Former Toronto mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson does a music duet with histrionic "Shut the F*ck Up! Girl"

For Real:

At the recording studio to record our #transit song #topoli #onpoli twitter.com/ThomsonTO/stat…
— Sarah Thomson (@ThomsonTO) May 22, 2013

Now aren't you glad Sarah Thomson has never won an election?



h/t Blazing Cat Fur  & Michael C.

Another witness comes forward making Sarah Thomson look like a lying publicity hound

In an exclusive interview with CityNews, Jordan Falkenstein said he was waiting to have his photo taken with Ford at the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC) event, when Thomson budded in line to have her picture taken with the mayor. He said Thomson requested a second photo after she didn’t like the first one.

Falkenstein said he was right beside them during the encounter and could overhear their conversation.

“She made a statement about his trip to Florida and he said jokingly, ‘You should have come with us.’ She laughed as if she enjoyed it,” Falkenstein said.

Falkenstein didn’t see any inappropriate touching, despite Thomson’s claim to CityNews that the mayor “grabbed my ass.”

“I did not see that,” Falkenstein added. “His hands were on her shoulder or arm…It doesn’t add up, that’s not what I saw, that’s not what was going on and I dare to say it was a (Thomson) publicity stunt.”

More Here

BACKGROUND Here

Is provincial Liberal candidate Sarah Thomson attempting to skirt election finance regulations?

Left in the mailboxes of Trinity Spadina residents

Updated Aug 27 based on additional info from The Globe and Mail (which in turn was based on info from this article).

Residents of Toronto's Trinity-Spadina riding have been the recipients of a surprise treat in their mailboxes this past week. A free copy of Women's Post.

Reports indicate that having it haphazardly turn up in mailboxes throughout the riding is something that has not happened before and it doesn't seem to be happening in other ridings. Women's Post is published by none other than Trinity-Spadina Liberal candidate Sarah Thomson, whose face, with the large caption "Sarah Thomson weighs in on the tough choices facing Ontario voters"  graces the copy that residents received without solicitation. Inside the summer 2011 issue, on the first printed page, is a full page editorial by Ms Thomson in which she presents an odd, rambling, boating analogy, the point of which is that Ontarians should vote for the political party for which she is running in the upcoming election.

Despite the ads and a few fluff articles about food, the issue is self-promotion for Sarah Thomson. Does this qualify as campaign literature? 

Ms Thomson, who has never held public office, has shown as a political candidate that she is not shy about being opportunistic. But using the opportunity as publisher and owner of her own magazine which she is using to promote her candidacy may or may not land her in hot water with Elections Ontario.

Elections Ontario regulations say that candidates cannot spend their own money on a campaign. If they do spend money on themselves, it must be through the campaign account and the maximum any individual can donate to an individual can donate to any candidate is $1240.00. Campaign literature must be identified as such and as authorized by the candidate of riding association, or a third party, but obviously a candidate cannot be their own third party.

The printing and distribution of the summer Women's Post would likely exceed the $1240 amount. An official at Elections Ontario who wished to remain anonymous said, "This is a grey area and we'd really need to take a close look at it to make a determination about whether it complies with the rules or not, and that will take a while."

Ms Thomson was an unsuccessful candidate in the last Toronto mayoral election. She was forced to withdraw from the contest due to dismal support. In the final days of the campaign, she lent her endorsement and active campaigning to her rival,  the Liberal former Deputy Premier of Ontario, George Smitherman. Many people speculated at the time that some sort of deal had been struck with the Liberals, and Ms Thomson's virtually uncontested candidacy for the Trinity Spadina nomination as Liberal candidate in the provincial election did nothing to dispel that speculation. Ms Thomson quickly expunged her harsh criticism of Smitherman from her website. She had written about him: "..Mr. Smitherman seems to forget, as we have witnessed with his inconsistent and disorganized transit plans and, of course, his history with the E-Health blunder. This is a classic move to increase the size of government without comprehensively studying whether it in fact can reduce costs.

