{"id":10609,"date":"2014-05-17T10:17:15","date_gmt":"2014-05-17T02:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=10609"},"modified":"2014-05-17T01:18:29","modified_gmt":"2014-05-16T17:18:29","slug":"a-washington-think-tank-tackles-the-question-how-is-rob-ford-mayor-of-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/05\/17\/a-washington-think-tank-tackles-the-question-how-is-rob-ford-mayor-of-toronto\/","title":{"rendered":"A Washington think tank tackles the question: How is Rob Ford mayor of Toronto?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Facebook Page of Mayor Rob Ford<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON\u2014A Washington think-tank held a symposium today on a topic that has fascinated people in Canada, and beyond: How is Rob Ford the mayor of Toronto?<\/span><\/p>\n

In an attempt to explore the factors that led to his election, and enduring core of support, Washington\u2019s Wilson Center held a discussion titled \u201cThe Rob Ford Phenomenon: What\u2019s going on in Toronto?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The conversation was led by Canadian university professor Anne Golden\u2014who didn\u2019t exactly sing Ford\u2019s praises, but did offer her take on the reasons people voted for him and why many continue to support him despite a tsunami of scandals.<\/span><\/p>\n

About two dozen people crowded into a boardroom near the White House, to hear her presentation and ask questions.<\/span><\/p>\n

One academic suggested the parallels between Ford and ex-D.C. mayor Marion Barry went beyond being busted for smoking crack: he suggested they both draw political support from segments of society that fear being ignored by the urban elite.<\/span><\/p>\n

Golden explained the history of the Toronto mega-city, and said Torontonians were frustrated by a garbage strike, taxes, and the perception of waste at city hall. She said Ford\u2019s promise to, \u2018Stop the gravy train,\u2019 appealed to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

She also said people hold politicians in such low regard these days that they expect almost nothing of them, and will excuse almost any behaviour\u2014so long as it\u2019s not stealing public money.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON\u2014A Washington think-tank held a symposium today on a topic that has fascinated people in Canada, and beyond: How is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":5279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}