Do Premier’s words hint she will remove mayor?

Kathleen Wynne, Premier and member for Don Valley West, says that Mayor Ford should pay careful attention to what the members of City Council are telling him. Good luck to the Premier with that one. What the mayor has said so far in response to Friday’s motions to strip him of many powers is that he is going to sue the city “and cost it a lot more money.”  As usual, the mayor’s apparent position is that he can simply ignore all the events that have brought him to this place and then get re-elected next November. As Jaye Robinson (Ward 25) has been saying. “What we are seeing is that the mayor does not care about Toronto. He cares only about Rob Ford.” It is not at all clear where the Premier will go with this crisis — and that’s what it is. Denzil Minnan Wong (Ward 34) guessed that Ms Wynne might call a snap election for mayor. To many that seems unlikely. Friday morning council passed two motions. Members declared their decision to revoke  the mayor’s powers to appoint committee chairs and the deputy mayor and, secondly, to remove powers he holds during a city emergency. Questions of staff on this topic revealed Toronto hasn’t had an emergency recently.  The votes were nearly the same, except that on the first one, David Shiner (Ward 24) supported Mr. Ford in keeping his appointment powers. With that assist the Ford brothers mustered three votes against council’s 40. In the second vote, Shiner joined the majority and the result was 41 to 2 with two members absent. It was perhaps not so odd that Mr. Mammoliti, who was present yesterday, would be absent Friday. Next week councillors are set to pass another motion which will refuse funding for the mayor’s office including staff salaries. Below is the roll call for the critical vote to suspend the mayor’s powers in an emergency.