Ms Thomson may find that the criticism she levied against fellow Liberal Smitherman may be mild in comparison to what she has to face from the electorate and the media. Ms Thomson's campaign office was contacted yesterday to comment on whether the Women's Post issue promoting her candidacy was paid for from her campaign or other sources. One of her assistants, after an interval, said that Ms Thompson would call back personally, but as of the posting of this, she has so far failed to return the call. Based on her response to inquiries made by The Globe and Mail, it appears that the summer Women's Post that was distributed was financed the way the magazine is usually financed, which is not through a political fund.

The Globe reports that Ms Thompson "said the magazine is regularly distributed within the riding. Before putting out the summer issue she made sure she wasn’t breaking any Elections Ontario rules, she said."

(NOTE: I know people in the riding and they don't recall the Women's Post ever being delivered to them prior to Ms Thomson's candidacy. That was echoed by staff for the riding's incumbent MPP, Rosario Marchese. I live in the riding next door and have not received a copy of Women's Post in my mailbox.)

Ms Thomson had been embroiled in a similar controversy during her mayoral run, when she also put herself on the cover of her magazine with the caption "Toronto's Next Mayor." A lawyer consulted by the Globe has said that Ms Thomson's use of the magazine to promote herself and her candidacy, as she did duing her mayoral bid, do not violate elections laws.

But this time, depositing the magazine in the homes of riding residents raises additional questions.

The current representative in the Provincial Legislature for Trinity Spadina, NDP MP Rosario Marchese, did respond to an inquiry about this, saying: "I wish I had my own newspaper that I could use as a vehicle for my election campaign. I know the people of Trinity Spadina very well. It's an intelligent constituency and I'm confident they'll be able to see what Ms Thomson is doing for what it is."


UPDATE: Now The National Post has picked this up too

And now a few words from Sarah Thomson about George Smitherman

On September 28, Sarah Thomson withdrew from Toronto's mayoral race and encouraged her supporters, such as there were any, to back George Smitherman.

What, one wonders, led to this change of heart?

In a post that is (as of the time this went up) still on Thomson's own website, titled "Spring Fling with Sarah Thomson," she wrote a particular barb directed at then front-runner George "Captain eHealth" Smitherman:

"the other candidates for Mayor are offering exactly what career politicians always offer: Big promises of sweeping change but empty of any real, practical, solutions. They fight each other in a blame game, criticizing the mayor for finding 100 million dollars while all the while ignoring the e-health billion that has disappeared.

Does anyone in the room tonight feel e-healthier? I didn’t think so."

In another:

Mayoral Candidate Sarah Thomson Responds to Mr. Smitherman's Consolidation Proposal

Wed. June, 23rd - 1:00 pm

"EMS and the fire department are both critical and valuable services. However, to integrate EMS into what has been deemed an ‘essential service’ and amalgamate the two sectors will impede and reduce management’s ability to manage costs and service levels in the future. This is something that Mr. Smitherman seems to forget, as we have witnessed with his inconsistent and disorganized transit plans and, of course, his history with the E-Health blunder.

"This is a classic move to increase the size of government without comprehensively studying whether it in fact can reduce costs.

Yet in September, when Thomson's election capital was exhausted, her support low, and her campaign in debt, she had a remarkable change of heart about Mr. Smitherman's capabilities and said:

"I am confident that George’s Budget Blueprint will give Torontonians the government they deserve. George is someone who will lead our city with open doors, not closed minds. George understands the big picture for Toronto – and he has the best plans and policy to deliver our best opportunities."

Thanks Sarah, of course we trust you. It's not like you're saying whatever self-serving thing pops into your head.

UPDATE: sanwin provided an even better example in the comments section and provided a link to the Women's Post page via Google cache.

After pressuring Thomson to support Smitherman, al-Starzeera starts leaning on its former employee, Rossi

The Toronto Star hates Rob Ford.

It's editorial board has been pressuring Sarah Thomson, Rocco Rossi, and Joe Pantalone to drop out of the Toronto mayoral race and support George (Captain eHealth) Smitherman in their effort to prevent Ford from becoming mayor.

