Transit "EXPERTS" Hijack Silly Hall...

Stintz's motley crew: Levy
City transit horror show
While Mayor Rob Ford now says there’s no way he’ll revive David Miller’s vehicle registration tax (VRT) to pay for his subway plan, what he has been suggesting is scary enough.
Definition Of Expert: "Someone who knows 101 ways to have sex but is abhorrent to the opposite/same sex!"

Mayor Rob Ford promises no new taxes to help fund Sheppard subway
After floating potential revenue tools to help extend the line, Ford declared Thursday: “There will not be any new taxes.” (43)

It seems like it wasn't electrical cable being pulled from Queens Park to Silly Hall ...was it possibly the puppet master's puppet string!

Too Little Too Late...

Rob should have started cleaning house on Day 1 by firing, or at least putting on notice, beauracracts at Toronto Silly Hall...MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY!

Do You Have The Same Rights Where You Are Employed?

City Hall
Labour pains
In the city vs the unions, can we stop the time travel?
By Ellie Kirzner
There it was again, in the city’s press release on Monday, that “jobs for life” piece of deliberate vocabulary malfunction.
The mayor’s followers have crafted a language to reposition CUPE 416’s precious seniority principle as a rare entitlement, a selfish comfort at a time of scarcity and want. Oh, please.>> More

...is it possible that it is not the right to :jobs for life" but the way it is interpreted and manipulated by the unions, the workers and previous administrations who failed to MANAGE the city work force. You would think that Toronto is the only major city having problems but:


Cracks in the Socialist Reality Bubble Begin
Public sector workers in New York state are beginning to learn a few important lessons in math.
“We can no longer sustain the current pension system,” [Democrat Governor] Cuomo said, citing a projected 185 percent treasury-busting increase in pension costs from 2009 to 2015 if nothing is done.
“This is devastating to the state and the local governments,” he said of the rising costs.
“We need pension reform. We need it desperately.”
Posted by Robert at 4:21 PM Comments (26)

You Have To Wonder...

...if possibly it is CUPE that is "collapsing" with their cave in on wages in order to try and appease the Ford Nation at the bargaining table. Oh! Let's not forget contracting out garbage collection and hiring freeze...

City’s rush to declare impasse latest step in Ford administration’s attack on public services
January 16, 2012
The City of Toronto’s hasty decision to declare an impasse in bargaining is the “latest step in the Ford administration’s campaign against public services.
Canadian Union of Public Employees
more

Ford Nation collapses
January 19, 2012
By Krystalline Kraus
Inside Toronto city council chambers yesterday, the anti-Ford cuts voting bloc was able to draft a last-minute omnibus motion to save $15 million worth of city services and programming from being cut.

The Captain Didn' Desert His Post...

...but it is obvious the mushy middle on council did!

Huge loss for Rob Ford? Not so fast: Podcast
Today we’re talking about three issues – the controversial budget passed by Toronto city council, a proposal...Continue reading
EditorialBoard THE STAR

Considered Breaking News In Toronto....

The Real Battle Is Yet To Come...

Editorial: Ford’s budget a good start
Mayor Rob Ford began the long, slow process Tuesday of dragging city council, kicking and screaming, into a new era of fiscal responsibility.

...when push comes to shove and 60%+ of every $$$ goes to wages union "negotiations" will be where the real long term savings will come and the sooner Ford lockouts out CUPE the sooner the unions make more "shell concessions" like their proposed wage freeze.

James: Rob Ford loses the gamble
2012/01/18 09:53:52
It was supposed to be Mayor Rob Ford’s day of triumph. Instead, it showed councillors the big bad wolf isn’t nearly as scary as they... (63)

...and at stake is the future of ours and our children.

Ball Breaker Would Be More Appropriate...Ask the lefties!

Illustrator David Parkins dances through Mayor Ford’s eventful first year in office.

Click here to view photo gallery.

When Will TorStar And Calgary Herald Hold This Mayors Feet To The Ffire...

...or is the battle to be fought on the pages of SDA, FFF?

