Hicks don’t mix with politics, do “chicks”?
Apparently not, judging by the tempest stirred by Councillor John Parker‘s tweet about the hot ones, “chicks” that is, that he had occasion to meet at a Heritage Toronto event Monday.
Men of a certain age shouldn’t say certain things on Twitter. But back to the meat of the matter.
The tweet made front page mention in the Sun. Not so remarkable. Welcome to the new age of irrelevancy, or flavour of the day.
What is more astonishing is that the mayor, one Rob Ford, thinks Parker should apologize for being so, well, insensitive.
Not sure how many times the mayor has uttered the words bitch or cunt (in the English sense, of course). But Ford’s suggestion Parker should do a mea culpa is a bit rich.
I won’t dredge up that domestic assault rap on the mayor’s long list of personal transgressions. We’re all fallible, although I don’t actually recall him apologizing for the embarrassment the episode may have caused his family or wife. He seemed to blame his wife, more than anything, for that nasty piece of business.
But check the record. Gloria Lindsay-Luby a waste of skin, right?
Maybe the mayor has turned over a new leaf. Or maybe not.
Arguably, the mayor’s current political agenda amounts to one big fuck you when it comes to women.
From the axing of Transit City and bus routes in disadvantaged communities, which leaves single mothers working three jobs further isolated, to the knee-capping of free rec services for kids in the city’s poorest neighbourhoods – again,. Women bearing the brunt of that – Ford’s record is hardly female friendly.
How many women in Ford’s inner circle? One. How many with power of any consequence? Karen Stintz, maybe, as TTC chair. (Frances Nunziata is Council Speaker, but holds no influential committee chair. Civic Appoinments doesn’t count).
Our not-so-humble mayor is not beneath using a little intimidation when it comes to the so-called gentler sex.
Should we mention here his threats to Councillor Michelle Berardinetti to mind her Ps and Qs or else he’ll unleash Ford Nation on her husband, Grit MPP Lorenzo, in the upcoming provincial election?
The mayor’s thick-necked minions are regularly dispatched to stand over the shoulder of Berardinetti during council votes, just in case she gets any ideas.
Or what about his bullying of Maria Augimeri? The mayor has sent out emissaries to deliver a personal message to Augimeri – that she’s toast. He’s made no bones about wanting to replace the councillor with his man in that ongoing court dispute over the election results in Ward 9.
Former mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson would be able to share a few stories, too, about Ford’s belittling attitude towards her during the campaign.
Have we already forgotten the controversy during the election over the mayor’s opposition to a YWCA-sponsored women’s shelter in his former Etobicoke ward? The mayor refused to meet with the group to even discuss the proposal. Then he withdrew from the YWCA’s mayoral debate on women’s issues, cuz he said he had a BBQ to attend. For the mayor, it’s red meat over women’s issues any day.
All of which makes his recent turn on the Parker tweet a little hard to swallow.
The list goes on. City Hall under Ford has taken on a distinctive locker room smell, right down to the F-bombs launched by the mayor’s Big Brother Doug, and the cocksure manner in which the mayor’s executive has been forcing its agenda down council’s throat. The mayor has made the whole city his bitch. How sensitive is that?
