It’s interesting to see politicians–especially Canadian politicians–working really hard to say something nice about Rob’s passing:
Rob Ford fought cancer with courage and determination. My condolences and best wishes to the Ford family today.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) March 22, 2016
To mark Rob’s short time on this earth, I’d like to once again remind Canadians who are pointing and laughing at Trump that you did elect this guy, along with Harper.
Open thread.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Not to be That Guy, but I never understood the fascination with this guy, if you aren’t/weren’t a citizen of Toronto.
Robin G.
“He certainly was a character” is the phrase invented for moments like this.
LAO
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: For me, it was sort of interesting because he seemed so ” uncanadian”.
MomSense
@Robin G.:
“He certainly was a character, bless his heart.”
Cacti
I didn’t even know he had cancer.
Roger Moore
I think this is the time for saying how much sympathy you have for everyone who loved him and mourns his passage. If you say it right, you can finesse the question of who exactly that might be.
debbie
@Cacti:
I think that’s why he stopped trying for a comeback.
rikyrah
He died way too young. RIP
Wag
I disagree. Its easy and gracious to say something nice about someone who died that you don’t respect. It shows that you’re human. Good for PM Trudeau.
Wag
@Wag:… And just to be clear, I thought Rob Ford was an idiot and a terrible human being, and was a destructive mayor, but be patient. There’ll be time to dance on his grave soon enough.
Now when Scalia died, there was cause for celebration.
Dr. Bloor
Generous words from a man who the deceased once referred to as a “faggot” during one of his broken-soul-and-substance-abuse-driven screeds.
chopper
cocaine is a hell of a drug.
mistermix
@Wag: Justin does seem like a truly nice guy, but I can’t believe that Kathleen Wynne didn’t have to work at it.
piratedan
comedy shows grieved with his passing…..
BruceFromOhio
Happiness Is:
The westering sun shining warmly on the grill as it passes 350, the scent of the garlic-rubbed steaks patiently waiting the signal from the head chef to the grill chef that the broccoli and potatoes are properly underway. And a big fucking tumbler of tequila.
Yeah, baby.
Mike in NC
Fellow Canadian Rafael Cruz should attend the service in Toronto.
Princess
If Rob Ford didn’t seem Canadian to you, you don’t know much about Canada and Canadians. He was a type, and by no means unique.
Larrybob
Jeet Heer’s remembrance in TNR is worth consideration: newrepublic.com/article/131886/rob-ford-died-make-amends
Ford a bit different than Trump, they shared homophobia and resentment but not racism, fwiw.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
I blame Obama
Pogonip
I am drowning in paperwork. Everything you do seems to require dealing with at least one computer, and this is just everyday life, not even counting my paid job.
Could it be possible that They are keeping us too occupied with busywork to rebel at the ballot box? Have I succumbed to paranoia? Both?
My father has congestive heart failure, probably terminal (he’s 89) so I’m doing his busywork too as he’s too sick to cope with it, and he’s a veteran! I can’t imagine sick people trying to navigate the nightmare of health insurance (if any) and billing plus the daily blizzard of time-consuming minutiae.
What can be done about this? Any ideas?
Pogonip
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Me too. He is probably so busy with minutiae he has no time for Presidenting.
Pogonip
Also, I just thought of this, what of those who are sick AND dumb? Or healthy but dumb, for that matter. By definition half of us are below the median of intelligence. How can they cope with it all? I suspect such people are signing rent-a-center contracts without any idea what they mean, for example.
jheartney
Like Breitbart, Ford was a man taken from us early, but not too soon.
Brachiator
I got nothing against Ford and wish sympathy to his family, no matter what kind of politician Ford was.
That said, I can’t help but think about the racial implications of how Ford was treated by many in the media and many Americans.
In the US, radio talk show host Bill Carroll actually knew Ford and his family. I guess that Carroll had previously been a kind of big deal in Canadian radio. He even interviewed Ford some time ago.
But I always found it amazing that some people here seemed to treat Ford like a lovable rogue, a political version of comedian Chris Farley with a funny accent, a guy who was a rascal with an unfortunate drug problem.
On the other hand, people like Carroll and other hosts on this station would still bring up the vision of former DC Mayor Marion Berry as an example of the excesses of the Democratic Party machine and a coke-fueled thug who epitomized depravity.
There are times when I try to avoid the “if this peson were white, people would cut him a break,” but with Ford and many conservative American media commentators, the proof stares you right in the face. Ford was ultimately one of them because he was white, while Berry was the dark, dangerous, unforgivable Other.
kped
lol, you’d be so lucky to have a Harper running as a Republican candidate. He’s awful…but so much better than that field.
