politics

All stories relating to politics

Rob Ford has been turfed as coach of Don Bosco’s high school football team

(Image: Rob Ford)

The Toronto Catholic District School Board is ditching Rob Ford as the volunteer coach of the Don Bosco Eagles. The news—which broke on Twitter this afternoon—will likely be a significant emotional blow to the football-loving mayor, who started the Don Bosco program in 2001 and has been known to sneak out of the office early to coach. The TCDSB has been reviewing Ford’s involvement since March for comments he made to the Toronto Sun implying that many of the school’s students are gang members and come from broken homes—something the board called a “completely inaccurate portrayal of our students, our school and the community.” Though the decision is apparently unrelated to the crack cocaine ruckus dogging Ford since Friday, we’re sure the negative attention didn’t exactly help his cause. Read the TCDSB’s press release [Torontoist] »

The Informer

May 17, 2013 | 12:31 pm

Comments

The Top 10 Most Amazing Things About the Rob Ford Crack-Smoking Story (Assuming All Allegations Are True and All Videos Are Fully Authenticated)

Below, a countdown of the 10 craziest things about the Rob Ford crack-smoking brouhaha.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Informer

Politics

May 8, 2013 | 9:00 am

Comments

A tragicomic scrapbook of Rob Ford’s crazy, blunder-filled mayoralty

By Malcolm Johnston, John Michael McGrath, Philip Preville, Kelly Pullen and Courtney Shea

(Photo: John Cullen)

We expected a bumpy ride with Ford as mayor, but we weren’t prepared for a self-sabotaging Lindsay Lohan of politics. With a new scandal every week, it’s easy to lose track. Hence, we present a scrapbook of two very long years in Fordlandia.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Informer

Politics

May 2, 2013 | 11:53 am

Comments

Olivia Chow is writing a memoir, fueling speculation about a mayoral run

(Image: Andrew Rusk)

Olivia Chow, who has been toying with reporters about a possible mayoral run for months, is penning a memoir that’s supposed to come out in early 2014, right around the time campaigns kick off. The book will cover most of Chow’s life, including her move from Hong Kong to Toronto at age 13, her political career and—for lovers of the trustache disappointed by CBC’s lackluster biopic Jack—plenty of details about her relationship with Jack Layton. Her literary agent says the book is also going to touch on Chow’s decision to run for mayor—provided that’s what she decides to do. Either way, she’s figured out how to convert election speculation into book sales.

The Informer

Politics

April 25, 2013 | 2:40 pm

Comments

A timeline of Rob Ford and Kathleen Wynne’s deteriorating relations

Rob Ford and Dalton McGuinty had trouble playing nice sometimes, and Kathleen Wynne’s arrival seemed like an opportunity to improve relations between Queen’s Park and city hall. Then Wynne embarked on an ambitious campaign to find new revenue sources (like taxes and tolls) to pay for transit expansion, a notion Ford has made very clear he doesn’t support. Things quickly devolved from there. Here, a timeline chronicling Ford and Wynne’s steadily souring relationship.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Informer

Columns

April 23, 2013 | 10:45 am

Comments

Jan Wong: The province’s shrewd but savage strategy to stick it to Ontario’s teachers

By Jan Wong | Photo Illustration by Bradley Reinhardt

(Photographs: Demonstrators by Aaron Vincent; Kathleen Wynne by CP Images)

The school year is coming to a close, and not a moment too soon. It’s been an ugly one. Queen’s Park forced new labour contracts onto Ontario’s teacher unions. Teachers fought back by scrubbing extracurriculars for the better part of the year. And many tax-paying parents are incensed that their kids got shafted in the bargain.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Informer

