This has been a bizarre past twelve months as far as mayoralties go in our northern neighbor, as we will see after the jump ……
We here in the USA tend to bemoan all of our cast of bad actor politicians (Bob Filner, Duke Cunningham, Trey Radel, New York’s Chris Lee, Anthony Weiner, et al) in addition to the simply reactionary types. And even if you followed the advice of our friend Bill Scher, some of us have cast a wistful eye towards the upstanding elected officials of Canada.
Well, the London (Ontario) Free Press’ Larry Cornies decided to weigh-in on the upcoming 2013 newsmakers of the year a tad early: suggesting that corrupt politicians might be the overall winner. And while the list of losers runs into the Canadian Senate and prime minister Stephen Harper’s camp …. it seems the past twelve months has particularly had a rogue’s gallery of mayors on Canada’s dishonor list – with the mayor of Toronto as only the most glaring example.
As someone who has included several of these names in my recurring “Who Lost the Week?!?!” poll …. let’s take an overview, to place things in perspective.
And we begin in the province of Québec, which seems to have had a particularly tough year. In November of last year, the mayor of Montreal – the second largest French-speaking city in the world after Paris – resigned after months of scrutiny over corruption that resulted in arrests of several close associates, allegations of widespread kickbacks and which resulted in construction contracts having to be frozen and a budget that required property tax increases had to be abandoned.
Gérald Tremblay had been in office for over ten years; a former provincial minister who had both a law degree and a Harvard MBA. He rose to power as the result of widespread anger over the city annexing various suburbs and won two additional terms. But he was accused of (at best) turning a blind eye to corruption and (by others) of being indifferent about it.
Because he quit less than a year before the 2013 mayoral election, his scandal-plagued party was able to choose his successor. Yet he pleaded ignorance to what was going on, saying:
“My father always told me not to go into politics because it was dirty and people would destroy me,” he said, adding that his love of Quebec and Montreal drew him to provincial and municipal politics over a 25-year career. “I dedicated myself fully to the success of Montreal – with Judeo-Christian values of charity, solidarity, integrity, respect, openness.”
So far, he has not faced any criminal charges, since no evidence has yet surfaced that he personally profited from the corruption alleged. The same could not be said about his appointed successor, Michael Applebaum – who resigned after being arrested this past June on fourteen counts of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes over real estate deals. Montreal just elected a new mayor who – presumably – has nowhere to go but up.
Another Québec city that hit the ‘daily double’ was that of nearby Laval – whose mayor Gilles Vaillancourt (photo left – perhaps a future ‘Separated at Birth’ with Dennis Hastert?) left office after police raided his home over charges that he pocketed kickbacks from construction contracts and offered provincial officials cash bribes. He faces twelve charges including influence peddling and breach of trust.
His successor Alexandre Duplessis (photo right) resigned in the wake of a scandal allegedly involving prostitutes and extortion. Similarly, the city of Laval’s newly-elected mayor has nowhere to go but up.
Finally, a former mayor who was not charged with corruption yet wore out his welcome with his public utterances was Stéphane Gendron – the mayor of Huntingdon, a small town 45 miles south of Montreal (and just north of the New York state border). He had a part-time job as a radio station shock jock – a blueprint for trouble, methinks. He had gotten himself into hot water with some of his prior statements (which caused him to be taken off a TV station years ago) and last year called Israel ‘an apartheid state that didn’t deserve to exist’.
This year, he was placed under investigation by Canada’s SPCA after he claimed on-air that he enjoyed … running his truck over pooties.
‘When I see a cat in the street, I accelerate. Stray cats have no business on the street. So bang! I accelerate.’ The other day I backed up over a newborn and I’m sure it didn’t feel a thing. The pickup passed over him like it was nothing.’
He later apologized for his ‘dark humor’, saying he was trying to raise a debate about stray cats. Yet the fact that he did not deny his stories spurred on the SPCA investigation. He, too, did not seek re-election last month.
We next venture to the province of Ontario, where the sitting mayor of the city of London is set to stand trial in 2014 (albeit not for his actions as mayor, but prior actions while a member of the Canadian Parliament). Joe Fontana is being charged with forging documents (and breach of trust by a public official) over allegations that he deposited a Public Works check to help pay for his son’s wedding reception in 2005.
