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Rob Ford is making moves in the lead-up to the Sheppard subway vote (also, Nick Kouvalis is back!)

Looks like Rob Ford isn’t willing to let his Sheppard subway dream go gently into that good night. While the initial vote to resurrect a light rail–based plan passed 25-18, the Globe and Mail reports that Ford can now count on the support of councillors Ron Moeser, who missed the original vote due to illness, and James Pasternak, who has reportedly joined the pro-Ford camp. The pro-LRT councillors, on the other hand, insist they have 23 reliable votes—still enough to win, but just barely. Meanwhile, councillors also say they’ve spotted Ford’s former chief of staff and mayoral campaign mastermind, Nick Kouvalis, lurking around city hall. Pro-LRT camp, beware. Read the entire story [Globe and Mail] »

(Images: Rob Ford, Christopher Drost; Yonge-Sheppard subway, gloom)

The Informer

Streetcar Named Disaster

February 29, 2012 | 1:45 pm

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Will Rob Ford’s Sheppard subway fantasy die on March 15?

The long-running saga of Rob Ford’s Sheppard subway dream looks like it will finally reach a not-so-surprising conclusion. Council is now slated to meet in two weeks’ time to decide whether Sheppard will get a subway extension—like the mayor wants—or light-rail transit, which seems to be the consensus choice among pretty much everybody else, including an expert panel the Globe and Mail’s sources say is “leaning heavily toward recommending light rail.”

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The Informer

Political Whoas

February 28, 2012 | 1:05 pm

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QUOTED: Dalton McGuinty threatens to take the transit fight to the airwaves

Dalton “Boring Machine” McGuinty (Image: Communitech Photos)

I gotta get a radio show, obviously.

—Dalton McGuinty musing on ways to more effectively deliver the message that he’s siding with council on its recent transit vote. The premier and his team have already made their position on the issue abundantly clear, but Rob Ford is doing his best to suggest that the city’s transit plan is still up for debate. We have to admit, all this sabre rattling is making us a touch nervous: the city already has enough painfully dull talk radio without Dalton “Boring Machine” McGuinty taking up air space. [Globe and Mail]

The Informer

Ford Focus

February 28, 2012 | 12:30 pm

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Rob Ford’s re-election campaign seems to be off to a good start, continuing the imaginary fight for subways

The Globe and Mail says the conflicting messages from Dalton McGuinty and Rob Ford on the transit file are enough to make the two politicians “sound like players in a game of broken telephone.” The premier maintains that the province intends to follow the lead of city council, while the mayor, who claimed council’s decision to revert to a light rail–based, Transit City–esque plan earlier this month was “irrelevant,” suggests it’s “political suicide” for McGuinty to side with council (i.e., Toronto’s elected body of political representatives). However, we suspect that the disconnect is less about miscommunication than it is about misinformation. Ford seems hell-bent on running a re-election campaign—yes, already—on the idea that he’s fighting the naysayers at city council to give the people the subways they so dearly desire. And if he can take that fight to Queen’s Park’s doorstep too, we figure by his own (likely flawed) logic that can only help his chances. Read the entire story [Globe and Mail] »

(Image: Rob Ford, West Annex News; Dalton McGuinty, Communitech Photos; tin cans, Fairy Heart ♥)

The Informer

Ford Focus

February 27, 2012 | 3:45 pm

4 Comments

Rob Ford bores everybody with his campaign ad disguised as a radio show

Rob and Doug Ford’s radio program is painfully dull (Image: Christopher Drost)

At the outset of Rob Ford and brother Doug’s maiden voyage as hosts of CFRB 1010’s The City, Councillor Doug issued a warning to listeners: “Fasten your seatbelt, because we’re going for a ride.” We figured that ride would be loud, brash and, at the very least, entertaining, given we were dealing with the Brothers Ford—Rob even warned listeners that he wasn’t responsible for the crazy things Doug might do on air. Disappointingly, though, the show didn’t end up being any of those things. It felt more like a thinly veiled, two-hour-long ad campaign—and a boring one at that.

