The tradition of the so-called “right” to be offended by nothing in particular is being continued by the unqualified air-heads of the Toronto Taxpayers Coalition who decided they just couldn’t stand the commentary coming from Councillors Adam Vaughan and Mike Layton.

The TTC were so infuriated, in fact, that they filed official complaints with the office of the Integrity Commissioner which subsequently requested that the two members of Council apologize. Which they did.

So what foul sentiments did these two ne’er-do-wells express?

[City manager] Pennachetti had estimated that the city would get an annual “hosting fee” payment of $111 million to $148 million per year, tens of millions more than others anticipated, in exchange for hosting for a casino downtown. He also said the casino should be far smaller than the province wanted.

Layton (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) said Pennachetti’s figures were “fictitious.” Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) said they were “fantasy numbers” and “ridiculous.”

“The casino is cut in half and the hosting fee is higher. There is nothing real in this report,” Vaughan told CBC.

Leiper said Vaughan was entitled to express his views. But she wrote that “the repeated use of the phrase ‘nothing real’ when applied to the report is an unfair portrayal of the report. So was the use of the word ‘fantasy.’

There are numerous other examples of the Fords’ benevolence and high regard for fellow human beings, which makes the awful, treacherous, evil words that the Councillors chose so much worse. Next they’ll just flaunt breaking the law like it’s going out of style while mockingly claiming that they know nothing about any rules or regulations (or anything about their jobs, for that matter) — can you imagine?!

The trusty Star reports today that Toronto has sunk deeper into debt under Ford:

Over the past two years, the city borrowed $1.5 billion to pay for capital costs — including transit equipment ordered by Ford’s predecessor — and repaid $700 million, thus increasing the debt burden by $800 million.

This doesn’t come as a shock, but it’s important to point out that the brunt of the burden comes from a couple of administrations ago, so it’s entirely fair to say that Ford inherited the problem.

But then he made it worse:

Ford has championed cutting the cost of government, scrapping the $60 vehicle tax shortly after taking office, and holding down increases in property taxes which are traditionally put toward capital costs, along with borrowed funds.

…

In 2011, on Ford’s insistence, the city froze property taxes. The next year he limited the increase to 2.5 per cent, in line with inflation.

About half of the borrowing was to pay for transit infrastructure, such as replacing worn-out vehicles. Other big-ticket infrastructure spending went to areas such as roads, parks and housing.

Have you ever wondered where you can find Toronto’s latte-sipping urban elites? Do you want to know where you can observe the “pinko left-wing kook” in its native habitat?

Well wonder no more!

The Star has graciously mapped it out for you in glorious hipstervision:

I usually walk to and from the office, but yesterday’s touch of rain made me alter my regular plans.

The longest part of the trip was getting out of the subway station, but that might’ve been more tolerable had it not been for the special TTC constables who were not only not attempting to direct the flow of ever-growing foot traffic, but were actually misdirecting people and spreading false stories.

“Union Station is completely shut down, people! Nothing’s running! Nothing! The entire city is shut down, no one has any power, so no one’s going anywhere! Everything’s flooded!”

Luckily the incredulous crowd had their own plans to get to wherever they were going and only wanted facts, which they soon realized they would not get from the “authorities”, each of which had their own version of events.

Even Ford couldn’t help but fan the flames of panic:

“Toronto has persevered; we have weathered the storm,” Ford said, before stressing the need to reduce electricity consumption over the next 24 hours.

“This is crucial that we all reduce our electricity for today to help relieve the strain on our hydro system. We’re hanging on by a thread right now,” he said.

Holy shit! Toronto’s about to go under!

IT’S TIME TO PANIC, PEOPLE!

I’m going to have to start taking my camera with me more often because some things, like the inside of Quinn’s Steakhouse &  Irish Bar, are worth snapping.

The decor is proper and pubby (dim and mostly indoors), and the establishment is clean, so they’ve got that going for them. The wait staff were pretty good, and the food wasn’t bad. Not great, mind you, but not bad.

Okay, to be fair, I did enjoy the bacon wrapped-Tenderloin that came with my prix fixe Summerlicious dinner, and the brocolli rabe was a nice addition. And everything was cooked well, so I can’t fault them for that either.

But nothing jumped off the plate and demanded that I pay attention.

Sarah ‘s Atlantic salmon underwhelmed us both with its blandness. There was a slight fishiness to the meat which I can deal with in some cooked fish if the flavour is enhanced somehow — in this case it wasn’t.

Again, I want to emphasize that technically, the food was well done. But for a restaurant that I would consider a “special occasion” place, the prices on the regular menu insist that I spend my money on better and cheaper options. And the drinks you can get at any Irish pub around town.

