Re: OT: Canadian Politics
On the Ford/Dale matter, msun brought up a lot of points, so I'll address them one-by-one:
1) I don't necessarily think it's innapropriate for Dale and the Star to pry into this story. They're certainly free to do that, though I do think it's a "nothing" story that the Star is tarting up to make Ford look bad out of their usual petty vindictiveness for him.
oh, i agree completely. i'm not sure if their vindictiveness is entirely petty -- you can certainly say that about ford's refusal to interview with the star, and later refusal to answer in press scrums in which star reporters are present. but i do agree it's a nothing story.
2) We've only got Dale's word to go on that he was physically threatened. As I mentioned, Dale conveniently claimed that his phone happened to run out of batteries and stop recording pretty much the moment Ford started coming towards him, and Ford claims he didn't threaten him, he just angrily asked him what he was doing there and Dale proceeded to start freaking out and asking him not to hit him.
if you look at the facts -- i don't think you discard your possessions like he did without a threat. he does come off like a big pussy, though.
ford also didn't say he didn't threaten him (at least in the initial interview i saw). he said something to the effect of not completely remembering how he reacted, which to me suggests he did threaten him. he has seemingly recanted but he has clear motive for doing so.
3) He may have not been on Ford's property, but if I was told someone was standing on a couple of cinder blocks and peering into my backyard while snapping photos, I would probably have a negative reaction to that too. I'd imagine even more so if I was a contraversial public figure like Ford.
well, ford makes himself a controversial figure.
as for what he was taking pictures of... we don't know. if he was just taking pictures of the adjacent land then ford's rationalization doesn't hold water. but i'll wait for proof to come out (which it inevitably will have to) before passing judgment on that either way.
having said that, he wasn't on ford's property. if ford had a problem with him he had other recourse than what he ultimately did, though.
4) I don't recall any reporters ever showing up unannounced and uninvited at Miller's house. If you do, an example would be great.
i'm trying to find something but it can be difficult to find 2-3 year old stories on google these days.
i do remember one of the newspapers posting pics of him taking his composting out when they first stated the green bin program. he was in a bathrobe so it was unannounced. might even have been the star.
5) If you think it's so terrible that Rob Ford refuses to talk to the Toronto Star, similarly, do you think it's awful that Obama won't talk to Fox News? Personally, I think if you're a politician and a particular news outlet consistently demonstrates that they have absolutely no interest in covering you with any semblance of objectivity, it's only reasonable to avoid that news outlet.
obama hasn't outright refused to talk to fox news since entering office.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URJUSlfTgGU
and let's not forget -- the star is the most widely read paper in the city, and (truthfully) the only REAL local paper. the post and globe are national papers... the only other entirely toronto centric paper is the sun (let's not go there).
6) How exactly do you figure Ford knew who was out there? Ford only went charging out after his neighbour called him up saying "hey Rob, there's some guy behind your back yard standing on some cinder blocks, and he appears to be taking pictures with his phone." So, unless you think Ford's neighbour had the slightest clue who Dale was, Ford didn't know who was out there---he just knew that some guy was snooping around his property taking pictures.
yeah, when he first went outside he obvoiusly didn't know who he was.
but when he stood shouting at him with 7 feet between them if ford didn't recognize a guy who he sees practically every single day at work then he is either blind or the dumbest man in the world.
don't kid yourself. at some point, fairly early in the confrontation, ford knew exactly who he was dealing with.
And then something else to add as well, unsurprisingly, the Star managed to get some of the basic facts wrong in this story (conveniently in a way that makes Ford look worse). The slice of land Ford is looking to buy is not behind his house, but beside it (and Dale was actually snooping around at the opposite end of the property from this disputed land). And while the story made it seem like this land was a picturesque slice of park land with some nice trees on it, it's not in fact attached to the park behind Ford's house, and only has about 3 or 4 medium sized trees along the back of the property.
i know for a fact (from the family) that they simply confused the plots of land. i don't think that's so preposterous. there are two publicly owned plots at opposite ends of his property.
