Symbolic Governance

This post was originally titled "Does Rob Ford believe his own bullshit?"  I was going to write about all the promises Ford had made during the election, and how none of them really meant anything, but, they sounded good.  100 new cops, subways over streetcars, getting rid of the VRT and land transfer tax, cutting the amount of councillors in half, making the TTC an essential service, zero percent tax increase, the city has a spending problem not a revenue problem... etc.  Obviously, when I say they don't mean anything, I don't mean that Rob Ford was lying when he said he would do these things.  I believe he intends to do everything on his list.  By meaningless, I mean, the money he has saved in items like getting rid of sandwiches at city hall and cutting councillors' budgets save the city negligible amounts of money, and in the case of the councillors' budgets may hinder the ability of our councillors to do their jobs properly.   For people who think of government as an important aspect of our lives, rather than the burden that keeps us all from achieving all of our financial dreams, adequately funding our government representatives is important.  For our millionaire mayor, (who obviously never felt the pinch as a councillor, having spent his own money (tax refund) instead of his budget,) this is a victory for small government and thus, the taxpayer.  We could go through every one of these issues and quite easily see that there is not really much substance there.  

Maybe, I'm late on this, but, I'm starting to understand that maybe that is the whole point.  During the debate on the TCHC last night, the pro-Ford councillors kept re-iterating that the board of the TCHC was probably not responsible for the waste there, and could, eventually, be voted in again, but, they needed to resign now.  When asked why she had to resign, they said. "Symbolism."  Because, when people read the newspaper, people who were not at the meetings, and maybe don't even really have a dog in the fight, will see that "Rob Ford" (and council) cleaned house and be happy that something was done.  It's the same reason, the budget committee rejected a recommendation to raise taxes by just $3.5 million to avoid having to make any cuts, but, an increase of .155% does not look as good in the Sun as 0% does.

Basically, the mayor's governing using "truthiness" and "gut feeling"