Now that half of you have gagged on your beverage, just take the time to see things from the other end of the coffee table.
Rob Ford has delivered on his key, resonant promise. There is no gravy train, but he has halted spending. There are no vats of waste, but he has effected a reversal of spending culture to the point that the average voter feels his money is no longer being wasted by the drunken sailors at city hall.
The fact that he can’t govern is discounted. His inability to manage a two-member committee is deemed irrelevant. The fact he can’t convince his own allies to side with him on some key issues is dismissed. He can’t win majority votes on a 45-member council, even when spotted 20 votes, but one can always blame the left-wing loonies. He pushes for subways, even as he refuses to vote with his allies to pay for them. But we all love subways and the mayor is on our side. Police and the 911 operator have had more occasion to acquaint themselves with the magistrate’s home affairs than with the resident troubled teen or troublemaker. But who doesn’t have domestic problems?
When your principal preoccupation is to cut taxes and spending, everything else is noise — until the noise becomes absolutely unbearable. And we are not there yet.
Torontonians elected Ford as mayor with their eyes wide open. It wasn’t a fluke. He didn’t back into the office, squeaking in because of a three-way split that saw him run up the middle to surprise everyone.
More: Ford’s losing trend at city council
By the time they went into the voting booth in Oct. 25, 2010, voters knew what they were getting. Ten years on city council as a councillor had showed the Ward 2 Councillor to be a penny pincher extraordinaire, with an allergic reaction against spending taxpayer’s money.
The grueling mayoral campaign revealed certain character flaws, yes. He didn’t always tell the truth when challenged on his campaign platforms.
He didn’t always know the file on which he was pontificating.
He didn’t seem to have time for the details that make the difference between the success and failure of public policy.
He was arrested for marijuana possession — a charge later dropped; and he pleaded guilty for failing to provide a breath sample while driving. We also knew he was not averse to being a drunken fool in public, as evidenced by his behaviour at a Maple Leaf hockey game.
But voters either held their noses and voted for him — or they ignored his flaws because of what he promised to give them.
He would end the vehicle registration tax and the land transfer tax. He didn’t like the 5-cent (now 6 cents) plastic bag fee and didn’t like property taxes, either. He would build subways, end the “boondoggle” of arts and cultural grants, save oodles of cash, and stop the gravy train. Toot-toooot!
That’s the Ford brand. No campaign strategy initiated by his opponents succeeded in getting him off message. Now, in office, Ford continues to hammer the theme. He takes care of the tax pennies as if they were loonies.
That’s all most voters cared about in 2010. Push comes to shove, voters are not much different today and won’t be different two years hence.
Unless Ford absolutely screws up everything — I can hear some of you say, “He has” — voters are prepared to cut him some slack, provided it is in their financial interest to do so.
And that’s hard to beat. Always.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Royson James
No comments:
Post a Comment