Rob and Doug Ford release a new batch of YouTube videos
When their Sun News Network show was cancelled after just one episode, Rob and Doug Ford vowed to bring their brother act to “the YouTube,” as Doug calls it. The Fords evidently see this experiment in online broadcasting as a way of performing an end run around an increasingly unfriendly press corps, but the results so far haven’t been particularly impressive. The videos are amateurishly produced, and the most successful of last week’s initial batch of four short clips attracted just shy of 35,000 viewers, which is good by non-cute-cat-video standards, but not stellar. Plus, the series has already raised suspicions of improper campaign spending, giving mayoral candidate David Soknacki a perfect angle of attack.
Today, the Fords released a second batch of video clips. Here are the highlights.
1. Rob Ford names his most and least favourite councillors
For a normal mayor, publicly announcing a list of enemies would be political suicide, but Rob Ford must intuit that he has nothing left to lose on the loyalty front. In one of today’s clips, the mayor names the five councillors he still considers to be allies (Frank DiGiorgio, Frances Nunziata, Vincent Crisanti, Anthony Perruzza and, naturally, Doug Ford), and then rattles off a list of colleagues he’d most like to see defeated in the 2014 municipal election. Here, for the sake of convenience, is the full list. The Fords say they would be delighted to help you run against any of the following:
1. Gord Perks
2. Janet Davis
3. Adam Vaughan
4. Joe Mihevc
5. Sarah Doucette
6. Shelley Carroll
7. Glenn De Baeremaeker
8. Mike Layton
9. Kristyn Wong-Tam
10. Paul Ainslie
The mayor also mentioned that the following councillors are “vulnerable,” though he stopped just short of explicitly calling for their defeat:
1. Josh Matlow
2. Mary-Margaret McMahon
3. Chin Lee
4. Raymond Cho
5. Paula Fletcher
6. John Fillion
7. Maria Augimeri
8. Gloria Lindsay Luby
So that’s 18 sitting councillors out of 44, and Ford is banking on many of them losing their seats to total unknowns. He’s going to be disappointed.
2. The Fords complain about free zoo passes
In classic Rob Ford style, the brothers spend three solid minutes enumerating all the different perks available to city councillors: free Metropasses, free Toronto Zoo passes, free parking, and so on. It’s an attempt to stoke resentment against municipal politicians, the implication being that Rob is the only one who can be trusted to punish them for their excesses. And it’s true: antagonizing city councillors is arguably what he was elected to do, and it’s the thing he’s been most successful at.
3. “I am not a homophobe.”
In another video clip, the Fords take a viewer’s question about the mayor’s attempt, two weeks ago, to get a pride flag removed from Nathan Phillips Square. The flag had been raised in solidarity with Russian gays, whose plight at the hands of their government has gained prominence because of the Sochi Games. “This is about the Olympics. This is about supporting our athletes. This is not about your sexual preference,” Ford says. “I am not homophobic.” None of which explains why he decided to pick a fight with a piece of fabric. Later, Doug tries to cast the mayor as the victim. “Don’t try to put a gun to anybody’s head who disagrees with you,” Doug says.
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/city/rob-and-doug-ford-youtube-videos/&title=Rob and Doug Ford release a new batch of YouTube videos&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ford-nation-624x395.jpg&description=
When their Sun News Network show was cancelled after just one episode, Rob and Doug Ford vowed to bring their brother act to "the YouTube," as Doug calls it. The Fords evidently see this experiment in online broadcasting as a way of performing an end run around an increasingly unfriendly press corps, but the results so far haven't been particularly impressive. The videos are amateurishly produced, and the most successful of last week's initial batch of four short clips attracted just shy of 35,000 viewers, which is good by non-cute-cat-video standards, but not stellar. Plus, the series has already raised suspicions of improper campaign spending, giving mayoral candidate David Soknacki a perfect angle of attack.
Today, the Fords released a second batch of video clips. Here are the highlights.
1. Rob Ford names his most and least favourite councillors
For a normal mayor, publicly announcing a list of enemies would be political suicide, but Rob Ford must intuit that he has nothing left to lose on the loyalty front. In one of today's clips, the mayor names the five councillors he still considers to be allies (Frank DiGiorgio, Frances Nunziata, Vincent Crisanti, Anthony Perruzza and, naturally, Doug Ford), and then rattles off a list of colleagues he'd most like to see defeated in the 2014 municipal election. Here, for the sake of convenience, is the full list. The Fords say they would be delighted to help you run against any of the following:
1. Gord Perks
2. Janet Davis
3. Adam Vaughan
4. Joe Mihevc
5. Sarah Doucette
6. Shelley Carroll
7. Glenn De Baeremaeker
8. Mike Layton
9. Kristyn Wong-Tam
10. Paul Ainslie
The mayor also mentioned that the following councillors are "vulnerable," though he stopped just short of explicitly calling for their defeat:
1. Josh Matlow
2. Mary-Margaret McMahon
3. Chin Lee
4. Raymond Cho
5. Paula Fletcher
6. John Fillion
7. Maria Augimeri
8. Gloria Lindsay Luby
So that's 18 sitting councillors out of 44, and Ford is banking on many of them losing their seats to total unknowns. He's going to be disappointed.
