Etc… An open discussion thread.
The little Twitter people are distressed, proving yet again that despite the enthusiastic chatter from media, Twitter remains solidly positioned at the internet fringe. (Translation: People with real jobs don’t have time for Twitter.)
Ford won despite repeated attempts to paint him as a beast.
Hopefully, we’ll see Toronto transform into a city free from out-of-control spending and useless special interest groups.
Eeyore, the explanation I heard is although people said they did not support him, when they made the x they voted for him. It has happened before, heck it has happened to me. Changed my mind in the booth.
When it comes to polls, there is always a bias towards giving “socially desirable” responses. Ford was demonized to such an extent in the media that many people polled who fully intended to vote for Ford may have taken the easy road and given an undecided or false answer to the interviewer. It happens often.
Rob Ford receives over 47% of the vote yet is treated to headlines such as “Ford Wins Polarized Vote”. Guess he’s not The One. Heck, he’s not even Nenshi!
(Congrats, Mr. Ford)
I’m not familiar with how Toronto works with its council vs. Mayor.
Can Ford actually get anything done without the majority of council backing him?
It should be fun to watch though. I’m looking forward to the first strike.
Can Ford actually get anything done without the majority of council backing him?
He will need city council’s support.
“Ford’s comments are couched in familiar conservative terms of “fiscal responsibility,” but it is clear from his message that he is simply more interested in promoting car travel than transit. By removing streetcars, Ford would have to cancel an already finalized C$1.2 billion contract with Bombardier for 204 new trains at a potential penalty of C$100 million and buy 550 new buses as well as construct two new $100 million bus garages. Because Toronto’s streetcar vehicles carry three times as many passengers as buses, operations costs would expand dramatically and the number of buses on the streets would multiply significantly; meanwhile, passenger comfort would decline. How more buses carrying fewer people would result in less traffic congestion as Ford seems to imply is unclear.
In exchange for the large network of light rail lines Mayor Miller has proposed to implement (construction is underway on one corridor already), Ford would build new subways that sound good in theory but which would ultimately mean far less transit expansion because of their higher costs. But subways are more convenient for Ford because they’re buried underground, safe from interrupting the travel of his precious automobiles.”
http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2010/10/23/when-voting-for-the-lesser-of-two-evils-could-save-a-transit-system/#comments
*
“Goodbye bike lanes, they tweeted, time to pack the bags and flee
to a more moderate, progressive, inclusive city – like… Calgary.”
*
Well, I’m on twitter and enjoy it and have a job – so I don’t think fringe is the right word. I think twitter is just one tool to be used in an entire toolbox – you shouldn’t rely on it as your only form of getting your message out. It’s just one arm of what should be many forms of letting the folks know what’s going on.
RedStar is blaming Smitherman’s loss on EHealth.
Smitherman’s nonsensical Green Energy Act is deserving of far more derision. The guy’s proven he’s an incompetent platitude-spewing numbskull incapable of running a paper route, let alone a city. He can go become a parasite at some prog-funded think tank now.
Waiting for the inevitable round of strikes. Transit and garbage. I think I’ll get popcorn and watch. What would happen if garbage were privitized during a malodourous strike and forced recycling bit the dust? Keep collection points for recycling for the guilt ridden and stuff worth the effort.
Yooopeeee!
Welcome back, Toronto, from the ROC!
Next up: November 2nd. Nine sleeps.
Seems a wave is spreading across the country, maybe even the western world.
Gerte Wilders is suddenly off the hook.
Dems down south are tanking.
Even my small, Alberta county turfed 7 councillors,who couldn’t get their $hit together.
Praise the Lord!
It was fun following #voteTO last night.
You rarely get to watch a mass pyhscotic break.
City of Ottawa, the Entitled Entitlers, have elected as Mayor:
Red-Green Dalton McWatson, aka The Quitter, Ontario Premier Liberal McGuinty’s Clone.
