Rob Ford doesn’t get his way at council—so he deems the whole proceedings “irrelevant”
After a lengthy special council meeting to debate the city’s overarching transit plan, where Rob Ford and his allies repeatedly and passionately championed the mayor’s “I’m building subways” proposal, Ford declared that the whole meeting was irrelevant. Of course, what the mayor really meant was that he found the final vote—to support a return to a light rail–based, decidedly above-ground transit plan—irrelevant.
The Toronto Star has the details:
In an extraordinary dismissal of city council’s will, Mayor Rob Ford has called his resounding defeat on Wednesday over Toronto’s transit plan irrelevant.
He is urging the province to build subways even though council voted 25-18 in favour of an above-ground LRT plan and Queen’s Park indicated it will listen.
“Technically speaking, that whole meeting was irrelevant,” said the mayor, after councillors voted to go with a competing transit plan championed by his former ally, TTC chair Councillor Karen Stintz.
Ford went onto say he’s confident the province will continue to follow his own plan, dismissing council’s express will. Perhaps Ford was just flustered in the post-vote presser after a long day; still, even Denzil Minnan-Wong, one of his staunchest supporters, noted that the mayor was out of line. Though if council proceedings are as insignificant as Ford suggests, we have a vehicle registration tax that needs reinstating and a Jarvis bike lane worth saving for him.
• Special transit meeting: Mayor Rob Ford dismisses council’s vote against his subway plan [Toronto Star] • Rob Ford takes a midnight ride on the TTC [Toronto Star] • Ford on Stintz: ‘She stabbed me in the back’ [Toronto Sun] • Ford pays price of obstinacy in council’s rebuke of his transit vision [Globe and Mail] • Toronto council rides with Stintz on transit [ National Post]
