Ford: A real "cracker"?

[kool maudit]

he should watch out with the stimulants - dude's like 350, 400.

that heart's gonna blow.

[kool maudit]

as an aside, one of the funnier things about this debacle has been the racial element. for some reason, many white people of my acquaintance have taken this opportunity to incude both their race and that of rob ford in his list of sins. "that fat, greedy, redneck, white...". very curious.

i know we are one of the more self-excoriating "races," but this really lends some credence to (torontonian) christian lander's (of "stuffwhitepeoplelike" semi-renown) idea that stuffwhitepeoplelike-type things are really just status markers to set ourselves aside from "the wrong kind of white people" in the eyes of other races.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

^I love hatin' on whitey.

As an aside, you'd be surprised how many 'normal' people smoke crack. Fer realz, yo. I mean, it's not a significant number but probably a lot more than you think. And it goes without saying, it's not exactly the kind of thing you mention to your colleagues on Monday morning. It's out there and that sh*t do happen, y'all.

Anyway, this is the best news I've heard in a decade; I'm giddy with vengeance about the whole thing. That great white whale finally done did got hisself harpooned! I betcha he be good eating, too.

[Black Star]

The Guy was and is a train wreck since day 1. As I see it...Toronto as the most influential city in Canada...how is it possible to elect this goof! Makes us look bad as a Country. BTW Marian Berry's tape was inconclusive also lol.

[Dr Nevergold]

Ford is an outstanding cracker.

[Centropolis]

hahahah.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

as an aside, one of the funnier things about this debacle has been the racial element. for some reason, many white people of my acquaintance have taken this opportunity to incude both their race and that of rob ford in his list of sins. "that fat, greedy, redneck, white...". very curious.

The very title of this thread made me laugh out loud, I have to admit.

There's just something so "weird" about white folks smoking crack, for some reason. Although it happens all the time. It's just our media-driven perception of crack as a "black" drug.

Perhaps this was Ford's way of trying to become more culturally diverse, and shatter stereotypes.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by freeweed

The very title of this thread made me laugh out loud, I have to admit.

There's just something so "weird" about white folks smoking crack, for some reason. Although it happens all the time. It's just our media-driven perception of crack as a "black" drug.

Perhaps this was Ford's way of trying to become more culturally diverse, and shatter stereotypes.

Maybe in Toronto. Here its a ghetto drug, from the Downtown East Side.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Maybe in Toronto. Here its a ghetto drug, from the Downtown East Side.

The only people I've ever actually seen smoking crack, in "real life" so to speak, were white folks in the DTES.

It certainly has a unique aroma.

[someone123]

You can tell what sort of neighbourhood you're in by what people try to sell you. In the DTES it's crack, in normal parts of East Vancouver it's pot, and in Kitsilano, reiki.

[artvandelay]

Originally Posted by someone123

You can tell what sort of neighbourhood you're in by what people try to sell you. In the DTES it's crack, in normal parts of East Vancouver it's pot, and in Kitsilano, reiki.

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by freeweed

The only people I've ever actually seen smoking crack, in "real life" so to speak, were white folks in the DTES.

It certainly has a unique aroma.

I've seen them smoke in the bad ol' days of Alberta Avenue. Definitely can attest to the peculiar aroma. Mostly white folk.

[kool maudit]

yeah, definitely those white folks. shady bunch.

but you have to admit, there's one great thing about them: it's socially safe to notice when they gravitate to antisocial behaviours. you don't lose prestige when you call them out.

[khabibulin]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

yeah, definitely those white folks. shady bunch.

but you have to admit, there's one great thing about them: it's socially safe to notice when they gravitate to antisocial behaviours. you don't lose prestige when you call them out.

Brilliant!!! Your ability to communicate a message, dripping with sarcasm and poking fun at political correctness is second to none. Bravo. You would have been a great writer on the Seinfeld show. Not that theres anything wrong with that!

