Should Rob Ford resign? His council colleagues weigh in
Rob Ford—a man who generally hates talking to reporters—held not one but two explosive pressers today. The mayor followed up his surprise scrum at noon (where he admitted to smoking crack) with a much more choreographed event late this afternoon (where he vowed once again not to resign). There was clearly a lot for politicos to take in. In their post-press conference reactions, however, his fellow elected officials mostly stuck to the big question: should Rob Ford stay on as mayor? We round up their answers—and non-answers—below.
“Ford Nation is a failed state.”
—Councillor and frequent Ford foe Adam Vaughan, who says he doesn’t know how the mayor “can show up for work tomorrow”
“I think that he needs to take a break.”
—Councillor Paula Fletcher, reiterating her call for Ford to step aside and deal with his health
“I’d hoped today that this sad saga at city hall would have turned a corner. Unfortunately, it didn’t.”
—Councillor Mary Fragedakis who also thinks the mayor “needs some time”
“Mayor Ford has lied to Toronto & has taken no real actions to address his problems. He’s put his own interests before all. He must resign.”
—Councillor Josh Matlow, via Twitter
“There is no question that a void has been created by him admitting to smoking crack cocaine.”
—Councillor Karen Stintz, who stopped just short of asking Ford to step down
“I feel sad…We’ve become the laughing stock of North America, if not the world.”
–Councillor Jaye Robinson, one of the councillors calling most strongly for Ford to step aside
“I think it’s time for him to take a break…It’s very disappointing to have the mayor of Toronto admit to smoking crack cocaine. It’s something that I don’t think any of us ever expected.”
–Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, speaking about Ford’s impromptu confession before he put forward a motion asking Ford to step aside
“It’s not a surprise to me.”
–Councillor Maria Augimeri, who still says she won’t support a motion asking Ford to step aside
”I have empathy for the mayor as a human being … On a personal level I feel bad for the mayor.”
—Councillor John Filion, Ford’s longtime seatmate at council, who has his own motion seeking to curtail Ford’s powers
“There are laws in place around when municipal officials can be, must be, removed from office — that’s why I say the police service and the judicial system have to take action. We’re watching it with concern.”
–Premier Kathleen Wynne, explaining why the province won’t intervene, and throwing the political hot potato over to the cops and the courts
“As a human being and the mayor of Toronto, he should get help.”
–Justice minister Peter MacKay, who also called it a “sad day” for Toronto
(Images: Josh Matlow: Twitter; all other images from politicians’ official websites)
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/city/rob-ford-crack-confession-reactions/&title=Should Rob Ford resign? His council colleagues weigh in&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/karen-stintz-reaction-624x395.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_244919" align="aligncenter" width="656"] Karen Stintz says that the decision to resign is up to Rob Ford (Image: CP24 live feed - screenshot)[/caption]
Rob Ford—a man who generally hates talking to reporters—held not one but two explosive pressers today. The mayor followed up his surprise scrum at noon (where he admitted to smoking crack) with a much more choreographed event late this afternoon (where he vowed once again not to resign). There was clearly a lot for politicos to take in. In their post-press conference reactions, however, his fellow elected officials mostly stuck to the big question: should Rob Ford stay on as mayor? We round up their answers—and non-answers—below.
“Ford Nation is a failed state.”
—Councillor and frequent Ford foe Adam Vaughan, who says he doesn’t know how the mayor “can show up for work tomorrow”
“I think that he needs to take a break.”
—Councillor Paula Fletcher, reiterating her call for Ford to step aside and deal with his health
“I'd hoped today that this sad saga at city hall would have turned a corner. Unfortunately, it didn’t.”
—Councillor Mary Fragedakis who also thinks the mayor “needs some time”
“Mayor Ford has lied to Toronto & has taken no real actions to address his problems. He's put his own interests before all. He must resign.”
—Councillor Josh Matlow, via Twitter
“There is no question that a void has been created by him admitting to smoking crack cocaine.”
—Councillor Karen Stintz, who stopped just short of asking Ford to step down
“I feel sad...We’ve become the laughing stock of North America, if not the world.”
