The Assassination of Toronto's Finances by the Coward Rob Ford

[bcholmes]

9. During the campaign, Ford was fond of trotting out the old Tea Party line that the city doesn’t have a revenue problem – it has a spending problem. That doesn’t explain why he jacked up user fees in his first budget. But back to the point at hand. The city now has a revenue problem thanks to Ford’s ditching of the vehicle registration tax and the zero property tax increase delivered in 2011.The $100 million from those two sources alone would have made many of the massive cuts now being contemplated unnecessary.

— "Lies Rob Ford has told", Now Toronto

Now isn't objective by any stretch. But they sometimes cover issues in the city well.

I'm also all misty-eyed over this blog post:

There have been some reports that Ford's popularity is below 50 percent, which would be disastrous in any mayor's first year. There's even talk of Ford actually dragging down Progressive Conservative numbers inside the 416.

Which is everything you need to know when you read this Adam Radwanski piece for The Globe and Mail, about how the provincial parties in Ontario are dealing with their federal and municipal cousins:

Although he still has many admirers, Mr. Ford will always be the target of attacks in the coming weeks over potentially unpleasant municipal cutbacks that he glossed over when seeking election last year. And before the campaign is out, the Toronto mayor will likely try to flex his muscle by endorsing Mr. Hudak—whether Mr. Hudak wants that endorsement or not.

The idea that Tim Hudak would run away from Ford's endorsement would have been a joke only a month or so ago. But with Tory numbers now behind the Liberals in two polls they don't need the additional heat of being too closely associated with a tax-and-service-cutting mayor.