2. The Fords complain about free zoo passes
In classic Rob Ford style, the brothers spend three solid minutes enumerating all the different perks available to city councillors: free Metropasses, free Toronto Zoo passes, free parking, and so on. It's an attempt to stoke resentment against municipal politicians, the implication being that Rob is the only one who can be trusted to punish them for their excesses. And it's true: antagonizing city councillors is arguably what he was elected to do, and it's the thing he's been most successful at.
3. "I am not a homophobe."
In another video clip, the Fords take a viewer’s question about the mayor's attempt, two weeks ago, to get a pride flag removed from Nathan Phillips Square. The flag had been raised in solidarity with Russian gays, whose plight at the hands of their government has gained prominence because of the Sochi Games. "This is about the Olympics. This is about supporting our athletes. This is not about your sexual preference," Ford says. "I am not homophobic." None of which explains why he decided to pick a fight with a piece of fabric. Later, Doug tries to cast the mayor as the victim. "Don't try to put a gun to anybody's head who disagrees with you," Doug says.){kind=link}
Is it just me or does his list of favourite councillors include a lot of light-weights who are mostly only known to their own families?
As for the free parking “perk”, won’t most councillors just turn around and claim their parking fees as an expense? The only thing he would accomplish by wiping out that “perk” would be to move the cost from one column of the city budget to aniother.
As for a free zoo pass–who cares? I bet if you took a survey of the councillors you would find the 5 to 10% of them went to the zoo in the past 3 years. Talk about a non-issue. But it makes sense that the non-mayor is picking on non-issues.
Rob looks like death warmed over in the videos. If he was NOT just hung over, he should be rushed to an emergency department.
So Rob thought the best way to win votes was to black list 18 Councillors…I think I remember Hitler doing the same thing to his enemy’s before he making his bid for chancellor.
I agree, to even waste time commenting on casa loma free access as being a waste of tax payer dollars shows how dumb they are. If you added up the total bill all this stuff actually added up to from all 40 councillors it would be completely irrelevant. Fact is, Councillors should explore all these city funded venues in an effort to better understand them when making budget decisions.
Fords are rich and can afford to pay their own way thanks to Daddies money. It sickens me to hear them taking credit for the accomplishments of their father. Fact is, Rob Ford knows little and is extremely dangerous because he thinks he knows a lot. He votes on key city business without the necessary background knowledge (not to mention his poor reasoning ability)
Could be a side effect of Oxy or other “pills” he could be using as speculated in Crazy Town. He looks like he could drop dead from a heart attack at any moment. He should go to rehab and stop pretending to be mayor.
One sad aspect to this is that it just shows Ford complete lack of focus. Here he is overly fixated on a completely minor and insignificant budget issue (after the budget has been passed of course) but yet he was incapable of coming up with a viable funding model for he vaunted subway expansion further into Scarborough.
I was actually in favour of pushing the subway to the east but Ford’s inability to come up with a realistic business plan for it made me reconsider my point of view. And how can a “successful businessman” be so clueless about creating a business case for the new subway stations? Ford is just appalling.
These 2 morons live their adult lives as if they were still roaming the halls, being high school bullies. Instead of offering tangible solutions to the problems that face our city, they’d rather make lists of people they don’t like. Neener-Neener-Neener.
Let’s put an end to amateur hour, once and for all, and turf out these 2 knuckle-dragging buffoons!
RoFo has not yet figured out that he needs to adjust his style if he wants to continue to stay in the mayor’s chair. The fact that he is still helping citizens look for lost dogs and have their potholes filled is admirable on one level but completely ludicous on just about every other level. He is still thinking and acting and grandstanding like he did when he was just a councillor. He has not learn to adjust to the job of being mayor. The fact that he has not been able to get any motions passed even at his own executive committee speaks volumes. He is so far over his head he does not even know that he is drowning.
To be honest, I don’t want to see the guy drop dead physically. Politically I want him tared and feathered like his Zodiac sign (poetically a cock). The man has done nothing for the city other than give it piss poor publicity and reduce a semi-functional council into something more a tune to Jersey Shore. I really hope this is the end of the Ford Brothers bullying, lying to my city.
Rob Ford pretending to read, how precious.
This is war! The Reds are closing in! Everyone into the bunker now! Is that Ford artillery out there?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcJWCiXbfxs
these guys are out of control….because they bad mouthed him they need to be out of their seats? bullies!!