Well, the long, drawn-out mid-term meeting of Toronto City Council ended yesterday after three days of frustration and ridiculousness punctuated by a break for trick-or-treating. As the halfway point of Rob Ford’s first term in office serves as a milestone for reflection, it was fitting that the meeting functioned as a bit of a greatest-hits package, featuring such favourites as:
*A long, drawn out debate—multiple debates actually—about the Ford brothers’ war with the city’s accountability officers.
*That debate featuring a totally goofball move by Doug Ford.
*Glenn De Baeremaeker doing something kind of pleasantly goofy—and then drawing criticism for it.
*Council speaker Frances Nunziata kind of botching up procedure (possibly on purpose) and then being completely unparliamentary in her comments to councillors—such as telling Adam Vaughan “You don’t know how to tell the truth.”
*The mayor leaving an important debate to coach football. Then being defiant about it.
*A drawn out, angry debate about building LRTs along Eglinton, Finch, and Sheppard, featuring an agitated rant by Mayor Ford and the suggestions that subways are still on the way from his allies. A debate that ended with a thorough thumping of the mayor when the votes were counted.
*And for good measure, some yammering on about councillor’s office budgets.
If you want to know how City Hall is doing midway to the next election, and what it’s been doing so far, that three-day meeting pretty much summed it up.
ROB FORD PHOTO: ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE/TORONTO STAR
CITY COUNCIL SCREENGRAB POSTED TO TWITTER BY JORDAN OWENS.