The reactions to today’s news that GO Transit is instituting “quiet zones” on their trains received the typical didn’t-think-too-hard-about-it applause and accolades, no doubt from the same suburban readers responsible for the Ford plague loosed on the city:

“Thank you, Jesus! (and GO Transit). Now.. if only they can install headrests designed for people taller than 4’5″…”

“About time! Nobody wants to hear phone conversations about “Dude Iwas so wasted last night” or “CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?!” or “Tell Mom to take the steaks out of the freezer”. Thumbs up GO!”

“Thank Goodness!  I can’t wait to see this on the Georgetown (Kitchener) line.  There are some seriously unmannered women on my ride home who think the train car is their personal Starbucks – passing around drinks and food and yelling amongst themselves.  Everyone hates them…we can’t wait for the Quiet Zone!!”

Yes, thumbs up, GO! Now passengers can be assured that no one will be bothered by loud conversations or screaming children. The teeth that come with the new guidelines practically guarantee this:

What if there are no seats available on the lower level, but I don’t want to be quiet?

*sigh*

I honestly thought that the naked rhetoric of Rob Ford’s “guarantees” had finally come to and end, that people had finally seen through the lies and blatant bullshit that keeps spilling out of his mouth. But then I remember that this is Ford Nation we’re talking about here, the types of people who would welcome the Fords to literally rape their family so long as he kept their child-like suspicions at bay through years of shallow, empty, meaningless, and broken promises.

And it was indeed Ford Nation, flying it’s ignorance high and proud at the recent picnic to celebrate Rob Ford’s many crowning achievements, taking the opportunity to shut down a public park to sing glory to their beloved weighty overlord. So it’s no surprise that no one in the crowd bothered to question the fact that Ford was once again making the same “guarantee” that he’s been failing miserably to implement and, in fact, has shown time and again that he has absolutely no idea how to bring about (unless someone had a couple of billion they were planning on “investing” at the event).

“There’s one thing I promise and I’m going to get, are those subways. Mark my words. The subways are coming. I have to be politically correct. I can tell you where we want to send those LRTs, but like I said, I’ve got to behave. So, LRTs can go somewhere, but subways are coming to Scarborough. Guaranteed.”

Obviously Robbie showed an insane amount of self-restraint in not swearing on an open, public mic during an all-ages event, but clearly he wanted to.

The crowd must’ve thought that Ford not telling them to go fuck themselves, or any other number of ignorance and hatred-laced Fordisms, was next to Jesus on the righteousness scale, and they hooted and hollered as their man openly lied to their faces again – open, simple, idiotic lies (and yes, at this point lies is all they can be), that anyone with half a brain would be able to see through. And therein, clearly, lies the problem.

It’s not tough to imagine that Ford’s mayoralty will come and go with more money wasted than saved, higher taxes, higher costs and reduced or eliminated services, and basically the exact opposite of everything that Ford claims. Ford will blame and point fingers, of course, and then demand to have another four years of lies and dismal failures which he will “guarantee!” will definitely, for sure — just trust him! — happen this time.

Oh, you haven’t heard? Rob Ford not only wants your taxes to be higher, he’s outright demanding it!

Earlier this week the province announced that they would be cutting $50 million per year in transfer payments, which were intended to level the playing field for Toronto which often ends up shouldering more than its fair share of the whole country’s costs.

Seems like Robbie would be happy with that, no? I mean, apparently the city’s running a healthy surplus so it doesn’t seem like it’d missed much. Plus, isn’t this a perfect example of cutting back on waste?

Yes, it is waste according to Ford. That money is, after all, going to people who are just leeches on the system:

“People are not going to live free at Toronto Community Housing. I don’t care if you two years old, 20 years old or 200 years old, you’re not going to live for free”

Oh, except it’s not waste when it’s the Province that cuts support and not him. No, then it’s quite a different thing:

“A cut of $150 million will put a serious strain on our ability to provide these vital services to the most vulnerable residents.”

Additional transfer payment cuts are coming down the pipe in the not-too-distant future, about which the Fords haven’t made a peep.

I think it’s pretty clear what we can glean from this obvious hypocrisy; Rob Ford doesn’t give a fuck about “vital services” (he wouldn’t even bother to get his facts straight on the issue), or supporting the taxpayers, or arguing with the province to reduce taxes if they’re cutting payments, no, Rob Ford wants tax money to stuff the swollen pockets of his own administration. And that money comes from you and me, the taxpayer, and judging by the fact that Fordo was keen to raise property taxes, it would be no problem to raise taxes elsewhere as long they go directly to him to waste.

