Right-Wing Populist Multi-Millionaire Businessman Rob Ford Elected Toronto mayor

[Panaconda]

Right-wing populist Ford elected Toronto mayor
By Carl Bronski
28 October 2010

Right-wing populist city councilman Rob Ford was elected mayor of Toronto, Canada’s most populous city, Monday night, garnering 47 percent of the vote. His main adversaries, former provincial Liberal Deputy Premier George Smitherman and Joe Pantalone, Toronto’s sitting deputy mayor, garnered 36 percent and 12 percent of the vote respectively. Almost half of those eligible to vote stayed away from the polls.

In his victory speech, Ford reiterated his determination to impose a righting agenda focused on slashing the city budget, declaring that “Toronto is now open for business” and terming his election a “clear call from the taxpayers.”

Ford has pledged to privatize city garbage collection, cut at least 1,500 other positions from the city payroll, restrain wages for all municipal workers except those in the police and fire departments, curtail the right to strike for front-line paramedics, slash spending on social programs, and end a “fair wages” policy at city hall that requires all municipal contractors to pay union wage rates.

Ford’s unlikely political rise has been compared to that of former US 2008 vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and certain Tea Party candidates in next week’s American mid-term elections. A city councilor since 2000, Ford gained notoriety for his law-and-order and anti-tax bombast and for frequent reactionary swipes, targeting immigrants, gays, artists, the homeless and unionized city workers.

...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/toro-o28.shtml

[ananda]

1. Boy, even Canada is getting stoopid.

Sad