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by rousseau

On the cultural continuum of Rob Ford to Glenn Gould, southern Ontario is closer to the mayor than the piano player. How much closer? Debatable.

Have you ever been to Toronto? Ford represents precisely no one within the boundaries of the original city. He got his votes from the surrounding suburban areas, which are the most ethnically diverse patch of real estate on earth. While lots of immigrants voted for Ford as a protest against perceived economic waste by urban sophisticates and due to the lack of strong competition against him, they're not "Rob Ford types" like many white suburban and rural southern Ontarians are.

"Ford Nation" consists of the white remnants of Mississauga and Scarborough along with every other Sun-reading (and now watching) rightwing doofus from London to Kingston and points in between. It's a vaguely Tea Party-esque clique of proudly ignorant partisan dolts who are impervious to reason and have a touch of the feverishly insane about them. Have a look at the comments section in the National Post or the Sun sometime.

A: Your description of "Ford Nation" is obviously false, consisting mostly of people who live outside the city and couldn't have voted for him.

B: What a bunch of mega condescension. Downtown does not equal "sophisticated" any more than rural equals "unsophisticated." (That lazy correlation is deeply parochial, and in fact, unsophisticated. After all, Glenn Gould, whom you suggest represents Toronto much better than Ford, was famous for intensely disliking most cities and being ambivalent even about Toronto, spending as much time as possible at his cottage near Lake Simcoe.)

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

A: Your description of "Ford Nation" is obviously false, consisting mostly of people who live outside the city and couldn't have voted for him.

There was a stark contrast between districts in the old pre-amalgamation parts of Toronto and areas like Etobicoke and Scarborough. This map shows the old city boundaries that existed pre-1998, with the majority Ford areas in blue:


http://www.torontolife.com/informer/...conservatives/

Admittedly, this contrast is exaggerated a lot by the binary colour scheme. The reality is that there might only be a few percentage points of difference between a majority-red and a majority-blue district. There was still a pretty dramatic overall trend though.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by someone123

There was a stark contrast between districts in the old pre-amalgamation parts of Toronto and areas like Etobicoke and Scarborough. This map shows the old city boundaries that existed pre-1998, with the majority Ford areas in blue:


http://www.torontolife.com/informer/...conservatives/

Admittedly, this contrast is exaggerated a lot by the binary colour scheme. The reality is that there might only be a few percentage points of difference between a majority-red and a majority-blue district. There was still a pretty dramatic overall trend though.

So how does that central core get with the program of the "outlying" majority?

[Drybrain]

Originally Posted by someone123

There was a stark contrast between districts in the old pre-amalgamation parts of Toronto and areas like Etobicoke and Scarborough. This map shows the old city boundaries that existed pre-1998, with the majority Ford areas in blue:


http://www.torontolife.com/informer/...conservatives/

Admittedly, this contrast is exaggerated a lot by the binary colour scheme. The reality is that there might only be a few percentage points of difference between a majority-red and a majority-blue district. There was still a pretty dramatic overall trend though.

This is hugely true vis-a-vis electoral results, but rousseau was saying that Ford Nation was Mississauga, 905 belt, and small-town Southern Ontario.

I can think of a lot of businesses that had Ford for Toronto signs up in their windows in downtown neighbourhoods in 2010--usually immigrant-run businesses, oddly.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by Drybrain

I can think of a lot of businesses that had Ford for Toronto signs up in their windows in downtown neighbourhoods in 2010--usually immigrant-run businesses, oddly.

I live near East Chinatown and this is very true. The low taxes message tends to go over well with these groups. I have also heard from several taxi drivers that promises were made to larger companies that police would give cabs greater leeway with offences under Ford (though this one sounds sketchy to me).

Interestingly enough business taxes have gone up slightly under Ford. The previous administration had a standing policy to freeze and slightly lower business taxes while raising residential to bring tax rates more in-line with the 905 suburbs. These nuances never come across well during an election though.

[MonkeyRonin]

A handy little spreadsheet of Rob Ford's antics: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...tVDZHaUE#gid=0