Canada's Mayors Ranked

[mentalfloss]

Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion – 78 percent

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi – 76 percent

Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume – 74 percent

Surrey Mayor Diane Watts – 68 percent

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson – 66 percent

Laval Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt – 63 percent

London Mayor Joe Fantana – 61 percent

Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina – 57 percent

Halifax Mayor Peter J Kelly – 57 percent

Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel – 56 percent

Brampton Mayor Susan Fennell – 54 percent

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson – 49 percent

Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz – 49 percent

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford – 37 percent

Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay – 32 percent

According to a poll by Forum Research that showed the nation’s most popular mayors, Ford was the second-least popular in the country with a 37 percent approval rating, which was followed by Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay (32 percent approval rating). Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion was ranked the most popular with a 78 percent approval rating, despite her conflict of interest allegations. Calgary Mayor Naheed Nanshi garnered a close second with 76 percent and Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume was third with 74 percent.

The poll was conducted among 6,763 residents in 15 of the largest cities in Canada between Oct. 21 and Oct. 23. The survey contains a margin of error of 1.2 percentage points.

Poll: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford second-least popular mayor in Canada
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[DurkaDurka]

I don't get Mississauga's infatuation with Hazel, she's crooked and she's nearly a hundred. She needs to be put out to pasture. As for Ford's ranking, nothing surprising there, he's managed to alienate most of the city and even his supporters within council.

 

[mentalfloss]

I don't get Mississauga's infatuation with Hazel.

No one really follows politics here, so it's word of mouth.

And everyone operates on the memo that she's an innocent old granny.

As for Ford's ranking, nothing surprising there, he's managed to alienate most of the city and even his supporters within council.

Yes, I have to say, it's been some pretty delicious crow - even if I'm not the one eating it.

 

[Walter]

Means he's not kissing the unions' collective asses and is getting things done.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ate-trash-collection-pays-off/article2212290/

 

[gore0bsessed]

I'm shocked that someone scored lower than Rob Ford!

 

[DurkaDurka]

Means he's not kissing the unions' collective asses and is getting things done.
Ford’s push for private trash collection pays off - The Globe and Mail

That has nothing to do with what I wrote, meathead. Carry on though.

 

[mentalfloss]

No no.. I like it. Let's go with that theory because it means most people polled would be with unions and that's just too juicy a conspiracy to give up.

 

[DurkaDurka]

No no.. I like it. Let's go with that theory because it means most people polled would be with unions and that's just too delicious a conspiracy to give up.

Unions don't even come to mind when I think of Ford's blunders. What comes to my mind is:

- Rob's brother trying to swing a new waterfront deal in secret
- Library closure fiasco, where he couldn't even get the required support from the right leaning counsellors.
- Thinking that private industry is going to cough up two billion for a subway line
- Actually believing there is such thing as the "Ford Nation".

 

[Goober]

I'm shocked that someone scored lower than Rob Ford!

You did. But that was on another position.

 

[mentalfloss]

Unions don't even come to mind when I think of Ford's blunders. What comes to my mind is:

- Rob's brother trying to swing a new waterfront deal in secret
- Library closure fiasco, where he couldn't even get the required support from the right leaning counsellors.
- Thinking that private industry is going to cough up two billion for a subway line
- Actually believing there is such thing as the "Ford Nation".

You're forgetting the two times he was caught using his cell phone while driving.
And of course, his latest thrashing at the hands of our version of Dame Edna.

 

[Goober]

No one really follows politics here, so it's word of mouth.

And everyone operates on the memo that she's an innocent old granny.



Yes, I have to say, it's been some pretty delicious crow - even if I'm not the one eating it.

The Inquiry they had on her and her son was scathing.

 

[DurkaDurka]

The Inquiry they had on her and her son was scathing.

She might as well be mafia, she treats the city like her own personal fiefdom.

 

[mentalfloss]

The Inquiry they had on her and her son was scathing.

Lol.. yea it's been pretty bad, but no one here even has a clue.

Even my gf will defend her in the face of the latest scandal - she did a lot of good for Mississauga apparently - so her resume is getting her a pass.

 

[mentalfloss]

While I can't vouch for how non-partisan this article is, it's a pretty hilarious piece nonetheless..

