Toronto mayoral rivals pounce on Ford’s comments
Candidate fires back at critics but repeats stand that city can’t deal with any more newcomers
Ford vows to scrap fair wage policy
No fair, says Rob Ford. The mayoral contender has vowed to scrap the city's fair wage policy if he's elected on Oct. 25.
Racism card didn't play this time
Last Updated: August 18, 2010 9:24pm
Forget the race card, this was the racism card.
Normally it’s a knockout for those playing it and a fatal blow for the defenceless recipient.
For lib-left politicians it’s the oldest trick in the bag.
Normally it works. Not this time.
So much for the usual victory dance for political correctness. Turns out Councillor Rob Ford may have read the mood of the electorate better than any of his opponents.
“We can’t even deal with the 2.5 million people,” Ford said Tuesday.
“How are we going to welcome another million people in? We can’t even deal with the chaos we have now. I think we have to say enough’s enough.”
Of course his behind-in-the-polls competitors could not resist this fastball down the middle of the plate and they came out swinging. Ford is “unfit to be mayor,” said Rocco Rossi.
Said George Smitherman: “He should slink away.”
And Joe Pantalone? “Such a statement has no place in Toronto.”
The oh-so-clever liberal lefties had spoken and the great unwashed buffoon was soon to be headed over the cliff.
Whoops! Don’t get too close guys because it might be all three of you exquisite, above reproach, moral high grounders going over instead.
Polls Wednesday show an overwhelming majority agree with the Etobicoke North councillor.
People are buying into the simple message of keeping more of their money in their pocket and sending a message that they are fed up with the tax and waste, opportunist lefties that have racked up a $3 billion city debt.
I followed the Ford campaign to Front St. and found immigrants are even starting to talk redneck.
“I think he’s right,” said Heather Norman, who with fellow Canadian of Jamaican heritage Thora Daley said the city is getting too big, too fast and grabbed Ford For Mayor stickers.
Agnes Paskar and Snehel Patel came here from India and say they can’t understand why they have highly educated relatives who can’t get in but people arriving illegally by boat get express treatment?
Anthony D’Sousa, also from India, says Ford is wise to want to build up the infrastructure before opening the floodgates further and cab driver Munir Ahmed, originally from Ethiopia, said he “agrees” with Ford’s assessment and would have no problem voting for him Oct. 25.
“He’s a nice guy,” said Munir. “I drove him to Etobicoke once and he gave me a $5 tip.”
Anybody dare to call these people racist? None of them suggested Ford slink away.
Read the 600 plus people commenting on torontosun.com Wednesday and you find an angry and complicated electorate sick of talk-out-of-both-sides-of-your-mouth politicians who spend half their time trying to figure out how to tax you more and the other half handing out your money to people who don’t deserve it.
People know Ford is rough, gruff, rumpled, unpredictable, had heated arguments in arenas and on football fields and even had minor brushes with the law.
And they like him like that. He is real. The more Teflon-Ford steps into controversy the more the public seem to embrace him and the very issue critics were sure would bury him may actually be what puts him in the mayor’s chair.
The polls show people are enjoying a little straight talk instead of more political BS from politicians who have done nothing, helped lead the city into massive debt or were responsible for losing $1 billion in taxpayers’ money. Still, there are two months left to try to nail him on something else but it won’t the racism card because that one has already been played.
In the end Ford might not have been the one to shoot himself in the foot.
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