Ezra Levant goes after Calgary’s Muslim mayor, Naheed Nenshi
By Kathy Shaidle on Sunday, January 1st, 2012 No Comments

Ouch…
Here’s how Nenshi defended turning a blind eye to law breaking:
“It’s funny, the number of people who have talked to me in the last couple of days who have said ‘the Occupy Calgary people need to get off Olympic Plaza so that all citizens can have rights to their front lawn.’ And I say, OK, so all citizens except the ones you don’t like should have a right to the front lawn. Because all means all in my opinion.”
All means all.
Unless they’re Christians having a peaceful, drug-free, sex-free celebration of Christmas in the people’s “living room.” Then Nenshi sends in boys with the billy clubs. For a pastor singing Christmas carols and reading Bible passages.

***BTW: we’re assured that Nenshi isn’t gay, but like 90% of leftwing big city males, he acts like he is so he might as well be.

So for once, we’re not dealing with a gay bully attacking Christians, which makes for a nice change.

Christian group tests city hall tolerance
November 16, 2011
Taking a page from Occupy Calgary’s book, members of the Christian community gathered in City Hall yesterday to test their own limits of expression.

Main Target For Leftwing Media And Hair Stylists...

Affable Toronto mayor pulls few punches
He is the most sought-after politician in Toronto, yet he plops his elbows upon a rumpled, beverage-stained desk calendar that is still stuck on June. As he recapped a wild first year in office, the mayor talks to Elizabeth Church and Patrick White about shedding 7,000 jobs, changing his plans for the Sheppard subway, refusing to take a union lockout off the table and loving Tim Tebow.

He Is Trying So Let's Give Him Some Breathing Room...

Grading Rob Ford
With Rob Ford having served just more than one year in office, as of Dec. 1, Matt Gurney and Chris Selley offer a report card for the Mayor’s work so far

Nothing New...

Toronto Star opens a new front in war with Rob Ford

In case you hadn’t noticed, the Toronto Star is not happy about Rob Ford being mayor.
The Star did all it could to keep Ford from getting electing, throwing its full weight behind the campaign of Anyone Else in the Whole World. Mainly it put its hopes in George Smitherman, a loyal Liberal, going so far at one point as to suggest other candidates quit their campaigns and throw their support to Smitherman in a Block Ford manoeuvre.
The extent of the Star’s influence might be seen in the fact that voters ignored it in droves and elected Ford by a large margin. But that hasn’t stopped the bad blood. Ford, incensed at a Star story that suggested he’d had a “physical confrontation” with a player on a football team he coached, refuses to talk to the paper, and has barred it from receiving official notices and statements. He also threatened to sue, though he didn’t follow through. Read More »

Doug Ford to Star: Drop dead

It Is Going To Be A Cold Hard Winter...

When they start they fall fast!
We Elected Them

City layoffs deal with economic reality

Mayor Ford In Conccilatory Mood

...and contrary to what the area councilor said on The Goldhawk Show On Monday night
Squatting isn’t a Charter right
Tuesday November 15, 07:47 PM
Contrary to what Occupy Toronto activists believe, there’s no “Charter right” to occupy a public park for a month in violation of numerous city bylaws.
30 Full story »

...but here is someplace I am sure the in-activists will be welcome with open arms
Today’s letters: Let’s Occupy Michael Moore’s cottage
Re: Those Who Live In Million-Dollar Houses, Kelly McParland, Nov. 15.There it was. On the front page of my beloved National Post, the solution to the public plague of “Occupy” around North America: Send them all to Michael Moore’s lavish, extravagant, excessive country home in Michigan. It looks like there is plenty of land. The followers of New Eden can build their tree houses. Perhaps a farming co-op? Or a grow-op?Come on, Mr. Moore, put your money where your megaphone is and invite all your fellow socialist occupiers to come and play at your house, and let the tax-paying citizens have their parks back.
Susan Piccinin, Ancaster, Ont.

How to get there
Dear Occupy Toronto Comrades:Follow King Street East and turn right on Jarvis Street. Merge onto Read More »

Ford And Blair Need To Get Some Balls...

