For Christ's sakes. This isn't just about the lack of any coherent policy justification, or the Machiavellian political gamesmanship, or the schoolyard-bully dynamic evident on the council floor, or the Speaker's obvious bias and procedural cluelessness. It's about all of those, but something worse as well.
Here we are, moving into a world beyond peak oil, facing the need for a fundamental rethink of both the way we design our communities and the way we move people and things around so that we're not so dependent on the private automobile any more, and what does Team Ford do? It goes the exact opposite direction, and not on the basis of any well-thought-out rationale, but simply out of spite.
You want further evidence? Turning down funding for public-health nurses, on the basis of ... what, exactly? Anti-government ideology is too kind. Even the most destructive and reality-challenged ideology requires a consistent theoretical underpinning.
This isn't just stupid, spiteful and counterproductive. It's positively atavistic.
Related posts:
- Core Services Review: Rob Ford is a hazard to Toronto's public health / #TOpoli
- 'Respect for Taxpayers' is a load of crap
- Can we stop talking about taxpayers?
- Ford's ascendancy, explained
- Ford's right-wing governance: no vision, no soul, no future
After spending the better part of two days watching this horror show I am now left more demoralised than ever. To think that they are just getting warmed up is terrifying.
ReplyDeleteYou're assessment of the speaker is bang on.
By the way had to look up atavistic, that was a new one for me. Now that I know it's meaning,great choice perfectly apt
It never ceases to amaze me when I witness the stupidity that we are confronted by with our so called leadership. These guys are a bunch of fucking buffoons and deserve to be recalled. If any of these idiots had any idea of how they might be perceived on a global stage they would be embarrassed. No maybe their too dumb. Witness for example a true "world class city" such as Copenhagen. Lanes for bicycles, buses, pedestrians and then cars. Increased taxes paid for driving and parking that restrict inner city driving to the rich and the stupid. I guess in our neanderthal city people arguing for the downtown to restrict more cars, not bicycles we would be labeled as "Cheese heads" not "bicycle people". Really though the comparisons between two closer cities, Montreal and Toronto are a better choice. My daughters live in Montreal, and for a small fee, can ride the "Bixi" bike service that is growing in Montreal, not sinking like Toronto
ReplyDeleteThe post you wrote last week about needing to inculcate critical thinking skills in the general population grows more relevant with each passing day.
ReplyDeleteThe credulity of the people who voted for Ford on the basis of his campaign to end the ride on the gravy train are the ones who put this minimalist in power, and it seems they and every other Torontonian will now have to live with the consequences of that choice, just as the rest of us will have to suffer under the broader tyranny of 4 years of Harper, who achieved power through a similar combination of voter credulity and voter apathy.