I think I really started despising Toronto last year when I read that they were trying to make green roofs MANDATORY on government buildings. The idiots in charge spent 21 million taxpayer dollars to "green" city hall, just to suck up to special interest groups and of course the planners and developers who are making a fortune on the sustainability scam.
Yes, these bozos actually pretend that all this stuff will affect the climate and there is no shortage of ignorant people who believe them, thus enabling them to sign on for "sustainable" energy which costs 20-25% more than regular electricity. What's even stupider is that this green energy is put on the grid, but no one knows if the energy they personally use actually comes from a "green" source, since it's not handled separately. Only a delusional greenie would pay money for a product they may or may not be getting, but then again they buy carbon credits, don't they?
Unfortunately, George Smitherman (remember the guy who mismanaged all that public money hiring those e-health consultants that didn't produce anything?) decided that EVERYBODY should contribute when he, as Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, brought in Ontario's green energy act in 2009, which made everyone pay more by forcing power-purchasing authorities to "grant priority and obligatory purchase of power from green energy projects". When the government is mandating the purchase of certain products which result in unnecessary price increases for the homeowner, it is not about the environment or even about ideology anymore - it is about corporations, government agencies and unions running the show (and all the palm-greasing that entails) with the peasants footing the bill. The useful idiot footsoldiers of the environmentalist movement haven't figured this out, as they clamor for bird-killing wind turbines (which require power backup from other sources), restrictions on businesses and a surge in the war on cars.
Sensing some easy pickings, Mr. Smitherman decided to withdraw from the provincial cabinet and run for mayor of Toronto. Of course he would be the perfect fit: an eco-nut, a proven big spender, and gay to boot - resumes don't get much better than that in lefty-land. So, unless he had to run against a one-legged lesbian vegetarian visible minority candidate who spent her spare time organizing walkathons for homeless street mimes displaced by global warming, he pretty well had it in the bag, Or so he thought.
But a funny thing happened in Toronto. Enter Rob Ford, the epitome of political incorrectitude (yeah, I think I made that word up - if it isn't a word yet, it should be). A local councilor for ten years, he has made statements that have the lefties choking on their lattes. He is not a fan of big government. He doesn't give a crap about global warming or "going green". Running on the slogan "Stop the Gravy Train", his main platform is cutting government waste and ending the catering to special interest groups.
He wants to cut council from 44 to 22, slash their expense accounts and remove their perks like golf passes and free parking outside of working hours. Of course, this pisses off the council members. He wants to stop the war on cars and get rid of the vehicle registration fee. This pisses off the car-haters. He is against bike lanes on the arterial roads, which really pisses off the cyclists who want bike lanes everywhere. He wants to contract out services like waste disposal, which really pisses off the unions. He doesn't think the government should tell people what to eat or how to live. This pisses off the Nannies. He is fat, outspoken and apparently pisses everyone off. So he couldn't possibly get elected in a left-wing ultra-progressive city like Toronto, could he?
Just to make sure, other candidates dropped out of the race in an attempt to throw voter support behind Smitherman. Eventually only Smitherman and Ford were the real contenders, with one other candidate so far behind he didn't matter. The media kept reassuring everyone that the race was too close to call, but I thought it was odd that no matter what any of the articles said, the comments were 98% pro-Ford. I don't have to tell you how much I was rooting for this guy - a NORMAL person, in Toronto of all places. Well, I didn't have to wait long to find out: less than ten minutes after the polls closed, the news outlets were declaring him a winner. He won in a landslide and the media were left scratching their heads over how their polls could have been so wrong.
One theory is that people thought voting for Ford was socially unacceptable, so they didn't want to admit who they favored. This is really sad, but today a lot of people keep their opinions to themselves for fear of being politically incorrect - it's time to change that or we are really going to go down the tubes. Maybe people voted for Ford rather than have someone with a track record like Smitherman's (understandable), but I think it was more than that. I think people are waking up to the problems with big government, with the unconscionable waste of money on programs the public doesn't want or need, and the accompanying financial hardship of keeping up with the tax burden associated with out-of-control spending.
Now that just about everyone has access to the internet, people can see what is being done with their money, and they are not happy about it. The election of Rob Ford against all odds is the first crack in the dam, we are going to see a huge change in what has been business as usual for so long. I just wish we could clone him and bring him here to run the RD. God knows we could use him.
