I believe that the imbecile remarks made by Don Cherry were not just the famous bigmouth babbling. I believe he was either sent, or like the accidental tourist, just happened to be in the right place at the right time, so he could use language Rob Ford would not use. Ford thinks exactly like Cherry. I would not be surprised to find the guy installed as part of Ford’s inner circle. I hesitate to call it a “think tank.”
His comment about “Socialist bicycle riders” is bang-on Rob Ford. Ford wants to close bike lanes and end the “war on the car.” His “left-wing media” could have been spoken by our mayor who was not a media favourite (with the possible exception of the Sun.) Cherry spoke for Ford thumbing his nose at all the wise-guy (excuse me – pinko) columnists. Even as the criticism continues with writers like John Doyle, Ford is still the winner.
Cherry is the surrogate, the stalking horse, the guy they send to say what they pretend to be too polite to say. Even worse, the new right-wing council seems to laugh it all off, that “what you see is what you get,” when it comes to Cherry. That’s patent nonsense. Ford didn’t have to have Cherry endow him with the chain of office. He didn’t have to have him front and centre. He had to look “surprised” when Cherry anointed him as the best mayor the city has ever had.
What has happened here is that politics have hit a new low, unless you voted for Ford’s quick and easy platitudes about taxpayers and gravy trains, and other bumper sticker slogans.
Nothing, we all hope, will change. Democracy will return. The new mayor does not have a bully pulpit. He has one vote. The only “edge” he has is the appointment of an executive committee. Let him go on all he likes about there never having been a vote on Transit City.
The man lives in a world that we all thought came to a merciful death years ago with Mel Lastman’s comment about being put in a pot of boiling water in Africa. We have just had eight years of a mayor, who, even if you didn’t like him, is a well-educated, articulate man. But it is also possible that more people wanted a guy who was just like them and just like Din Cherry.
It appears to me that, even though Premier McGuinty said earlier that “the people have spoken” he appears to be lukewarm on the idea of letting Ford run amok with contracts and obligations.
There are still cities building subways. Madrid, the last time I looked, still planned an annual subway expansion. How it will do with Spain heading toward economic chaos we’ll soon find out.
Meanwhile, the home of the best subway system in the world, Paris, is building more and more light rail above ground routes in the city. Even they know something about the future. And no one that I know of has accused the French of declaring war on the car.
I still have one question for our mayor: if the streets are made extra friendly to commuters in cars, where, when they get downtown, are they going to park?
Don’t bother him with details.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
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