Having succeeded with Thomson, who ended her fiscally (and intellectually) bankrupt campaign this week, they are now setting their sights on Rossi.

Which shows how slow-witted some at The Toronto Star must be.

Rossi's internal polling shows three quarters of his support would go to Ford.

When the Star launched its attack campaign against Ford in June, he was in 2nd place, polling in the mid teens. After all the Star's hard work, Ford is now in first place with between a 5% and 20% lead over George Smitherman, depending on the poll.

this fine artistic rendition was stolen from Blazing Cat Fur

Keep up the good work, al-Starzeera!

Sarah Thomson drops from race. Says, "We risk handing over the office of greatest local influence on the basis of anger" and endorses Furious George

Thomson, who consistently placed last or near last among the 5 major candidates and who exhausted her campaign funds a month prior to the election, announced her withdrawal from Toronto's mayoral race today.

She threw her meager support to George Smitherman.

Her statement can be read in its entirety here at The National Post.

this fine artistic rendition was stolen from Blazing Cat Fur 

UPDATE: Tasha Kheiriddin at the National Post took my headline and ran with it! Nice work Tasha!

Also: Vote for Smitherman!..Arthur Smitherman, George's brother who is running for city council in ward 8 and supports Rob Ford

Sarah Thomson expected to announce end of mayoral bid today.

Conrad Black endorsement "kiss of death?"

Sarah Thomson, who has been polling at or near the bottom of the 5 major candidates in Toronto's mayoral election, is expected to drop from the race today. Her campaign has said she will make a brief announcement today at 10 am and will take no questions, according to The Globe and Mail.

In the absence of a credible campaign of her own, Thomson has recently been a proponent of a "stop-Ford" movement.

More later...

"Ditsy" Sarah Thomson thinks she "knows" Rob Ford because he doesn't socialize with her in the Green Room!

And in other news, Thomson has picked up an endorsement from Lord Voldemort Black. His Lordship writes Ford supporters are "heavy-set Archie Bunkers."

Endorsement to cost Thomson estimated 1000 votes.

As Conrad Black is no longer a Canadian citizen, having renounced it to pick up his British peerage, he cannot vote in the municipal election, so his endorsement should be worth approximately two votes, one from his valet and the other from Barbara Amiel. Of course the Black endorsement will lose her votes from all the Dominion store employees whose pension fund he raided, to say nothing of disgruntled Hollinger Inc shareholders. Combined with the general bad feeling he invokes, this will produce, in my estimation, a net loss of something along the lines of 1000 votes among the small percentage of the electorate that had intended to vote for her.


Thomson the ditsy hypocrite

Thomson, whose campaign is irrelevant with her disclosure that she is in talks with the other campaigns about how to combine to stop Ford (i.e. who is going to make her the best offer in exchange for dropping out and throwing her soft support their way)  has been claiming that she knows "him like the public might not know him."

And where does this intimate knowledge come from, you may ask? From the fact that in the Green Room, prior to the debates, when the other candidates socialize among each other, Ford leaves the room without engaging in insincere pleasantries with them.

Yup, you got that right. That is the basis on which Thomson claims to have a superior knowledge of Ford than the public. She discusses it in this interview.

After the vicious statements his opponents have made about him, it would be hypocritical for Ford to stay and pretend to be friendly with the others. What's even more instructive is that Thomson engages in and expects this kind of hypocrisy behind closed doors.

Now she's a candidate we can trust, huh?

4th place Thompson considers throwing support to last-place Rossi or Captain eHealth - Ford's support firmest of all candidates - this confirms Pantalone as the candidate of the left

Sarah Thompson is considering backing out and endorsing another candidate, possibly Rocco Rossi or George Smitherman, according to reports today.

Evidently she has given up on her own candidacy and appears to be working with al-Starzeera on its "let's get behind Captain eHealth" campaign.

In an email to al-Starzeera The Star, she said she has been in discussions with “all teams to build consensus and work collaboratively”

Polls suggest her endorsement may not be worth much.

When asked if their support was “firm”, or if “it is possible that you might change your mind before Oct. 25?,” the answer was “firm” from 66 per cent of those supporting Ford, who is dominating the race with a simple message of spending cuts and improved customer service.

