Ford, Immigration and the Quartet of Fools

The Quartet of Fools, Rob Ford's rivals for mayor, thought they tasted blood during this exchange during the debate reported on at the CP 24 website:

George Smitherman discussed the issue, accusing Rob Ford of wanting Toronto to become a refugee-free-zone, something Ford didn't deny.


"I have to say I was very shocked when I heard councillor Ford say Toronto should be a refugee-free zone," Smitherman says.


However, Ford shot back saying Toronto can't support more.


"We can't even take care of our 2.5 million people," says Ford. "I think it's important that we take care of the people now before we start bringing in more."  

According to a recent poll, it turn out 60% of Canadians not only agree with Ford but would take matters even further and have returned the ship of Tamil refugees that arrived in Vancouver back to Sri Lanka.
 
The Quartet of Fools (Smitherman, Rossi, Thompson and Pantalone) and their histrionic flacks in the media were anxious to pounce upon this as some sort of general anti-immigrant or even racist sentiment, but obviously, Toronto's voters aren't buying that desperate, disingenuous spin. 
 
As Kelly McParland wrote in The National Post today,

It’s just possible that, as Canadians become increasingly familiar with how easy it is to take advantage of the country’s good intentions, they become equally reluctant to play the rube. It should be no surprise that suspicion of immigrants is high among recent immigrants, since many — having worked their way through the complex, convoluted system — appreciate just how difficult and perverse the process is, and how great the temptation to look for loopholes. Since many immigrants are still trying to bring over members of extended families, they have an interest in ensuring the system works as fairly as possible. Many also come from countries where the rule of law is not exactly No. 1 on the national priority list, and are wary of taking anyone’s story at face value.

Which doesn’t mean they hate Tamils. What it does mean is that Canadians have grown extremely distrustful of the immigration and refugee system, and of the politicians who set the rules.

What the Quartet of Fools have attempted is the cheapest gimmick out of a con artist's bag of tricks: "Don't believe your eyes or ears or what you know to be true, believe me."

The polls show that Canadians are tired of politicians telling them how they should think and want to be represented by someone who cares about what their constituents DO think.

Support for Ford is wide and deep and comes from every community in the city (with the exception of the Marxists, but they are more of a conspiracy than a community)