Big Wooly Mammoth Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 The Rob Ford Revolution has come to…the little-read propaganda paragraph at the end of Toronto’s press releases.At the end of the city’s bland media announcements – messages with such titles as “Gardiner Expressway closed overnight this coming weekend for bridge maintenance work†– is an appropriately-equally-bland paragraph that extols Toronto’s virtues and lists its government’s key priorities.During the tenure of Mayor David Miller and until January 4 of this year, the paragraph read as follows:Toronto is Canada's largest city and sixth largest government, and home to a diverse population of about 2.6 million people. It is the economic engine of Canada and one of the greenest and most creative cities in North America. Toronto has won numerous awards for quality, innovation and efficiency in delivering public services. Toronto's government is dedicated to prosperity, opportunity and liveability for all its residents. For information about non-emergency City services and programs, Toronto residents, businesses and visitors can dial 311, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.Beginning with the second press release of January 4, the Millerian references to the environment, creativity and liveability were gone. So was the implicitly-bureaucrat-praising sentence about how well the city delivers its public services. In their stead: distinctly Ford-y stuff. To wit:Toronto is Canada's largest city and sixth largest government, and home to a diverse population of about 2.6 million people. Toronto's government is dedicated to delivering customer service excellence, creating a transparent and accountable government, reducing the size and cost of government and building a transportation city. For information on non-emergency City services and programs, Toronto residents, businesses and visitors can dial 311, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."The Mayor's Office wanted it to be more aligned with the current Mayor's priorities," Jackie DeSouza, the city's director of strategic communications, said in an email, "so we worked with them to revise it."The Miller-era paragraph was 90 words long. Its Ford-era replacement: 71 words. An apt metaphor?what exactly is a "transportation city?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 I see the difference but I don't see anything necessarily wrong with Ford's version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorgnor Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 (edited) I'm far more concerned with the change of a few smaller ideas. Welcome to Toronto, no longer focused on the well-being of it's citizens, or even it's "residents". In fact, the country's largest city no longer has citizens, it has "customers". Do NOT expect representation on a governmental level of any kind, you have no "representatives", you have business people under the guiding hand of a CEO. Good luck with that. Edited January 14, 2011 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hal Johnson Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 Fuuuuuck. That's a good point Thorgnor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorgnor Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 Worst part is, customers have to take it or leave it. If we are going to pretend like politics has stopped happening because we'd rather use economic excuses to let people starve then at least he could have made his fellow city dwellers shareholders. Apparently they all had their say, and now it's his turn. I am not being hyperbolic or exaggerating when I say that this is Fascist politics on the rise in the guise of "common sense".The total lack of political awareness in this country as a whole is depressing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timouse Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 fuuuuck indeed. we have gone from "taxpayers" to "stakeholders" to "customers." If we are ineed customers, expect "customer service" to take a nosedive. fwiw there's a story about a farmer who is befuddled about the ubiquitous use of the word "service" in government lingo...it is finally cleared up when he has a breeder bring a bull to his farm to "service" his cows. Suddenly "Service Ontario" takes on a whole new meaning Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollie Posted January 14, 2011 Report Share Posted January 14, 2011 I prefer to think of y'all as clients but whatever.I'm no fan of Ford but I still fail to see what everyone's worked up about. Or gov't as a service based industry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AD Posted January 17, 2011 Report Share Posted January 17, 2011 Oh my god they cut 19 words out of a press release!! The sky is falling! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorgnor Posted January 17, 2011 Report Share Posted January 17, 2011 You sound like the genius who enrolls in a social science class and then complains that the Prof. is over-analyzing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AD Posted January 17, 2011 Report Share Posted January 17, 2011 Me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaggyBalls Posted January 17, 2011 Report Share Posted January 17, 2011 The importance of semantics... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorgnor Posted January 20, 2011 Report Share Posted January 20, 2011 (edited) In deed, and word. Edited January 20, 2011 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Wooly Mammoth Posted January 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2011 hey - i definitely did not start this topic, yet my post is the first one there now. any idea what happened there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davey Boy 2.0 Posted January 31, 2011 Report Share Posted January 31, 2011 suuuuure you didn't! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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