"I've come across a lot of psychos, but none as fucking boring as you."

[sabotabby]

I've slept it off, sobered up, and I think I'm willing to write a bit about the election.

Here are some things that John Tory, our mayor-elect, believes or has claimed to believe in the past*:

• There is no such thing as white privilege.


• The wage gap between men and women is because women don't play golf.


• Taxpayers should fund religious schools.


• Creationism should be taught in schools.


• Pride, the largest tourist event in the city, should be defunded if it does not subject itself to his personal beliefs on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.


• Environmentalists, First Nations people, and other protestors should be sued if their activism interferes with business.


• Public transit systems can be designed based on fantasy and unicorn farts.

Toronto, meet your sensible, nonpartisan, stable new mayor. Breathe a sigh of relief that the white millionaire who is slightly more open about his racist beliefs—albeit only slightly—lost to this white millionaire. Enjoy being governed by an inbred born-to-rule shitbird who views the mayoralty as a consolation prize that he deserves for having lost so many other elections.

Fuck this guy. Doug Ford would have been better. Doug Ford would have managed to get nothing done because everyone hates him, which is better than the slow strangulation that Tory will inflict on this city.

I mean, obviously Olivia Chow should have run. Her campaign manager is #gulagbait. There were so many opportunities and her team squandered nearly all of them. Her defeat is a massive failure of political strategy, it is true, but it is also a failure of the city's collective imagination to dream of a functional municipal government that doesn't resemble the detritus left after you drain a municipal swimming pool.

Okay, why did Chow lose? Why, in a city that resembles her much more than it resembles either of the shouty white bullies, was racist propaganda like this not challenged at all? Why did no one point out that Tory is as much a reactionary fanatic as Ford? Why was Ari Goldkind** the only one to point out Ford's antisemitism? What the everloving fuck?

Part of it is that the campaign did not take into account Tory as a serious candidate—which I kind of understand, as I didn't either, but this is why I'm a teacher and not a political strategist—probably because he always loses elections. That's what he's for. He fails at things. So it went after Ford's populism (Rob, not Doug), and softened the edges of Olivia's actual politics, losing her much of the left. She failed to attack hard enough on economic issues and the elitism and privilege of her two opponents. They were trying to repeat the success of Miller, except that Miller was a six-foot-something loud British guy who could shout over his opponent, which is not something that Olivia can do. She failed, like every downtown leftist since amalgamation, to appeal to or understand the suburbs.†

But it's not just her. A shitty campaign does not negate the decades of hard work she has put into the city; she ought to have won on name-recognition alone. The city—my city—fucked up too.

Think back to four years ago, when the Honourable Wife-Beater was first elected. People asked me to explain why, and I said it was kind of like when you have a fight with your boyfriend and you go out and get drunk and pick up some guy and have sex you can't remember and wake up in a strange bed and he won't get off your arm. Now, if you'll permit me another metaphor, it's like when Angel and Buffy broke up, and Buffy went for Riley, who seemed really normal and stable by comparison, even though he didn't actually have anything in common with her, or understand her or her needs and made everything all about himself and then cheated on her with vampire prostitutes. It might have looked superficially understandable but it made for a very boring season of TV. Alas, we face much worse than either a hungover morning of regret and shame or having our collective hearts broken via vampire prostitutes—we face the erosion of what little common good we have left in this city.

One thing that I don't think the Fords, and the far-right in general, are given enough credit for is their ability to not only haul the Overton Window off the deep end, but convince everyone that This Is The Way It Has Always Been. Toronto, after four years of Ford, does not remember having a mayor who had an actual vision and who was not a crack-smoking, wife-beating international laughingstock. They think they have always been taxpayers and customers rather than citizens, atomized individuals with no stake in the common good. Racism has always been part of the discourse; we openly get to disparage people of colour, so the guy who only deals in dogwhistle racism is now a moderate. Islamophobic graffiti? Neo-Nazis and rapists allowed to openly spew hate in their campaigns? Blatant violation of election rules? We're used to it now. This is Toronto politics. This is why Tory comes off as the lesser evil when he's the far more insidious danger.

And "progressives," or at least self-defined liberals and moderates, bought it hook, line, and sinker. This guy can decide to reinvent himself and it's only us fringe, loony leftists bringing up his past. Most of the city voted for Tory; most of the city does not vote Conservative in provincial or federal elections. It's as though if you're rich enough, white enough, and shout loud enough, people will believe anything.