The “firm” response came from only 39 per cent of Smitherman and Rossi fans, and 38 per cent of Pantalone supporters. Voters backing Thomson were the most fickle, with 26 per cent saying they won’t budge — meaning almost three-quarters could move.

“Ford’s support, how sticky it is, was the most surprising number to me in this poll,” Shanoff said. “People aren’t just flirting with that option because of what’s happening at city hall. His message is sticking.”

UPDATE: text of the actual email:

 

Hi David,

I have been in discussions with all teams to build consensus and work collaboratively. After 8 months of working together with Rob, day in and day out, we have all seen the real Rob Ford and we all understand what a huge crisis Toronto would be in if Rob Ford were to become Mayor.

I have had a solid 10% support across the city. Smitherman has been coming down since he started and Joe hasn't been able to change his support.

I have not made any decision to step down. I know I have a solid 10% and a passionate tenacious team -- we don't have the money to do big advertising campaigns -- but word of mouth and passion have got us this far. We are working, as everyone else is, to see if we can garner the support that Smitherman can't seem to attract.

The next two weeks will determine if one of us can rise up or not.

Best,


Sarah

This tells us a couple of things.
 
1) Thompson is in all-out denial if she thinks her support is "firm" at 10%. If she remained in the election, her supporters could easily give up on this no-hoper and move to a better candidate.
 
2) Saying that her debates against Ford and the others constitiute "8 months of working together with Rob, day in and day out,"  confirms that Thompson's ditzy and delusional.

What do Smitherman, Rossi and Thompson not want you to know about their donors?

Since the forced amalgamation of Toronto by Mike Harris' government, the major mayoral candidates have all released their donor's lists prior to the election.

They are not legally required to do so; they have until 5 months after the election, but transparency has traditionally been an issue about which a responsible candidate would be conscious.

Rob Ford and Joe Pantalone are going to comply with tradition and release their donors list prior to the October 25 election.

George Smitherman, Rocco Rossi, and Sarah Thompson, the big-business and political establishment candidates, are not.

It's no surprise they don't want these lists made public. Then the electorate would see who has a vested interest in these candidates, and they might not like it.

Rob Ford is the only mayoral candidate with a history of standing up to developers to serve his constituents' interests.

But one thing I'll say for the non-disclosure trio; they've come up with some funny excuses:

Thompson's is the least plausible. According to the Globe and Mail:

Ms. Thomson said voluntary disclosure would be tantamount to using her donors to “promote myself.”  “I think people should be voting on policy and whether they think the candidate can do the job,” she said. “It’s not about who’s most popular.”

Rossi's is pretty dodgy.

Bernie Morton, the veteran Conservative operative who took over Mr. Rossi’s campaign in August, said it wouldn’t be fair to donors to release their names without having warned them before they contributed.

“Honesty, openness and integrity would have [required] me to say to people originally, ‘when you donate to this campaign, your name will be released by the campaign to the media as a donor,’” he said. “In the absence of giving full disclosure about that from the onset, you can’t do it. I wouldn’t do that now.”

I'd have a few things to say about that dubious excuse, but Kelly Grant in the Globe covered it well with:

Mr. Rossi would have been well aware of the issue before he registered in January and started raking in donations – he was campaign manager for Mr. Tory in 2003, when the former Rogers chief executive released a roster of 2,265 individual contributors and 462 corporate donors one week before the election.

And Smitherman? 

"We are going to comply with the law on disclosing our donors,” Erika Mozes said in an e-mail. “I know some of the other candidates may have told you that they are going to release donors and make a big deal of it ... at this time this is all I have to say on it.”

In other words, a long-winded "no comment"

What Happened to the Toronto Star? They've acknowledged their efforts to sink Rob Ford have been a complete failure

“They all underestimated the capacity of the Ford family team,” Doug Ford told the Star.

“We’re running circles around the Warren Kinsellas and John Laschingers,” he says, referring to political players: Kinsella, who recently volunteered for Rossi, and Laschinger, Joe Pantalone’s campaign manager.