Will McWatson last 4 years? He has never finished a term elsewhere.
…-
Ottawa’s Future:
“The OC Transpo contract expires in 6 months. Will the 375,000 riders face another strike?”
1. No. Mayor-elect Jim Watson and the new council will do whatever it takes to avoid a strike
16.6%
2. Yes. The union will flex its muscle and demand more than the new council can afford
83.3%
3. Other
0%”
http://www.cfra.com/
@trogg: The problem with LRT in Toronto is that Toronto is just too big a city and has to move a lot of people and they need to be moved fast. That is what people want. That is what Ford is tapping into. Expanding the Sheppard line into Scarborough, and then down to the Scarborough Town Centre makes sense. Getting rid of the stupid waste of money the raised LRT from Scarborogh Town Centre to the Bloor line and replacing it with a subway makes a lot of sense (I hate riding on the piece of crap). The financing for this also makes a lot of sense – a real subway will improve the economics of the areas and hence the value of the land above and around it that Ford proposes to sell to pay for it. The subway expansion from Downview to York U and Vaughn is going ahead. (I would also like to see the Sheppard line expanded west to downsview and the Yonge line expanded to the 407.)
Toronto needs (at least) 2 more north/south lines and 2 more east/west lines. These need to be planned and built slowly as money becomes available but eventually they have value because they are permanent – the tunnels do not go away. (When the wall came down between East Berlin and West Berlin – the subways were already there – they had ghost stations and everything – all they had to do was clean up the stations and and refurbish the rails and voila – the subways are back working in East Berlin.)
As a frequent driver in the downtown TO core, I voted for Ford, amongst other reasons, because he put forward some common-sense solutions to the traffic tangle that Moron Miller and his Merry Men wouldn’t even countenance: co-ordinating the damned traffic lights (cost: $50,000,000) — which I hope includes a lot more advanced greens at major intersections — and no more streetcars, thank God. Have you ever got stuck behind one of those monsters? Apparently, they do about 17 kms/hour. I avoid every major artery with streetcars unless there’s a dedicated lane for them.
‘Very interesting this morning listening to Toronto media trying their best to tiptoe around Mayor Rob Ford’s landslide win!!! ‘Left-libtard heads exploding everywhere!
The natives are restless….almost revolting….
Across Ontario the trend seems to be anti-incumbent….
Slitherman was viewed as an incumbent due to his role in McSquinty’s regime….and Ford’s relatively low profile as a former counselor was not considered so much a “career politician”.
London’t incumbent mayor was defeated by the past loser Fontana—definitively a career politician.
Here locally only one incumbent mayor was returned although a few were aclaimed.
Yes we did it,Mayor elect Ford with a firm majority!Tough road ahead to repair the Miller spending spree,and to work with Miller’s unions. Ford will make strides,left of center councillors should be mindful their city has spoken,and build consensus. In support of mass transit,the whole grid needs to move,please start with timing those traffic lights!It isn’t just the ‘burbs who drive,core Toronto housing places a premium on residential properties WITH parking:) Ford unified our city,the win reflects it!
Well the Liberals are happy in Ottawa, one of McGuinty’s CabMins won the mayoralty there as predicted by the polls.
Jim Watson has a history of quitting before his term is up if a better opportunity arises,he’s a career politician. He quit as Mayor of Ottawa last time to run provincially then quit his provincial seat to run again for Mayor. Seems to be a pattern the stupid Ottawa voters can’t catch on to.
Bravo to Toronto voters for thinking this one through instead of doing the brain free voting exercise the Liberals always counted on.
You should have seen Kinsella on TV last night, he looked genuinely scared about these results, then tried to dismiss them as no big deal, it is nice to see the hyper partisan Liberals getting removed one after another, their time is over.
“The darkness will unite the fellowship of the progressives”
WTH ? These people are seriously messed up.
Good Luck Mr. Ford. Wish us Luck Canadians, we go too the polls in 7 days.