An aimless course, a predictable failure for Toronto’s Mayor

It likely comes as a shock to very few that I did not vote for Rob Ford. But it’s only with the hindsight of a year that those of us who took a pass on the “Gravy train” bandwagon can say so without being denigrated as liberal dolts or elitist snobs. It’s certainly not that any of us were particularly happy with those we did vote for. Last year’s Toronto mayoral race was a dog’s breakfast of political amateurs and lamentable unworthies.

Most who failed to appreciate Mr. Ford’s purportedly self-evident superiority studied him as a candidate and found him wanting. We followed him on city council and the campaign trail and concluded he was singularly unfamiliar with the form and function of the city he sought to lead.

A plurality of voters loved Mr. Ford’s message. Who doesn’t want more for less? It was assumed that with 10 years on city council he knew precisely where the corruption and overspending he ran to end would be found. Mr. Ford vowed to preserve and improve city services. He would cover Toronto’s historic post-amalgamation deficit with the “gravy” that flowed like a fountain at Willy Wonka’s factory.

A year later and it’s no longer heretical to suggest Mr. Ford has little if any mastery of his files. His dwindling boosters and remorseless media enablers still insist he’s on track to meet his lofty promises, but he has already reversed on his core message. You can pretend all you want that he was elected to cut unions down to size and shrink the scope of the municipal government, but that wasn’t his campaign platform. The Toronto Sun, which ran covers during the recent provincial campaign depicting Premier Dalton McGuinty as both Satan and Pinocchio, seems to have a much higher threshold for Mr. Ford’s reversals.

The Mayor rarely talks with the media. He spends a lot of time returning phone calls about backed-up sewers and speed bumps, which, while admirable in spirit, has little to do with the job of running and mapping out the future of North America’s fifth most important city.

When he does make public appearances, he repeats the same message over and over. Whether he’s at a Diwali celebration or a Board of Trade lunch he says that to date he has saved taxpayers tens of millions of dollars even if the bulk of that is forgone revenue in the form of a cancelled tax.

Mr. Ford isn’t a puppet. For that his handlers would have to have a plan. The people surrounding him have turned out to be prone to improvisation and such cynicism that the architect of his victory has signed on with the firefighters union to lobby against spending cuts.

A few weeks ago, Calgary’s Mayor Naheed Nenshi, elected almost the same week as Mr. Ford, spoke to the Economic Club of Toronto. He trumpeted his city’s business and industry, its culture, the civic projects he is working on and the unity of purpose he has been able to marshal in the last year. Naheed Nenshi radiates a passion for his city’s heritage, a love of its people and day-to-day life and a visionary zeal for its future. He talks animatedly about Jane Jacobs, Richard Florida and best practices adopted from successful cities all over the world.

Mayor Ford, on the other hand, exudes a kind of dour indifference to his own city beyond a preoccupation with what everything costs.

You don’t have to be a raging lefty or unreconstructed hippie to be concerned about the aimless course Toronto seems to be on. In a rapidly changing world, the city is barely managing its present, let alone laying a new and solid foundation for the future.

On the first anniversary of his election, many Torontonians, even many who voted for him, are wondering if he can press the reset button to save this city from four lost years. Those who didn’t vote for him are wondering why everyone else didn’t see it coming.

John Moore: An aimless course, a predictable failure for Toronto’s Mayor | Full Comment | National Post

 

[karrie]

I can't believe Stephen Mandel scored that well. For someone who was going to 'ban the sale of knives in Edmonton' (wtf? what do I chop my veggies with moron), and who obviously got into some shady dealings with the new stadium plans, you'd think people would wake up and smell the idiocy and corruption.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I can't believe Stephen Mandel scored that well. For someone who was going to 'ban the sale of knives in Edmonton' (wtf? what do I chop my veggies with moron), and who obviously got into some shady dealings with the new stadium plans, you'd think people would wake up and smell the idiocy and corruption.

You would use Calgary knives for that.

 

[karrie]

You would use Calgary knives for that.

lol. No kidding hey? Because god knows I couldn't say, drive out to St.Albert, StonyPlain, SpruceGrove, SherwoodPark, Onoway, or any other of the plethora of neighbouring communities, to buy something to stab someone with.