November 20, 2013, - 4:34 pm
Rob Ford Enjoys Big Support From Toronto Muslim Immigrants; People Mag’s New “Sexiest Man Alive”
People Magazine just unveiled its new “Sexiest Man Alive” cover boy, and we have an exclusive on the cover, below. Okay, that’s not the real cover–the mag chose someone else (far left whack job Adam Levine)–but it would have been far more exciting had they chosen North America’s real “Sexiest Man Alive” (and Craziest Mayor Alive), and I asked Jedi Master of Photoshop Art, David Lunde, to produce the cover.
Oh, and by the way, don’t listen to those who are trying to paint Toronto Mayor Rob Ford as a “conservative” and the “White conservative” version of former Washington, DC Mayor Marion Barry. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reported that Ford’s biggest supporters–known as “Ford Nation“–are recent immigrants from Somalia and the Middle East and those who speak Punjabi and Urdu (a/k/a Pakistanis). Translation: Muslims. Yup, they have no prob with a Mayor who smokes crack, has food and alcohol problems, and patronizes prostitutes.
Explaining Mr. Ford’s support requires knowledge of how the diverse city of close to 2.8 million people was born.
In 1998 six cities merged into one, adding about 1.7 million people to Toronto’s previous population of nearly 700,000. The original city is now called downtown and the others are still referred to as suburbs, even though they are one municipality now. . . .Toronto’s core is growing at a faster clip than the former suburbs, and the downtown wards tend to be more affluent. . . .
The suburbs also are home to a big proportion of the city’s immigrants, in part because housing is cheaper. In Etobicoke North, Punjabi, Spanish, Somali, Italian and Urdu are among the languages spoken at home, according to the latest Canadian census data. A majority of Etobicoke North voters supported Mr. Ford for mayor.
Mr. Ford has been able to tap into those divides. After the crack-smoking admission, his job-performance approval rating was 45% in the suburb of Etobicoke, according the Ipsos Reid poll. In the old City of Toronto, it was 29%.
Despite Mr. Ford’s crack-use admission, some residents of his former ward still back him.
“Overall, he’s a good man,” Ramdehol Bissoon [DS: Hmmm . . . guess the religion], a middle-aged auto electrician, said on Saturday outside an Etobicoke strip mall. “He’s strong and he fights for the people…to ease taxes” on homeowners.
Nearby, in the parking lot of a local Wal-Mart, Carolina Rojer said she had her photo taken with Mr. Ford at one of his annual barbecues, which are open to all Toronto residents. “I was so proud.…I enlarged it and it is in my living room and I proudly show it to everyone,” she said. “I don’t care” what others think, she said.
Okay, this demands comment. Do you really need to ENLARGE a photo of Rob Ford? Just sayin’. . . .
Over his political career, Mr. Ford has returned “hundreds of thousands of calls” from residents and visited thousands in their homes, said Mark Towhey, the mayor’s former chief of staff. “He has a personal connection with thousands” and their view is “you don’t turn your back” on your own.
Before Mr. Ford, if you called a councilor “he never answered you,” said Etobicoke resident Ilija Birkic, another supporter.
Gor people coming from places like Mumbai, Hong Kong, Latin America and the Middle East, Mr. Ford is more representative of the opportunity and energy they sought by moving to the city in the first place.
“I think the Ford supporters are trying to shuck off the old Toronto attitude…of this kind of quiet, this orderly…some would say this repressed town,” Mr. Florida said. “He represents Toronto as a spectacle.”
And the Muslim immigrants seem to think this drug addicted fool is representing them just fine. This is the kind of candidate they elect when they reach critical mass.
Today, Toronto, tomorrow, the rest of North America.
We are starting to see such people elected here. I wonder Mr. Ford offered the Muslims to get elected?
Worry01 on November 20, 2013 at 4:49 pm