For all of those out there who are planning to vote for Rob Ford today, five things to remember.
• Mr. Ford, who talks about respect for taxpayers, does not really have the best interests of taxpayers at heart. If he did, he wouldn’t be lying to you about what the $1.7 billion in cuts he’s proposing from a $9.2 billion budget really means for the quality of life in our city.
Ford’s budget plan hasn’t accounted for the six per cent pay hike the cops will be asking for (that’s what the OPP got) to make them the highest paid force in the country again when their collective bargaining agreement soon expires. If Ford were the taxfighter he claims to be, he’d take a serious look at ways of trimming the ever-ballooning $1 billion police budget, which he’s clearly said he’s not going to touch.
Mr. Ford’s guaranteeing that he won’t have to cut services. If you believe that, I have some swamp land in Florida I’d like to interest you in.
• Speaking of Florida… For those among you who believe Mr. Ford when he says he’s the only one of the mayoral candidates you can trust, think again. Mr. Ford has show he will bend the truth when it suits him. There’s no sugar coating it. When it has been convenient to do so, Mr. Ford has resorted to BSing – just as he did when he was confronted about that drunken tirade during a Leafs game at the ACC, or that DUI and pot charge in Florida all those years ago.
• For all you rich folks in the tony north end with Ford signs on your front lawn take note – that $60 you’re going to save from the vehicle registration tax is peanuts compared to what it’s going to cost your kids to take swimming lessons, or avail themselves of parks and rec services, if Ford gets elected. Oh yeah. You might need a few extra grand, too, for a new gate and security system when the poor mofos who get left behind in Mr. Ford’s Toronto get desperate and turn their attention to BandEing your sorry white ass.
• For the disenfranchised out there who think Mr. Ford speaks for them, beware. Mr. Ford is not who he pretends to be, which is to say, he’s not in this for the little guy, or to fight the “elites,” as some of those around him like to suggest. Mr. Ford is independently wealthy, thanks to his dad’s label business. He’s in politics for the power, not any higher ideals about public service. He thinks government can be run like a corner store. Human costs don’t factor into his bottom line.
Worse, Mr. Ford is not his own man. He’s in the pay of the federal Tory party and his good family friend, the federal finance minister, Jim Flaherty. And we all know what they think of Toronto – and what a mess Mr. Flaherty left the city in as chief number cruncher for one Mike Harris post Common Sense Devolution. They’re the ones who caused the amalgamation mess, remember?
• And finally, a word for all those immigrants supposedly backing Mr. Ford. Brothers and sisters, do not delude yourselves. All Mr. Ford wants is your vote. He is not your friend. The evidence of that is clear. Those of you who live in priority neighbourhoods will be the first on the chopping block.