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The Informer

From the Print Edition

February 22, 2012 | 2:15 pm

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Confidence Man: how Glen Murray is positioning himself to grab the reins of political power

The famously gay former mayor of Winnipeg was lured to Toronto by a group of backroom nabobs and remade as an influential member of Dalton McGuinty’s inner circle
By Gerald Hannon

(Image: Markian Lozowchuk)

Glen Murray had never failed before. Here was a politician with an unblemished record of triumphs—elected three times as a city councillor in Winnipeg, twice as mayor. Then, in 2004, he lost his campaign for a seat as a Manitoba MP, a race he fully expected he’d win. The loss especially hurt because it was so close: by fewer than 1,000 votes.

That summer, happy to have the distraction, he agreed to travel across the U.S. and study regional economic development for the American State Department. The trip gave him time to work out his frustrations and reflect on the vagaries of political life.

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The Informer

Ford Focus

February 17, 2012 | 12:35 pm

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Rob Ford and Ana Bailão set to work together to save nearly 600 TCHC homes

Following nasty council debates on the budget and transit, it looks like Rob Ford has been wrestled into submission on another big issue: public housing. We already noted that Ford might be willing to pull back from his original plan to sell off hundreds of TCHC properties, and it looks like he’ll make it official today, opting instead to pursue a compromise proposal with Councillor Ana Bailão. Ford is expected to announce that the city will sell 56 vacant TCHC homes rather than the 600 that were originally slated for a fire sale (the Toronto Star calls this a “major concession by members of council’s left wing”), and that Bailão will chair a working group tasked with exploring other options for the public homes, as well as how to address the housing corporation’s repair backlog and its financial structure. Apparently, as recently as yesterday Ford had said the deal was off—but we suspect that when confronted with the political reality of another embarrassing defeat at council the mayor finally decided to acquiesce. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

The Informer

My Name Is Lucre

February 16, 2012 | 12:45 pm

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Two of Rob Ford’s most loyal, most fiscally conservative friends quarrel over money

Doug Ford and Denzil Minnan-Wong are having a bit of a tiff over whether or not Build Toronto executives should make lots of money or lots and lots of money. Last year, the city-owned real estate company paid out six-figure bonuses to its corporate brass on top of the six-figure salaries they already pull in. There have been grumblings about Build execs’ pay outs before, but the organization isn’t funded by taxpayer dollars so there’s no need to call the mayor on this one. Besides Councillor Ford says the big-time bonuses are the cost of doing business with some of the city’s best and brightest. Minnan-Wong, a fiscal conservative and dedicated member of Team Ford himself, however, isn’t convinced. He counters bringing in windfall profits by selling land for residential development in the current real estate climate isn’t exactly a challenging undertaking. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

(Images: Christopher Drost)

The Informer

Streetcar Named Disaster

February 15, 2012 | 4:00 pm

5 Comments

A report says something everybody already knew: there’s no rationale for building the Sheppard subway

Toronto Star columnist Royson James got his hands on an unreleased report that pretty much dismantles any rationale for building a subway linking Scarborough and North York. The paper is calling it the “TTC subway report Mayor Rob Ford doesn’t want you to read,” and it’s probably an appropriate title. While Ford clings to his Sheppard subway fantasy, the report notes that with job growth in the inner suburbs dramatically lower than expected, office development sluggish and the existing ridership on Sheppard below capacity (despite the influx of new condos along the strip), there simply isn’t a case for building a subway between the two centres. We already knew the city couldn’t fund the Sheppard extension; now it appears there isn’t even a good reason to build it in the first place. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

(Images: Rob Ford, Christopher Drost; Yonge-Sheppard subway, gloom)

The Informer

Political Whoas

February 14, 2012 | 3:55 pm

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In a dull and anti-climactic finish to labour negotiations, CUPE ratifies a new collective agreement

CUPE Local 416 has approved a new collective agreement with the Rob Ford administration, and the resolution is surprisingly anti-climactic given that everyone—us included—assumed negotiations would end in disaster (or at least piles of stinky garbage everywhere). Rather than the city gutting the collective agreement or CUPE refusing to budge, the city and the union agreed to a six per cent pay increase over four years and weakening the “jobs for life” clause (the job security provision now applies only to workers with 15 years or more experience). Sure, it’s a significant concession from the union, but it’s also far from the fireworks we predicted. It also suggests that Ford and co. believe the way to cut gravy is by outsourcing costs, not simply slashing wages. Considering Ford’s penchant for saving money, we’re inclined to think he made the right move. Of course, he has struggled with math before. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