Oh, and Tory is bland. Squeaky clean. He'll sell the city off, piece by piece, to his corporate cronies, and it's not even going to be fun to blog about.

As I'm reading this, he's now claiming that he'll include Chow and Soknacki (whom I also like) on his transition team. I'm dubious that this is a good move for either of them and I do not trust anyone who claims to be above left and right, or who talks about unity without any grounding in reality as to why the divisions that exist are there. As he tries to play the Great Unifier, just remember that deep in your heart, like all Tories, he looks down on you and thinks you're scum.

* I do not know what John Tory actually believes. I am of the opinion that he is a robot assembled by the Conservative Party and programmed to say stupid bullshit.

** I like Ari Goldkind. He should run again. I didn't vote for him because he didn't have a chance, but I was impressed with his campaign.

† This should not be read as me endorsing de-amalgamation. I think it was a bad thing but can't be undone.

Comments

[resonant.livejournal.com]

blah

[sabotabby]

TL;DR: Shit is fucked up and bullshit.

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

Commiserations. :-(

Sounds like a plausible analysis. I just... do not get how people vote for these assholes, or UKIP assholes, and so on. Increasingly, my analysis seems to boil down to "because they're idiots". But the Buffy-Riley analogy kind of makes sense.

Can only hope that when Toronto discovers Tory has been cheating on them with vampire prostitutes that he won't get a second term.

Apropros of the first footnote, I heard Stephen Harper on Al Jazeera the other day talking about the Parliament shooting, and realized a) that it was the first time I'd heard him speak, and b) HE IS TOTALLY A ROBOT! He really is. A kitten-eating robot.

Just hope there's enough of your fine city left in four years time when people next have a chance to not be idiots.

[sabotabby]

Can only hope that when Toronto discovers Tory has been cheating on them with vampire prostitutes that he won't get a second term.

I dunno. I feel like we're very masochistic as an electorate. Rob Ford would probably have won if he'd run again.

Harper is ttly using the shooting to justify the draconian security measures he's wanted to implement since forever. Who's surprised?

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I am sorry. Also, this is an amazing analysis.*saves in my history files*

[sabotabby]

Thank you on both counts.

[kakodaimon.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard about the antisemitism, so I looked it up, and got Ford's remark (redactions made by original article):

“Nobody sticks up for people like I do, every f---ing k--e, n----r, f---ing w-p, d-go, whatever the race. Nobody does. I’m the most racist guy around. I’m the mayor of Toronto.”

Not taking a shot at his coherency here -- I genuinely don't get what he's trying to say. But that second-last sentence is impressive, paired with the last sentence, it's art.

[sabotabby]

It's Dada. I love it. This is exactly what I'm going to miss.

[lienne.livejournal.com]

I'm linking this on Tumblr. Can I link this on Tumblr? XD

[sabotabby]

Sure! Or maybe I should post it to Tumblr, as I have one of those?

[lienne.livejournal.com]

You could definitely do that!

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

EERRGH.

Might be something in the golf thing, though. Taking golf to mean all sorts of boys' club networking bah, that is.

Here in the UK not only are faith schools taxpayer funded, but most people don't get a choice of a non-faith-school. I don't think there are any non-faith primary schools local to me. And unless you are wealthy enough for home schooling you have to send your child to a local school.

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

Primary schools, that is - I think lots of secondary schools are secular, but for some reason Catholic and Church of England schools get better results so are oversubscribed. They have to take a percentage of pupils not of their faith, and parents attend church from when their children are born to pass the five years' church attendance requirements. I would do a lot to get my Buggle into a better (non violent being most important to me) school, but I am not prepared to piss about going to church for five years to get a letter from a vicar entitling my child to a school place that should be a right for all children. Bah!

[sabotabby]

I think the usefulness of golf depends on class as much as gender. I don't know about it in the UK, but here it is very clearly a class marker. If you are looking to get a working class, or even entry-level white collar job, playing golf won't do shit. It's a race marker too.

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

Ah well, yes, golf would only even be accessible to people living in areas with golf courses, which in the UK at least are usually semi-rural and quite expensive, and then you probably need to pay for membership, and then you need people to play with, so need the connections in the first place. Not that I have any experience of golf - maybe it is easy for people who live near enough golf courses to join in. But certainly not accessible to the majority!

