Ford Follies

The brothers Ford seem to have the same attitude: rules are for others.  I wrote in “The mantra is wearing thin” that Mayor Robbie is once again in trouble.  This time it stems from his football coaching.  Not only did he miss 5.5 hours of a 9 hour executive council meeting, of which he is the chair, to coach his high school football team, but it seems he has been using some of his office staffers as assistants – during business hours.  And yes, late yesterday a citizen did file a conflict of interest complaint with the city’s ethics commissioner.  But considering Robbie ignored the commissioner’s last ruling against him and that ended up in court, I doubt the complaint will really accomplish much.

According to an article in today’s online edition of The Toronto Sun, an unnamed source (they have to be protected because they aren’t authorized to speak for the mayor, but want the information known) Robbie’s staff mentioned his use of city personnel and equipment, in addition to his sloughing off his duties in favour of coaching, to him very early in his term.  Robbie’s attitude is, as I wrote above “rules, even rules he brought in as mayor, are for others” and ignored their concerns.  Rob Ford was elected on a slogan of “stop the gravy train”, meaning cut the waste at city hall.  However, when it comes to him personally and his football teams, it would appear that slogan should be “pass the gravy”, for his personal use of city property and people is the very thing he railed against during his campaign and called “gravy”.

Brother City Councillor Doug is another loose cannon.  Since the story on the football team broke earlier this week, Dougie has been popping up on various radio stations around Toronto defending his brother and making promises such as “the staff members will be brought forward so the media can speak with them.”  The main problem with his statements is that the only person who may speak for the mayor officially is his press secretary, and that ain’t Doug Ford.  City Hall says “no, the staffers will not be made available for the press”.  So, although Doug is introduced on these shows as “City Councillor Doug Ford”, in reality he’s just a guy trying to defend his brother’s idiot actions.

And of course, this entire folly is accompanied by Robbie’s mantra “it’s for the kids”.

I’m glad I don’t live in Toronto – the mayor here manages to do his job without all the nonsense Robbie seems to create – but at the same time I’m happy Robbie is the mayor because he provides so much fodder for these postings.

Enjoy the rest of your week and remember to hug an artist – we need love too.

Cat.

Those who can’t …

On Saturday, Canada won its first gold medal at the London Olympics.  This gold came in trampoline.  The young lady who was responsible for winning that medal obviously deserved it, but from some of the comments following the article in The Toronto Star, you’d never know that.

One of the early comments on the website was “not a real sport”.  Someone else commented “Trampoline??? Who cares? Stick to the “winter” Olympics Canada (which btw, are not real Olympics) ..”.  And finally, from someone else “Heres hoping that they finally allow Bridge and Chess in the next summer waste of money..”

Why do people feel it necessary to denigrate the accomplishments of others?    In most cases – I almost said “in all cases” – these people aren’t capable of doing what this young lady, Rosannah McLennan, did today.  Yet rather than be happy for her success, they feel they must tear down her accomplishment.  How would they feel if the situation were such that they had accomplished some extraordinary feat and rather than being congratulated on this, all they heard or read were others saying “big deal – that’s not so great”, or “what’s the point?”?

Given all the negative sentiments expressed in the comments following the Star’s article, I suspect there must be a great many bitter people out there.  Many people for whom the cloud’s silver lining is tarnished, in fact I doubt they’d even notice the lining, but see only the dark cloud.  When I read these comments, such as the “not a real sport”, I am reminded of another example of a negative attitude from several years ago: A man had won a million dollars in a lottery, and when interviewed, his comment was “I wish I’d won it last week when the jackpot was ten million.”  Idiot, you just won a tax-free million dollars and you’re bitching because it wasn’t more?  You don’t deserve the million. Hell, I’m glad to win my money back.

To paraphrase on old saying, “those who can, do.  Those who can’t, criticize.”  I suppose these people feel safe posting these comments because you don’t have to use your real name when you post on these news sites.  That way, people can tell you’re an asshole, but can’t identify you.  Safe.  Anonymous.

My congratulations to Rosannah.  That gold medal proclaims that you are the best trampoline athlete in the world.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and remember to hug an artist – we need love (and constructive criticism) too.

Cat.