The Informer

Ford Focus

February 14, 2012 | 1:25 pm

6 Comments

“Save Our Subways:” Doug Ford’s grassroots campaign that sounds more like a desperate call for help

Ever committed to building underground transit and using phone calls from constituents as a reliable measure of public opinion, Doug Ford says he’s launching a campaign to save the Rob Ford subway plan. Councillor Ford is dubbing the campaign “Save Our Subways”—or S.O.S. for short. Given the mayor’s sinking support among city councillors and voters alike, playing on the universal signal for distress seems appropriate. Though perhaps not exactly the message the Fords intended. Read the entire story [Globe and Mail] »

(Images: Rob Ford and Doug Ford, Christopher Drost; ocean, David Sifry; subway car, Buddahbless)

The Informer

Ford Focus

February 14, 2012 | 12:15 pm

2 Comments

Rob Ford continues to ignore city hall rules; still, his allies steadfastly support him

(Image: Christopher Drost)

In the midst of a heated debate at city hall, important things are sometimes forgotten—like good manners, logic or apparently, whether or not you have a real or perceived conflict of interest in the matter at hand. Last week, city council voted to dismiss the integrity commissioner’s recommendation that Rob Ford repay the lobbyists who donated money to his family’s football foundation, and the Globe and Mail reports, Ford didn’t even bother to declare a conflict of interest before participating in the debate that preceded it.

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The Informer

Political Whoas

February 13, 2012 | 4:15 pm

2 Comments

Ontario Conservatives name Richard Ciano party president, hoping for that sweet Rob Ford campaign magic

Apparently hoping to learn a thing or two about, you know, actually winning elections, the Ontario Progressive Conservatives chose one of the masterminds behind Rob Ford’s triumphant mayoral campaign as the new party president. Just like the man he helped put in office, Richard Ciano, who runs the political consultancy firm Campaign Research alongside Nick Kouvalis, won the election handily. With Ciano at the helm, the Conservatives are hoping they can make in-roads in Toronto (Tim Hudak made the painfully obvious point that Ciano knows how to win elections there), where the party hasn’t landed a seat since 1999. Though we can’t help but wonder if the Conservatives really want to be betting on the Ford factor to deliver them Toronto right now. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »

The Informer

Streetcar Named Disaster

February 10, 2012 | 3:55 pm

3 Comments

Karen Stintz praises and supports Rob Ford, who responds by calling her a backstabber

Even if he wanted to, it looks like Rob Ford won’t be able to can Karen Stintz as chair of the TTC, and—perhaps fittingly—it’s essentially his own fault. The Toronto Sun points out that Ford and his colleagues approved changes last year that mean only city council can now fire Stintz. And if Wednesday’s vote is any indication, council is satisfied with the job Stintz is doing. Ford, on the other hand, feels that Stintz betrayed him and claims, “She stabbed me in the back.” Despite the mayor’s choice words, the TTC chair refuses to speak ill of Ford, insisting she has no intention of running against him in the future while denying that the defeat she handed him is tantamount to a non-confidence vote. In other words, she’s displaying a level of political skill and personal grace that has been absent at city hall under the current administration. Read the entire story [Globe and Mail] »

(Images: Rob Ford, Christopher Drost; Karen Stintz, Mike Beltzner)

The Informer

Political Whoas

February 10, 2012 | 1:05 pm

11 Comments

Dalton McGuinty says council is supreme; Tim Hudak says it should be ignored

Apparently, no amount of midnight subway riding will help Rob Ford convince Dalton McGuinty to contravene city council and build his beloved subways. After Ford’s transit plan was defeated in favour of light-rail transit and an above-grade Eglinton LRT at a special council meeting earlier this week, Ford declared the collective will of his colleagues “irrelevant” and suggested the province would agree with him. McGuinty quickly responded, countering that he actually doesn’t agree with him at all.

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