I imagined it as a comment on glass ceiling and managerial posty stuff. As a comment on women getting lower pay than men overall it is stupid because golf clubs do not provide free nurseries or training opportunities - that is surely his job, not the job of golf courses, duh what a dolt.

[sabotabby]

It's really expensive to join golf courses here, though I suspect there are token scholarships to avoid accusations of elitism and racism. But definitely not accessible to regular people.

I think he was thinking of managers and CEOs, because he's a millionaire and doesn't know any actual people. But IDGAF about pay gaps between male and female CEOs; that's neither most women nor most men!

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

We have a law here that equal pay has to be given for "like" work. I have not read up on it at all so no idea whether it is doing any good or not - I imagine there are legal wrangles as to what work is "like" other work, but it was certainly a good step forward.

[sabotabby]

We have that too, but I don't think it's working the way it's supposed to.

[pofflewomp.livejournal.com]

I don't remember Riley at all. I must rewatch Buffy when I get time one day!

[sabotabby]

Riley was not very memorable other than in how much he sucked. It's not a very good season in general, and the show was helped immensely once he fucked off.

[mistersmearcase.livejournal.com]

Riley was hot. That's all I remember about him. Except that the season also featured that actress who was once married to David Mamet and who is very bad.

[sabotabby]

Really? I found him deeply unattractive to the point where I honestly couldn't see why Buffy was attracted him. (Considering his personality; if he'd had an interesting personality, I'd have understood it. But it had to just be physical or desperation.)

I admittedly have slightly strange taste in men. I find most men-playing-boys on teevee shows inherently unattractive and strange to look at.

[ltmurnau.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen a map of how the districts (wards?) voted, but I'll take your word that the City voted Tory, and the Suburbs voted Ford.
And you almost did get Brother Doug.
Any idea of the total voter turnout?
And one last question, from what is your subject line a quote?

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Actually not quite. North Etobicoke and most of Scarborough voted for Ford but South Etobicoke, the toney part of Scarborough by the lake and most of North York went Tory. It's a very clear class/income divide. Ford won the poorest parts of the city. Turnout was high, around 60%. Chow's failore to make any inroads with the working class parts of the city says to me that the NDP's current strategy, which she basically replicated, is completely flawed.

[ltmurnau.livejournal.com]

I see. That makes a lot of sense. So the question now is, how does the NDP take this lesson aboard... or do they even listen?

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

They won't. Federally the strategy is to win the soft nationalist vote in Quebec; which is guaranteed long term suicide. Provincially they won't risk their position with the relatively well off autoworkers and miners. It's kind of a "labour aristocracy" play that says nothing to the poorer people in Toronto.

[sabotabby]

chickenfeet2003 answered all of your questions but the last.

It's from In the Loop, which, if you haven't seen it, do so. Apparently I am largely incapable of talking about Toronto municipal politics without making The Thick Of It references, though the show is quite utopian in comparison to what goes on here.


If I've done this right, the relevant bit is at 2:48.

[(Anonymous)]

I've seen those shows on the shelf at the local "good" DVD store but haven't gotten around to seeing them.
I guess I should!

(ltmurnau, too lazy to log in)

[sabotabby]

It's one of the few comedy series that's ever made me laugh, which should be endorsement enough. (Though, arguably, the last season is not so much a comedy.) Watch the show before the movie; it'll make more sense even though the movie is technically set earlier.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

>>She failed, like every downtown leftist since amalgamation, to appeal to or understand the suburbs.

This is the crux. If you can't build a progressive coalition that includes the working class you've had it running from the left. It's ludicrous to think you can win Toronto on the votes of $200,000 p.a. charity CEOs. I'd have started with a transit plan that focussed on Rexdale and Malvern and a real look at housing policy. It would be high risk but that's better than a guaranteed fail.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Actually I think we make a huge mistake by referring to Scarborough and Etobicoke as suburbs. The suburbs are Brampton and Ajax. Malvern and Rexdale and Willowdale are as much Toronto as Forest Hill (which in many ways is more "suburban"). The Left needs too get over an intellectual hangover about amalgamation and realise that we need to win over the people of Toronto; not just the ones who go to wine bars.

[sabotabby]

Agreed 110%. Amalgamation isn't going away and it used to be that the left gave a shit about the working class, new immigrants, and lumpen proles. Well, they are mostly in Scarborough and Etobicoke. That's why I spent my volunteer time out there and not here.