Politics

March 28, 2013 | 4:30 pm

3 Comments

Sunshine List: how much Rob Ford, Paul Godfrey and Chris Spence earned in 2012

Rob Ford earned $173,869 including taxable benefits in 2012

Each year, Queen’s Park releases the sunshine list, a catalogue of all the Ontario public servants who made $100,000 or more—and, because the $100,000 threshold hasn’t changed since the list’s inception in 1996, that exalted group now contains nearly 88,412 members. (Were the benchmark tied to inflation, it would now be over $139,000, cutting the list to about 18,000 people.) Since most people have better things to do this long weekend than sift through tens of thousands of names, we put together this cheat sheet of 2012’s most high-profile recipients of public largesse.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Informer

Politics

March 26, 2013 | 12:50 pm

Comments

The Toronto Star asks: does Rob Ford have a drinking problem?

(Image: Christopher Drost)

The Toronto Star took aim at Rob Ford once again this morning with a lengthy story alleging that the mayor struggles to control his binge drinking. While the deeply reported article contains plenty of specific details—some bordering on lurid—from current and former staffers, none of them were willing to put their names in print. Below, we round up the story’s biggest claims.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Informer

Politics

March 21, 2013 | 3:43 pm

Comments

Is the Toronto casino dead? Politicos weigh in

The chances of a splashy Toronto casino slimmed significantly yesterday when premier Kathleen Wynne nixed a plan to give the city a better deal (read: larger hosting fees) than any other casino-hosting region. The upshot: the much-ballyhooed $50-to-$100 million a year in cash for Toronto is likely no longer realistic, which several councillors said effectively kills any possibility of a gambling den. However, others—including Rob Ford—aren’t giving up hope. Below, reactions from some of the more opinionated players in the casino debate.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Informer

Features

March 11, 2013 | 11:47 am

12 Comments

Mayor In Waiting: an inside look at Olivia Chow’s political ambitions

Olivia Chow’s public mourning after Jack Layton’s death cast her in a new light: dignified, likeable and, well, mayoral. Toronto wants her to run, but does she want Toronto?
By Michelle Dean

(Image: Christopher Wahl)

The morning of December 13, Olivia Chow woke up with a strange feeling on the left side of her face. Her ear was also a little sore, but it had been like that for a week. It was only when she went to the mirror that she realized she couldn’t smile. Her skin drooped; she looked older and more tired. But she felt normal, thoughts whirring inside her head at the same pace as always. So she went right on with the phone interview on Newstalk 1010 she had scheduled for 7:30 a.m., before going to her family doctor.

The culprit turned out to be Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a complication from a shingles infection of her facial nerve. It wasn’t a serious illness, just bad luck. There was only a small spot of shingles inside her ear. Her doctor put her on a week of the steroid prednisone and an antiviral. About three quarters of patients who are treated within three days recover from the syndrome; she had arrived within a few hours, so the prognosis was good.

It’s tempting to invest this minor medical incident with heavy meaning. Chow has been a politician for 28 years, first as a school trustee, then a councillor, and, as of 2006, the MP for Trinity-Spadina. For politicians, a face is not just a thing you park in front of a computer in the morning and show to the family at night. A politician meets new people, all day, every day, and people are inquisitive, and not all of them have tact.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Informer

Politics

March 4, 2013 | 3:49 pm

Comments

What Rob Ford would be like as a Shakespearean king

Like Shakespeare’s greatest plays, Toronto politics is rife with tragically flawed leaders, sudden betrayals and grasping underlings—which is why John Lorinc’s latest Bard-inspired column is so sharply funny. In a departure from his usual city hall analyses, the Spacing contributor offers a synopsis of a pretend Elizabethan play about Rob Ford’s mayoral tenure (or, rather, the reign of Robert, King of Toronto). The satire is biting and the casting, spot-on: Doug Ford becomes an overreaching Earl, Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler and Adam Vaughan are rabble-rousing commoners and Sue-Ann Levy is King Robert’s court scribe. Giorgio Mammoliti, of course, takes his rightful role as court jester. Read the entire story [Spacing] »