As for Ford..my only defense for my city is our mayor is just a counselor, so not very powerful.
Mnemosyne
@Wag:
It’s not as easy as you’d think — remember Hillary Clinton’s Nancy Reagan kerfuffle from a couple of weeks ago? I think PM Trudeau hit exactly the right note and he should get full credit for it being a delicate balance.
BruceFromOhio
He’s Canuck, it’s their way.
Or, try being a good neighbor to crazy folk, you get good at decorum.
Roger Moore
@Pogonip:
You mean besides single payer? I think this is one of the huge, under-emphasized benefits of the Kaiser-Permanente approach: massive reduction in paperwork for the patient. When I go to the doctor, I make a token copayment at check-in and that’s it. No forms, no bills, and the closest they have to paperwork is the printout they give you summarizing what happened during your visit.
Karen
Pre-cursor to Donald Trump without being a billionaire.
Gvg
When I was going through chemo I kept thinking about how lucky I was. My insurance was good. I paid $200 for the surgery and $40 per copay visit to the specialists. Paper work was every time what Meds I was currently taking and any symptoms changed. Nessesary and no more. I hear it is otherwise for most and I couldn’t have coped with any trouble. All the decades I was healthy paying my premiums I wondered if the insurance was really good. No way to know till you need it. When people are old or sick or just not clever, they give up and save the companies money by not pushing their claims.
SiubhanDuinne
@BruceFromOhio:
I love the word “westering.” Thank you for using it.
Ohio Mom
@Pogonip: I had similar thoughts last month when I took my now adult son on the autism spectrum to his first Social Security interview to sign him up for disability. I’m not totally sure I’m going to be able to navigate their system correctly, what would my son do if he was on his own? Too much of life is too complicated.
Sorry about your dad. Hope his days are pain free and full of love and affection.
Splitting Image
Absolutely not true. Suburban Torontonians elected him, not Canadians. Ford was a local mayor, not President and Supreme Leader of the Canadian People. If you’re going to argue that all Canadians are equally responsible for Ford, then all Americans are equally responsible for Jason Chaffetz, Rick Snyder, Sharon Angle, Todd Akin, Michele Fiore, and any number of other idiots elected around the country.
Harper, on the other hand, is on the Canadian electorate at large.
As for Ford, riddance good to rubbish bad, as Yoda would say.
Pogonip
@Ohio Mom: They will automatically turn him down once, maybe up to three times. And yes, it’s insanely complicated, like everything else. My kid’s autistic too. He can’t deal with the average phone menu.
After my mom died my dad had to call the phone company for something or other. His next call was to me requesting that I take over the busywork: “They had me pushing buttons for 45 minutes and when I finally got to talk to somebody she wanted to know my favorite restaurant!”. An 87-year-old man who’s just lost his wife is not interested in the concept of security questions, and your kid and mine would be lost.
Pogonip
@Ohio Mom: He says he’s in no pain but probably wouldn’t admit it if he were. That generation suffered in silence.
Wag
@Mnemosyne:
Hillary’s problem was that she tried to move beyond vague generous generalities and into erroneous specifics.
Momus
@Splitting Image: Why should Harper be on the Canadian electorate at large given that there is no direct vote for the Prime Minister by the electorate at large, oh person whose nom-de-blog seems a riff on a Brit comedy of the Thatcherite eighties?
Responsibility for him should chiefly fall upon those in his riding (Calgary East or Calgary Centre? Don’t remember which, and really don’t care) that elected him as their M.P. in the first place, next on the party which elected him as their leader, and then, to get around to the electorate, on the 40% of those voting who cast their ballots for Conservative candidates, thereby electing a majority Conservative government.
The other 60% (including me) who voted for candidates of different parties in that election shouldn’t have to bear any responsibility for that result.
BTW, I don’t point and laugh at Trump at all. I find that he isn’t worth marshalling the effort to do so.
fubar
Not Canada, Toronto. Rob Ford is a unique creation of that city and suburbs political geography (no excuse though). And though he may have been a crazy mayor with major personality defects, he wasn’t a monster like Harper and many other federal politicians.
Harper, yeah no excuses there. Anyone who voted for him deserves opprobrium.
And, not just Trump but Cruz, Fiorina, Carson, Rubio, Jeb!, Santorum, Huckabee, Carson, Paul, Christie, Jindal, Walker, and Perry.