Occupy gone 'very soon': Ford

TORONTO - Mayor Rob Ford says the city will be asking Occupy Toronto to leave St. James Park very soon.

Check Back On Monday AND Tuesday...

* to see which elected officials didn't respond
* to get an insight into those elected to manage they city would do so

T.O. money, T.O. problems: city councillors on how to solve the budget gap


With Toronto's budget process just getting started, the Post asked all 44 councillors what they would do to balance the budget

Hopefully Next Year...

...the city unions will have fewer people marching and more watching from the sidelines.

David Frum: Toronto’s library gambit

David Frum Sep 3, 2011 – 9:00 AM ET


To: Toronto Municipal Employees

From: Your Media Consultants

Re: Your Pay

Guys, as far as we are concerned, you are worth every dime. If anything, you’re underpaid! Like it or not, though, we face a challenging perception environment. A lot of people out there think you are overpaid and over-indulged.

We know! Ignorant! Ungrateful! Read More »

You Decide Where You Will Go To Spend $$$...

Ford Vision

...especially on a cold snowy night in February!

Doug Ford’s Ferris Wheel idea not so loopy after all

Sherbourne Common

Wave Deck

Sugar Beach

Libraries Were a Community Focal Point Before Tim Hortons..

...and they still are today and if anyone takes the time to visit their local branch they will see a segment of the population they won't see at Timmies; single moms getting resources for their child's school work, immigrant parents and children expanding their use of english, many getting videos for family entertainment (have you checked the cost of taking a family to the movies), etc.

FP’s Lawrence Solomon: Atwood’s library
Library branches are often about computers and movies more than books..
Toronto has an extraordinary library system with close to 100 branches. The former is mostly about books; the latter mostly about everything but books. This is true of most Canadian cities, where the great history of building public libraries to bring books to the people is running up against rapidly changing cultures and technologies.
The old public library business model, such as it was, is under attack. In Toronto, author Margaret Atwood is fighting for the status quo against cost-cutting Mayor Rob Ford. Before Ms Atwood takes this cause too far, she should open her eyes to the distinction between libraries as a system and libraries as branches. The library branches of her youth are no more. Read more

160 Leftists Don't Make A Revolution...

...especially when the mesage is give me, give me.

Chris Selley: All-nighter didn’t shed any light on budget process

 "a parade of angry union bosses, troubled interest groups and alarmed residents"

Lawrence Solomon: KPMG’s timid Toronto cuts


Few taxpayers would notice any diminution of service

By Lawrence Solomon

‘Even if city council votes for a fraction of the several hundred millions of dollars in suggested cuts, the cuts suggested by city-hired consultants KPMG could transform the city,” the Toronto Star warned last week in an article about proposed budget cuts under Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

Added Gord Perks, a municipal Councillor and Ford critic: “These cuts would change Toronto from a city that is great to live in to a city that no one would want to live in.” Hundreds of Torontonians turned out to City Hall Thursday to plead with Mayor Ford and the rest of city council to spare city services.

In fact, the potential cuts that KPMG laid out are just what you’d expect from a consulting group inspired by accountants: cautious and uninspired. If Mayor Ford adopted most of the cuts, few Toronto taxpayers would notice any diminution of service, some would see an actual improvement in service, and all would benefit from a lower-taxed, more vibrant city. As an added benefit, Torontonians would learn lessons in independence and responsibility.

Many of the KPMG cuts fall into the spoonfeeding category. Does the Toronto municipal government really need to take animals to the pound when owners tire of their pets? Or to run a “toxic taxi” service to pick up paint cans from residents unwilling to dispose of them on their own? Or to send cleanup crews out after neighbours or local businesses have a street party? Or to perform any number of other conveniences — from running an employment agency to providing daycare — that the private sector does more efficiently and at lower cost?

More

Passage on an urban graveyard train

Toronto’s business-minded mayor needs to be reminded that there are two sides to a ledger – expenses and revenue

...how many of those making presentations to the Executive Committee suggested raising property taxes, city imposed fees, etc. 

Pity the children: Ford brings the naysayers to his doorstep