Even though the show’s producer (Lorne Michaels) is a Canadian native …. let’s face it, when a Canadian public official is lampooned on Saturday Night Live …. you know they have hit the big-time. You probably don’t need a reminder of what Rob Ford has been accused of, but he actually does have a predecessor in office that – consciously or unconsciously – served as a sort of role model.
Mel Lastman served as Toronto’s mayor (or parts of it, as its borders were re-drawn in 1998) from 1972-2003. He became wealthy running a chain of Bad Boy furniture stores, ignoring a cease-and-desist letter specifying that he not use likenesses of Bill & Hillary Clinton in his 1993 advertisements. Yet it was his public pronouncements that one essayist feels led Rob Ford to believe he would suffer no pain … as long as he satisfied his political base.
During the SARS outbreak a decade ago, he denounced the World Health Organization’s travel advisory for Toronto by saying “This group doesn’t know what they’re talking about” …(while 44 city residents wound up dying from the virus). He sparred with reporters looking into his womanizing and failed to pay child support (as a multi-millionaire) for two offspring he had in an adulterous affair.
About female office workers, he said:
“These pretty little things in miniskirts are cheerful and beautiful in the office, but they are not workers. They spend most of their time talking about last night and the other half talking about tonight.”
What I do recall making international news – the first time I had ever heard of him – was during Toronto’s bid in 2001 to host a future Olympic Games … where an important meeting to choose a host city took place in Kenya:
“What the hell do I want to go to a place like Mombasa? Snakes just scare the hell out of me. I’m sort of scared about going there, but the wife is really nervous. I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives dancing around me.”
Hence, there are all sorts of articles pointing out how Rob Ford seems to be following the playbook of a man re-elected eleven times. But not so that Mel Lastman is altogether supportive of Rob Ford, you see:
“I’m not a genius, obviously, but he (Ford) makes me look like one.”
There may be other tales-of-woe from citizens with corrupt mayors, but we’ll leave it here. That is, of course, after we finish with a look at Mayor Ford’s #1 supporter … and some words he probably wishes he never uttered.
Those of you who are non-hockey fans may not know him, but progressive Canadians have long endured the retrograde former NHL coach (and now broadcaster) Don Cherry for years. I have lived in New Hampshire for twenty-five years, but when Don Cherry was coach of the Boston Bruins a few years earlier: many New Englanders from that era have still never forgiven him for one act.
Just as the Boston Red Sox long had to endure their status as always losing to the New York Yankees (before this past decade) … so did the Boston Bruins, who always seemed to lose to the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL playoffs – over a 45-year stretch ending in 1988. As a kid growing up in the New York metro area before the NHL began expanding in the late 60’s, I considered the Bruins to be the New York Rangers’ natural rivals. Not so Bruins fans: who always saw the Canadiens to be their prime rival.
And one example was in 1979: where in Game 7 of a semi-final series against Montreal, the Bruins had a 4-3 lead with just three minutes left to go … when coach Don Cherry messed-up his line change … and drew a penalty for too-many-men-on-the-ice. Naturally, the Canadiens tied the game with only 74 seconds left, and won in overtime … on their way to yet another Stanley Cup. Don Cherry was fired several weeks later.
Now, he has been a long-time announcer on Hockey Night in Canada, and has a laundry list of utterances that define his status. These include: complaints against (most) French-speaking and (nearly all) European players, ‘left-wing bleeding hearts’, female reporters (which caused his TV sidekick Ron McLean to wince visibly on TV), those who advocate against fighting in the NHL, the expansion of bike lanes in Toronto and in 1989 referring to the Finnish-born assistant coach of the Winnipeg Jets (Alpo Suhonen) … as a brand of dog food.
Don Cherry has always been an extremely stylish dresser, but (as in the first photo) it was more restrained during his coaching days. Today as a broadcaster, he often takes to far-more flamboyant suits (for someone with his political views) and introduced Rob Ford at his swearing-in wearing a pink suit. Extolling the new mayor (who we subsequently learned smoked crack cocaine), Don Cherry uttered this sentence which he’ll be forever known for:
“Rob’s honest, he’s truthful…I say he’s going to be the greatest mayor this city has ever seen as far as I’m concerned. And put that in your pipe, you left-wing kooks”.
Let’s clear the air with one of Canada’s greatest musicians, Oscar Peterson – with his classic tune Hymn To Freedom to mark the death of Nelson Mandela. And, obviously, feel free to add your tributes to Madiba in the comments section.
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