[URBAN NOTE] Has Rob Ford disappeared?

[rfmcdonald]

The local edition of Metro featured an article asking "Is Rob Ford a part-time mayor?".

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, one of the administration’s most loyal allies, didn’t directly answer a question put to him today about whether Mayor Rob Ford is a part-time mayor.

Speaking at a news conference about the future of child care in Toronto, Mammoliti was asked about controversial comments made by councillor Adam Vaughan on The Jim Richards Showgram Wednesday.

“It’s quite apparent that we have a part-time mayor who talks a lot about making telephone calls to people and I’m sure he does… but the follow up on those telephone calls is non-existent,” Vaughan told the Newstalk 1010 host.

[. . .]

Mammoliti was asked about the reported Entertainment District sightings.

“I’m going to take a different opinion than most have taken. I think we need to hear criticism from everyone… if Councillor Vaughan wants to continue criticizing — and that’s his way of showing leadership in the city — than so be it.”

Mammoliti, who acts as the right-wing whip during council meetings, was then asked if he believes Ford is a part-time mayor.

“I think this mayor, I’ve said it right from the beginning, you know, let me explain it this way… with the previous mayor his criticism was he took everything on himself. To the point where things couldn’t get done because everything needed to be filtered by the mayor. In this mayor’s case, he has chosen to delegate,” said Mammoliti, adding that Ford returns every call and that that takes a lot of time.

There does seem to be an emergent consensus, on left and even on right, that Ford is a lame duck mayor. suitablyemoname's post in the toronto community linked to Edward Keenan's article in The Grid, which took Ford's lame-duck status as given and then asked "What kind of a mayor does this city need?"

The evidence suggests that Rob Ford’s current term as mayor is done. His control over the city’s agenda started unravelling as early as last July, when his foul-mouthed fear of CBC comedians coincided with an all-night outpouring of opposition to his proposed service cuts at City Hall. Since then, things have only gotten worse, and this year has been one of consistent defeat for Ford. It’s possible to imagine he could become relevant again, but that would be a tough road: He’s been thrown under the streetcar, run over, and left behind.

To fill the leadership vacuum, a rotating series of councillors, mostly from the centre and centre-right of the political spectrum, have seized the chain of office on an issue-by-issue basis—Jaye Robinson on the port lands, Ana Bailão on social housing, Josh Colle on the budget, Karen Stintz on transit. They’ve championed various resolutions and negotiated with council’s more unified left and centre-left members, led unofficially by Shelley Carroll, Adam Vaughan, and Gord Perks. It’s led to some surprising breakthroughs that couldn’t have happened otherwise, including the OneCity transit proposal brought forward last week by conservative midtowner Karen Stintz and left-leaning Scarborough councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker. The map they put together represents a comprehensive plan to improve transit in virtually every part of the city, and suggests the beginnings of a plan to pay for it.

Keenan then went on to speculate who'd be Ford's successor. (Adam Vaughan is looking good, while I like Karen Stintz.)