Wouldn’t it be great if the self-styled cost-cutters running to become mayor knew their math?
First we had George Smitherman miscalculating the cost of his $7 billion — uh, $5 billion — transit plan.
Now, in the wake of The Toronto Sun’s “expose” about Kyle Rae’s $12,000 farewell reception, Rob Ford’s campaign today rolled out a Warren Kinsella-style attack website/online petition (not to mention it’s totally devoid of any standards of web development) calling on the long-time downtown councillor to resign. “Rae Must Pay!” features the obligatory Twitter and Facebook feeds, a 13-second Youtube video of Mr. Penny Pincher, and this provocative question:
“Did you know? A minimum wage worker in Toronto has to work 1,170 hours (48 days) to earn $12,000?”
Hey, Rob, did you know that 1,170 hours is equivalent to…156 standard seven-and-a-half-hour days, not 48? His calculation is out by fully factor of three — a disquieting mistake for someone who aspires to run a $9 billion-a-year corporation and talks endlessly about his own business acumen.
Indeed, if you are determined to put up 1,170 hours in 48 days, you will be literally working around the clock.
This latest claim comes on the heels of Ford’s remarkable statement during the CP24 debate, that he’s met 200,000 people in his days as a councilor. By my reckoning, that translates into 50 people a day, every day, for a decade. Assume a 12-hour work day, and he’s basically asking voters to believe he’s taking four meetings per hour, all the time.
Please, someone – anyone — put the mathies out of their misery and get this man a calculator.
Rae, for the record, says he asked the city clerk if reception expenses could be substituted for newsletter expenses in his communications budget. “I went ahead with the full support of the clerk’s staff,” Rae told Spacing. “They said it’s completely legitimate.” He also used $25,000 in campaign contributions left over from 2006 election. Rae is not running for re-election in 2010.
15 comments
Ford was calculating based on days worked by those Orientals, you know, the ones that work like dogs.
Just because this beef involves Ford, and Rae it shouldn’t be framed as a right vs. left issue, it’s a right vs. wrong issue PERIOD!
After giving that $25,000 to the city, was it open Kyle’s discretion on how to spend it, or was he obligated to hand it over?
Your introduction is a bit of a red herring, since the numbers aren’t the focus of the topic (if anything, the correct math proves Ford’s point more so). With that said, Ford’s beef should be with the city clerk for approving this expense.
this is pretty nitpicky, and honestly, if you want to get completely nitpicky, ford never specified “workdays”. 1,170 hours is, after all, 48 “days.” anyways, i don’t really see the issue with the numbers. it’s not even like ford was fudging them – it would have made it look BETTER if he said 156 days.
i could care less about our future mayor’s skills with grammar and web development. i do care about bigger picture issues such as the city clerk approving rae’s party, and the question of whether these kind of perks are unacceptable, or simply part of the political game. in the future, i would prefer to see this column focus more on issues and less on arithmetic. thanks!
Just what is Spacing’s agenda? The day after council voted not to reopen the Tuggs contract, and not a word. Yet we get this.
I wonder if Ford supporters spend their time combing the internet for stories to comment on?
I do tend to agree that the point of Ford’s campaign against Rae really isn’t revealed in whether or not the appropriate comparison is to 24 or 7.5 hr days – it’s bigger than that. But, John’s point should not be lost.
Ford continuously fabricates numbers to support his own narrative. His stats are usually so absurd they are a significant barrier to thoughtful dialogue, and this does a great disservice to democracy. I think the point really is that he needs to bring some integrity to the discussion.
I am a fan of Kyle Rae, and believe that he has generally been an excellent councillor. Nonetheless, I think Rae’s justifications for putting his party at Rosewater Supper Club on the public tab are extremely weak, and that it was an extremely inappropriate public expenditure.
Having said that, Ford’s behaviour on the issue is that of a buffoon. His encouragement to sign a petition to “make Rae pay” is nothing more than an insincere attempt to get names and email addresses of potential supporters for his campaign. Moreover, his continued focus on financial issues of marginal importance simply emphasizes the fact that he demonstrates little grasp of the real financial issues facing the city, and that he places more importance on sloganeering and empty promises than on offering detailed budgetary solutions.
Jim, what about the claims from the Mayor about the necessity for PT because Toronto is going to have a million more residents when the number one determinant for PT usage is employment density, not population?
Lets dissect this from David Miller : “In an exclusive interview with the Toronto Star last week, he conjured an image akin to a traffic-riddled apocalypse — a Toronto where every road resembles Highway 7 at rush hour, developers put the squeeze on established neighbourhoods, and the city’s most vulnerable residents pay for the province’s shortsighted failure to commit to transit.
People will sit in cars and bus service will deteriorate as the roads become increasingly choked by traffic serving 1 million additional residents in 20 years, said Miller.”
For context you might want to have a look at the number of jobs located in this city, the trends over the last 25 years and the most recent city Economic indicators report (10,4% unemployment).
While I admit that the Mayor carefully chose his words, the impression given is that Toronto is going to have that increase, when in reality is that most of the growth is to occur in the other GTA municipalities. Where is the in-depth look at this? Ford’s error is of no real importance by comparison.
Worth noting that Rocco Rossi has also been busily conflating GTA and City of Toronto population growth projections throughout this campaign, viz transit service, economic development, job creation imperatives.
I’m not sure if Spacing has an agenda, but I hope it’s to show residents of Toronto the narrow-minded, mean-spirited approach to city-building that Rob Ford abdicates.
No doubt the City needs someone who can be an intelligent fiscal manager but Rob Ford is not the one to lead that charge. He has been abusive to his wife (charges of domestic abuse), belligerent to residents (ie: drunken fiasco at the ACC which he lied about initially) and has never, ever tried to build consensus on an issue at City Hall.
He is an embarrassment to this city and the sooner the media shows him for what he is, the better of voters and residents will be.
Yes John, Rocco has been quoting the same stats. There is a major difference though, as he has not been elected. When our Mayor puts in place a plan “Transit City’ and uses such stats as justifcation the implications are more than academic.
John: Do you know what time Thursday Ford corrected the days from 48 to 146?
@Jenny — It was within an hour of the post going up. The Ford campaign follows me on Twitter.