“We’re laughing,” said Ford. “We figure there’s another one on board (Kinsella) and we’ve got to knock him off, too. It’s like knocking flies off . . . well, you know what.”

George Smitherman's campaign seem to be the only ones left in denial of the obvious.

"Davis maintains Smitherman will beat Ford. “I’m convinced people are tolerating Rob Ford — his antics, his misbehaviour, his hurtfulness — because they’re desperate to clean up the finances at city hall. But Rob Ford won’t be able to do that.”

And yet, while insisting the Smitherman camp “gets” the public’s anger about perceived waste and mismanagement at city hall — the crux of the Ford message — Davis said his candidate won’t roll out his fiscal plan until later this month.

Perhaps there’s a problem right there. Ford’s opponents still operate under old campaign rules — i.e., big announcements after Labour Day — while the whole universe is changing around them. It’s like the axiom, life is what happens to you while you’re busy making plans."

The unexpected column in The Star can be read in its entirety here.

The Toronto Star, Rob Ford, and the Status Quo Quartet

Yesterday, I attended a barbecue with a number of friends and family. It was a group of people from different backgrounds and of varied economic status ranging in age from their thirties to their sixties. Some of these people were multi-generational Canadians and others were the first generation children of immigrants.

It had been overcast all morning with the grey skies seeming to hold the perpetual promise of rain, which by mid-afternoon, delivered on that promise. We gathered under a canopy watching the barbecuer-in-chief deal with the cooking, and all of us imbibing beer and liquor and conversing.

Eventually, the conversation turned to the municipal election. While the things my friends said may be apocryphal, given that this gathering was a seemingly representative microcosm of Toronto's citizenry, it also seemed instructive.

Almost to a person, everyone at that barbecue said they planned to vote for Rob Ford.

A phenomenon that has set the media's head spinning lately, particularly at the Toronto Star, is how after what seems to be fatal foible after fatal foible, Rob Ford's popularity has not diminished. It has in fact increased to the point where he far-and-away the front runner in the upcoming municipal election.

Ford's growing popularity amid The Star's attempts to sink him reminds me of the line Obi Wan Kenobi said to Darth Vader during their duel in Star Wars: A New Hope.

Alec Guiness, playing Kenobi, said: "You can't win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

While columnists and writers in the Globe and Mail have launched scathing personal attacks against Ford, the Toronto Star has been unrelenting in its vicious onslaught. The Star has gone to the point of printing stories that border on slander, such as their demonstrably false report that Ford physically assaulted a high school football player he was coaching.

While the editorial boards at the Star and Globe, whose arrogant views of their self-importance and influence must be reeling at how their all-out attempts to sink Ford have failed, what must be bothering them even more is the mystery of "why?"

Some columnists have already printed their own theories about the phenomenon of Ford's resilience, and some, like The Sun's Joe Wormington's recent coulmn, reflected some of what was said to me at the barbecue. It seems the media's 'piling on' of Ford about trivial matters while ignoring more serious transgressions by his rivals reflects a panic from the status quo at the prospect that waste and influence by special interests at city hall is in jeopardy.

The quartet of Smitherman, Rossi, Thompson and Panatlone all represented, as far as my friends were concerned, the status quo. And despite the quartet's insistence that they would change things, no one I spoke with yesterday believed them, while they did believe Ford. Why? Because Ford, through his whole career, has campaigned against waste in government, whereas the 2 members of the quartet who have been in elected office are firmly associated with wasteful spending.

Another component of Ford's popularity is his personality. Ford seems like a "real guy," the sort of person you could have a beer with. None of the quartet have been able to convey that convincingly.