Spend $400,000 on an information campaign to close King Street to traffic and potentially make life a little nicer for taxpayers? Outrageous! Blow $3,000,000 on information to justify hacking and slashing the city budget (irony aside), to make life a little more miserable for taxpayers? That’s money well spent!

How’s that for gravy?

I’ve already gone into detail about how Ford, despite his many claims, is not interested in creating jobs for Toronto, didn’t seem too bothered at the thought of hefty pay raises to Council, and has at this point wasted and cost taxpayers vast swathes of money, even if you factor in all of the initiatives he’s put forward to reduce taxes, etc.

Oh sure, you can point the fingers at every level of government with this accusation, and you’d be right. But no level of government is as brazenly and openly hypocritical about it — it’s abuse coupled with insult.

Then, just so you don’t forget what outright dicks both brothers are, frère Doug goes and blames provincial leader Kathleen Wynne for the Catholic School Board’s dismissal of Rob from coaching football, insinuating that she went all the way to Etobicoke on some sort of bizarre personal vendetta against them, all the while taking continuous potshots at her.

And if that wasn’t enough, the Fords have their buddy and logistics guy (i.e. personal driver and helper monkey), David Price, calling into radio shows and newspapers, misrepresenting himself and hollering about how beloved both brothers are and how much “Ford Nation” is standing behind them — this while Ford office staff continue to drop like flies. Yet another example of reality (the truth), versus what the Fords say (bullshit).

The rule of thumb with the Fords seems to be basically this: what we say is the exact opposite of what we do, and if you dare point this out, or any of the other facts surrounding our shady dealings, we will attack you with every fiber of our being.

Ford says he wants lower taxes, meaning he demands higher taxes.

Ford says he wants subways subways subways, meaning he doesn’t want mass transit at all.

Ford respects the taxpayer. Yeah, right.

So now that Ford has survived the final appeal in his conflict of interest case (the Supreme Court didn’t even bother to give any reason), I think it’s worthwhile to count how many times he’s been let off the hook for flagrantly breaking both rules and laws (neither of which, of course, apply to Rob Ford or family):

There was that campaign finance audit, which, just like the conflict of interest case discovered that, yes indeed, Ford had broken the law many times over. But in the end, that was simply dismissed by an “expert committee” (a little cheating is okay). Thus Robbie first learned that the law is for other people.

Then there was the time Ford was caught in the act, reading while driving, and excused by the chief of police as a minor trifling offense (this at the same time as a distracted driving blitz was raking in cash).

You may also recall the time he rudely whisked past open streetcar doors, outright endangering people. That time the TTC refused to follow up, as did the cops.

Prior to that, Ford walked out of a domestic assault charge when it was decided that his wife just couldn’t be trusted to tell the truth.

That last one is quite ironic, considering how openly and loudly lied to the whole city about his DUI/drug charges in Florida.

Of course, there is that drunken rage incident at the Air Canada Centre, over which I don’t think charges were ever laid (Rob was just ejected).

There are lots of things Rob Ford does that, though technically illegal, would be more than sufficient grounds to get you fired from any private organization or business. Name your fault: incompetence, open deceit, criminality, etc. All of these are not only easily proven but, in some cases, actually admitted to by the fat man himself.

But why should any of that matter?

Our friend Michael sent a tongue-in-cheek email to the office of the mayor with a money saving suggestion (lot cheaper than security) — use cleaner for your shirts instead of hiring goons to tackle yoga instructors.

In any event, the response didn’t reflect nearly as much jolliness as you’d think the Fords’ office would engender. I know, Stain Away is primarily known as a denture cleaner, but the strange connotation that that conjures up was never addressed in the follow-up email.

Here’s Michael to explain:

This is a response I just received from Sheila in Mayor Blob’s office where she states that my recommendation that Blob buy some Stain Away, rather than hire security because his shirt got splashed during a slushie fly by, is a veiled threat against Mayor Blob.

“Mr. Irvine
Mayor Rob Ford has repeatedly said it is not his intention at this time to hire personal security.

Are you suggesting that the Mayor will be attacked again (stain away reference)? Do you think it is appropriate that people are physically attacked?

Are you condoning violence against public figures or members of the government. More importantly is it your intent with this email to make a veiled threat against the Mayor or inciting violence against the Mayor?

Most reasonable people know that violence is not appropriate, and that it is illegal.”

Sheila
Director of Policy
Office of the Mayor

Best as we can figure, that’s Sheila Paxton, listed on the Ford office roster as “Senior Policy Advisor”. Seems like an ill-advised way to go about crafting a response.