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Reaction roundup: the best things said about Rob Ford’s worst week

If a mayoral candidate named Rob Ford has a Wednesday filled with such questions as “Is Rob Ford prejudiced?” and “How prejudiced is Rob Ford?” it’s safe to say it was a bad week. Then, when Thursday starts off with a press conference to announce exactly how many criminal charges the candidate has faced in his life, well, that goes from bad to terrible. Add in the fact that Ford’s misremembering of important details kept chumming the waters for the sharks in the press corps, and this is probably the worst week in Rob Ford’s political life so far. It’s not just Ford’s opponents who have been buzzing over the past 48 hours—the entire city is reacting. Here, our roundup of what was said across the city.

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The Informer

Features

August 19, 2010 | 4:00 am

22 Comments

Seven Long Years: How will David Miller be remembered?

As a kvetchy, largely ineffective do-gooder ultimately undone by the unionists who helped elect him By Chris Selley

(Image: by Frank Gunn/CP; photo-illustration by Gluekit)

Unless Joe Pantalone, the unrepentant David Miller acolyte, mounts a surprise surge, our next mayor will arrive at city hall on an explicit promise to do things profoundly differently than his (or her) predecessor. George Smitherman promises to do things differently with a degree of sobriety; Rob Ford promises to do things differently with a flame-thrower and a manic glint in his eye.

It’s timely, then, to recall Miller’s own rise to power. He was elected because he thought it was a bad idea to build a bridge across the western gap of Toronto Harbour, which is only 121 metres wide. Remember the fixed link? It was a burning issue in 2003. It was incompatible with a revitalized waterfront, Miller insisted. Much smarter would be to pressure Ottawa to deliver a rail link to Pearson airport.

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The Informer

People

June 16, 2010 | 11:28 am

2 Comments

Could Fox News North be awesome? Opinions differ

One thing is certain, based on the press conference that Quebecor head honcho Pierre-Karl Peladeau and Kory Teneycke held downtown yesterday: the Sun News plan is quite real. If it gets regulatory approval, it will be up and running next January. Apart from that, opinions differ. Old-school journos like Don Newman are lamenting that a brash, upstart news channel is “the absolute last thing this country needs,” and left-wing voices all over the Canadian media are worrying about what it will mean for the nation’s politics. Teneycke himself believes that the network will be “unapologetically patriotic. We will offer the type of raw debate that Canadians only find today in coffee shops and around the dinner table. Sun News will be controversially Canadian.”