Privatization, Ontario | CUPEThe Toronto Public Library Workers Union commissioned Forum Research to ask Torontonians about Ford’s…
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: Ford’s consultants: Miller was right
The Grid TO | Ford’s consultants: Miller was rightLook wait-and-give-him-a-chance people and Ford followers: even the consultants, who Ford wasted a lot of money on, agree with David Miller, 1/3 of the councillors, and just over half the people in Toro…
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