And most tellingly, Ford impressed the people I spoke to as someone who is sincere. Ford carries himself as someone who says what he thinks. Sure, that means he says inopportune things from time-to-time. But that makes him a real person. And Ford will say how he feels regardless of who it offends, which as potentially damaging politically as it may be, suggests a refreshing honesty in a politician. In contrast, the quartet all came across as opportunists who are more likely to say something that they think will serve their political purposes than they would be likely to tell the truth.
                                       
                                   --  ---   ---   ----   ----   ---   ---   ----

No issue made this more clear than reaction to Ford's comments about immigration that were spurred by the controversial arrival of a boatload of Tamil migrants. When Ford said this city can't afford to take in more people when we can't even take care of those already here, he was saying something that most people understand to be true. Sensing an opportunity to paint Ford in the light as "anti-immigration" and even "racist" the quartet piled on like hyenas.

The quartet couldn't have made a worse move.  People who have come to Canada legally resent illegal migrants who circumvent the regulations complied with by and stringent efforts of honest immigrants more than anyone else. And nothing has made the dishonesty of Ford's opponents more clear than the accusation of "racism." There was no racial reference or implication to anything Ford said about Toronto's ability to care for its own. Toronto is the most diverse city in the world and "Toronto's own" includes people from every racial and cultural background on earth.

What may have sealed the deal for Ford is the recent revelation that 71% of Tamil "refugees" have returned to Sri Lanka on vacations since they came to Canada. What could be clearer proof that the immigration system and Canada's good graces are getting bilked? You don't go back to a country for a vacation if you are being persecuted there and your life is at risk.

The other factor that Ford stood alone against in the face of attack from the Quartet was his commitment to eliminate the city's "Fair Wage" policy which enforces union pay rates equalling municipal pay rates to outside contractors who make tenders to the City. Anyone can see through this. It costs the city tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars. It eliminates much of the very reason and all of the savings the city could gain from outside tenders.

Who benefits from this policy is clear: Unions. The same unions that incumbent mayor David Miller is perceived as being beholden to. The same unions that the Quartet is trying to curry support from. What was telling was that even union people I spoke to were in favor of Ford's "Fair Wage" policy position.

Because only some people in some unions gain from the "fair wage" policy, particularly CUPE, which is fearful of competition and the pressure that getting outside sources to do the same or better jobs at cheaper rates would bring.

The union members I spoke to supported  Ford because they don't identify themselves as being unionist before they do as being Torontonians and taxpayers. They don't want the next mayor to be a wasteful spender in the pocket of CUPE any more than anyone else outside of CUPE.

So, it seems to me that, no matter how hard the Toronto Star and the Status Quo Quartet may try, as long as Rob Ford keeps being Rob Ford, his momentum to the mayor's office is probably unstoppable.

UPDATE: AUGUST 23: An Ipsos Reid poll taken over the wekend shows Ford as the clear front runner with an 11 point lead over nearest rival, George Smitherman.



h/t blazing cat fur

OMG Rob Ford Used City Letterhead!

Rob Ford used city letterhead to solicit funds for charity. Letterhead that costs the taxpayers nothing because Ford's the only councilor who pays all his office expenses out of his own pocket.

Ford got no personal benefit from this and it cost the taxpayers ZERO.

How many times Zero equals $ONE BILLION DOLLARS?

You can see the answer here: Blazing Cat Fur: OMG Rob Ford Used City Letterhead!

Joe Wormington in The Sun put it well:

Heck, Giambrone billed the taxpayer double that — $6,299.50 to be precise — for his private French lessons.

No integrity problems there it seems.

Now if Ford had spent $12,000 of taxpayers’ money for a posh luncheon with his friends and fellow freeloaders as Councillor Kyle Rae did, maybe they’d have thrown another party — and bill it, of course, to the taxpayers.

Or the $8,462.39 billed to the taxpayer for Kyle to go on holiday (AIDS conference) to Vienna, Austria — quite a bit more than last year’s sojourn to Mexico that cost us $5,368.77.

Never mind the $65,000 spent of our money for destroying Jarvis St. to get moms and dads home 20 minutes later to their kids to accommodate Rae and Mayor David Miller’s 27 bicycle friends.

No this investigation is focusing on $50 donations for football equipment and one donation for $400 from a good Samaritan company that could surely find more effective ways to gain favour at City Hall than to publicly support a local sports program.

Picture shamelessly stolen from Blazing Cat Fur

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)