Rob Ford casts the sole vote to reject free (!) federal money for gang prevention
Rob Ford can’t seem to shake his roots as a contrarian councillor. At last week’s council meeting, he was the sole person to vote against accepting $350,000 from the federal government for a yearlong gang intervention project (the funding will go to a pilot project to help 300 young people “at high risk of gang attachment” transition into employment). Ford said no thanks to the cash (not the first time he has done something like this) on the grounds that it’ll cost some taxpayers somewhere…at some point. That rock-solid logic puzzled even staunch conservatives like Doug Holyday and Denzil Minnan-Wong—who both, incidentally, scored A+ marks on the Toronto Taxpayers Coalition’s report cards for city council in 2011. Echoing the thoughts of pretty much everyone, everywhere, Minnan-Wong said, “It’s free money….Why would you turn down $350,000?” [Toronto Star]
(Images: Rob Ford, Christopher Drost; Bills, Brian nairB and Lauren Siegert)
 federal money for gang prevention&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/rob-ford-money.jpg&description=Rob Ford can’t seem to shake his roots as a contrarian councillor. At last week’s council meeting, he was the sole person to vote against accepting $350,000 from the federal government for a yearlong gang intervention project (the funding will go to a pilot project to help 300 young people “at high risk of gang attachment” transition into employment). Ford said no thanks to the cash (not the first time he has done something like this) on the grounds that it’ll cost some taxpayers somewhere...at some point. That rock-solid logic puzzled even staunch conservatives like Doug Holyday and Denzil Minnan-Wong—who both, incidentally, scored A+ marks on the Toronto Taxpayers Coalition’s report cards for city council in 2011. Echoing the thoughts of pretty much everyone, everywhere, Minnan-Wong said, “It’s free money....Why would you turn down $350,000?” [Toronto Star]
(Images: Rob Ford, Christopher Drost; Bills, Brian nairB and Lauren Siegert)){kind=link}
My guess is that if the money was from “private business”, Rob Ford would be all for it. Of course, that money would have come from the products or services the “private business” sells. But aren’t their customers the same as taxpayers?
What if the “private business” was the 407, or Bell, or Rogers, or Molsons, or Colt, or Smith & Wesson, or (if hell freezes over) Deco Labels?
People need to stop thinking of themselves as taxpayers and start thinking of themselves as citizens. Citizens work together to make a better society. Taxpayers worry about whether or not their tax dollars will benefit their own personal interests.
He is probably the worst embarrassment Toronto has ever seen! I guess if he can be mayor anyone can do anything but honestly, he should be working at Walmart which would be a more suitable position for him.
That $350,000 will get pissed away by some crappy effort that won’t work. The taxpayer money is still our money use it towards something better, like more more cells for these gangbangers.