Lord, give me the strength not to fall apart when Pelosi loses that gavel.
Is it just me or is Rob Ford not a Tommy Boy (Chris Farley) double? 🙂
Glad he won.
WTF is a twitter…
I used to take pride in keeping up with all the latest social media wizardry, then I realiased I was just another loser like the rest of them…
I’m enjoying reading posts by leftards, they have moved beyond hysteria to frothing at the mouth in outrage. Despite Liberal Media’s attempt to brainwash the court of public opinion they failed. Not only is Ford’s win a win for all non-progressive Canadians it’s also a big defeat for Liberal MSM, they do not get to decide who the electorate votes for and I bet that’s a bitter pill to swallow I hope MSM chokes on their narcissistic arrogance.
To find any mention of the TO election results on cbc.ca, you really need to search. There is nothing on the main page and nothing on the Toronto page. I only found an article on it when I looked at “most viewed” and “most recommended”.
Ignatieff should know, after all the Liberal Party of Canada got a lot of help from the United States . . . heh heh heh.
Mass transit is a VERY expensive social program….
sasquatch
Here in london, we voted the crook and former liberal (fontana) instead of the spendthrift incumbent.
I was hoping they’d both lose but lesser evil did triumph.
fontana (ever the weasil politician) put his finger in the air and promised to freeze/cut spending and not raise taxes for 4 years. Even though the promises aren’t worth jack, he can’t possibly be as reckless as that twit we booted out.
The incumbent raised taxes hugely every stinking year while crying that there was still useless causes she wanted to throw endless piles of cash at. She implied that she was showing restraint by raising taxes a mere 8% a year instead of the 12% she’d really like to stick us with.
That is how you elect a crook former liberal to mayer. You run him against a dipper. And yes, our choices were grim…
I live north of the GTA (by design) and was amused by the race for my local councillor. It was a 5-way contest and the guy who won was a new university grad who’s experience could only list some volunteer work with the conservative party. He won by a landslide over the 4 other “experienced” or “liberal” candidates.
No one can convince me this is all just co-incidence. I think people are starting to look under rocks and are finding their elected reps. Progressives are being exposed for what they are. Thanks to the internet.
Sasquatch wrote:
“The natives are restless….almost revolting….”
Yes, they are revolting, aren’t they?
OH! You mean they don’t like the results. Well… That’s the way the cookie crumbles, I suppose.
Celebrating their loss.
France-style
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/20/france-riots-airports_n_769329.html
Somewhere out there, huddled in a backroom today, ya just know the snivelling Liberal leftists are saying “If only they weren’t allowed to vote”.
ccon, trog is just another transit-Nazi who’s bad at math. Its -easy- and -cheap- to get effective transit. You just shut down a side street to through traffic and parking, then you run buses up and down it. Such a network could be proclaimed next week by Hogtown at zero cost, zero uproar, zero traffic problems.
What’s the TTC doing? LRT lines that cost well over a million dollars a mile, and don’t go where people want to go.
If you want to see the end result of building mass transit, take a run down to NYC. The place is a dump, you can’t get around in it, its a pain in the @ss to be in, and in the daytime the frickin population DOUBLES because of commuters. They come in from as far as 50 miles in all directions, and leave the same way.
Of particular note is the fact that the mass transit system as a whole costs far more than what people pay to ride it. Like, more than double, more than triple. The entire State of NY pays for NYC’s transit system.
Building out the TTC to the size of NYC’s system would be a never-ending disaster for Canada.
It was a great morning to wake up and find Joe Pantalone AND Sandra Bussin AND Carolyn Parrish all unemployed!
That is absolutely correct. I closed the Facebook account when it was highjacked by several relatives who wear holiday theme sweaters and never edit their photos. Twitter on the other hand, I forget about it 29 days out of 30.
Looks like my response is being held indefinitely in the moderator queue. I am guessing using too many html tags was the cause as the message was not offensive.