–Councillor Jaye Robinson, one of the councillors calling most strongly for Ford to step aside
“I think it’s time for him to take a break...It’s very disappointing to have the mayor of Toronto admit to smoking crack cocaine. It’s something that I don’t think any of us ever expected.”
–Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, speaking about Ford’s impromptu confession before he put forward a motion asking Ford to step aside
"It's not a surprise to me.”
–Councillor Maria Augimeri, who still says she won’t support a motion asking Ford to step aside
”I have empathy for the mayor as a human being … On a personal level I feel bad for the mayor.”
—Councillor John Filion, Ford’s longtime seatmate at council, who has his own motion seeking to curtail Ford’s powers
“There are laws in place around when municipal officials can be, must be, removed from office — that’s why I say the police service and the judicial system have to take action. We’re watching it with concern.”
–Premier Kathleen Wynne, explaining why the province won’t intervene, and throwing the political hot potato over to the cops and the courts
“As a human being and the mayor of Toronto, he should get help.”
–Justice minister Peter MacKay, who also called it a “sad day” for Toronto
(Images: Josh Matlow: Twitter; all other images from politicians’ official websites)){kind=link}
“Can you ask me that question again? The question you asked back in May?”
“Do you smoke crack cocaine?”
“Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine. See? I wasn’t lying, you just didn’t ask the correct question.”
Really? It took him six months to figure out what they meant? He could have just as easily responded, “Oh! I thought you said ‘Have you ever broke Coke on a plane!’ “
You gotta love Stintz’s oh-so-carefully-worded comment. After her flip-flop on the Scarborough LRT/Subway question, how can we trust anything she says? How long before she runs for Premier?
The carefully worded political gesturing of some of our Councillors yesterday was telling and diisappointing. Those councillors who spoke out EARLY and were honest and forthright get my respect.
I trust her a lot more than Mayor McCrack and his flunkies. I have no issue with someone who changes their mind when the facts change. That should be a prerequisite for a leader. She got Transit City back, and whether you like the new subway route or not, she is the one who made it happen, not Ford. He just showed up looking for the gladhanding and free drinks.
I understand your position and that Stintz enabled the Subway option. On the other hand I would draw to your attention the facts: that the Subway will raise our taxes unnecessarily, reduce the number of accessible stops by more than half and add to the TTC’s operating costs in perpetuity because they will not be covered by the province as the LRT’s would have been.
So basically as I see it she caved to the Mayor’s populist fictions. Scarborough and all Toronto have been sold a bill of goods.
I don’t see it as being unnecessarily at all. Nothing has been built in this city since Sheppard and the number of accessible stops will be greater than what exists today. None of any of our subways’ operating costs are covered by the province so nothing has changed there. I agree this is not ideal, but politics never is and politics is about compromise. My take is she showed that she can get things done and sidelined Ford while doing so and if that gets her elected Mayor and able to get us the needed transit expansion like the Downtown Relief Line then I’ll lose this battle to win the war on transit. And now that the province has rediscovered religion this morning and is dumping this austerity crap maybe we can get some more money thrown at our transit lines.
Ford is a disgrace to not only Toronto but to all of Canada. As a mayor his to be an exemplary example for people to look up to. The only people to look up to him are druggies & crooks. He should step down or be fired.
Councillor Jaye Robinson said it best. Remove the lying jerk.
Rob would have never admitted smoking crack cocaine if it had not been for the police recovering the erased video and reconstructing it.
Anything Rob has done was of his own making and blaming others for his misdeeds is typical of the kind of men he and his brother Dough are.
The shock comes when there are still people supporting these reprobates and ignoring all the disgraceful behavior of Rob in particular in favor of a phantom saving to taxpayers but when one examines all he has done and council it is easy to see that actually more money was wasted than was saved. No gravy train was found and no accusations against the former regime were proven. The one obvious gravy train that remains on the rails is the police paid duty scam and a very healthy raise for the police while others lose their jobs.
Ironically it will be the police who bring Rob to the front row for questioning when his pal Lisi reaches court. no doubt Rob will be implicated in activities of an illegal nature.