The Informer

Politics

March 1, 2013 | 2:24 pm

3 Comments

Reaction Roundup: Rob Ford is still asking lobbyists for donations

The Toronto Star has officially ruined any chance of Rob Ford returning from his vacation in Disney World with his ethical troubles behind him. The city’s paper of record reported yesterday that Ford’s still sending letters to lobbyists soliciting donations for his football charity, even though similar fundraising tactics triggered the conflict-of-interest saga that nearly saw the mayor booted from office. As per usual, Toronto’s politicos responded to the story both with angry tirades and expressions of staunch support. We round up the best below.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Dish

Random Stuff

February 28, 2013 | 2:15 pm

Comments

Pusateri’s is embroiled in a class-tinged dust-up to keep its Yorkville valet parking zone

High-end grocery store Pusateri’s is outraged over a recent proposal by resident council rogue Kristyn Wong-Tam to remove the valet parking area in front of its Bay Street shop. In 2003, Pusateri’s paid big bucks ($75,000) for the city to create a street indent called a “lay-by” that allows customers to stop momentarily and hand off their keys to the valet or to pop in and out for a quick bag of groceries. But now Wong-Tam wants to eliminate the cushy road space in order to double the width of the sidewalk (she says the move is part of the city’s larger plan to build a more walkable, livable city). For its part, Pusateri’s argues removing the lay-by will jeopardize the store’s very existence. After all, that Benz isn’t going to park itself. [Toronto Star]

The Informer

Politics

January 28, 2013 | 1:30 pm

Comments

Sandra Pupatello, Doug Ford and other power players on incoming premier Kathleen Wynne

(Image: Facebook)

After a Liberal leadership convention full of the usual back-room alliances and surprise reversals, Kathleen Wynne emerged as Ontario’s first female premier and Canada’s first openly gay premier. Although a few columnists and reporters touched on those firsts, most politicians and pundits are focused on how Wynne will handle the long list of headaches she’s inheriting from Dalton McGuinty: the Liberals are facing a precarious minority government, poor poll results and the province’s $14.4-billion deficit. Below, what Queen’s Park watchers are saying about Wynne’s win, and whether she can handle the challenges ahead.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Informer

People

January 24, 2013 | 2:30 pm

Comments

Q&A: Liberal leadership front-runner Sandra Pupatello on traffic, the TTC and marrying a Newfoundlander

Sandra Pupatello was McGuinty’s pit bull for eight years before decamping to the private sector. Now she’s back, gunning for his seat, and fierce as ever

Interview by Malcolm Johnston | Photography by Daniel Ehrenworth

Q&A: is this our next premier? You’re trying to take over the Liberal party at a perilous time. The province has a $14.4-billion deficit and a scandal around every corner. What on earth is possessing you
to run?
Politics is in my DNA. There were a number of galvanizing factors, too: the threat that the Liberals might lose the next election, the fact that Ontarians are afraid of losing their jobs and that university grads can’t find work in their fields.

You were an MPP for 16 years. A year and a half ago, when the Liberals were polling badly, you left to work at PricewaterhouseCooper. Suddenly McGuinty quits and you’re back. Are people wrong to see you as an opportunist?
I wasn’t considering a run until party members started calling me. Plus, leading the province won’t be easy. We’re in for some
tough times.

You were McGuinty’s pit bull—“a scrapper,” as you’ve put it. Where does that moxie come from?
When I started as an MPP in 1995, there weren’t very many women. If you didn’t stand up for yourself they shoved you out of the way, and I couldn’t let that happen. I’m a daughter of Italian immigrants. I’m from Windsor, and people associate me with a tough city. I wear that like a badge of honour.

In your 20s, you were a cashier at A&P—
Damn straight. And I was good! My manager called me Speedy Gonzalez because I’d whip customers through. Later, when I was campaigning door to door, I knew lots of constituents from those days. I could usually recall their grocery lists, too.

Read the rest of this entry »

All stories relating to politics

Contests