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.  

The Ford brothers have agreed to terms with Sun News to pick up where they left off with their much-listened-to show The City on Newstalk 1010. That show ended its run last week, the Sun’s Joe Warmington reports. It will air Monday at 8 p.m.  Rogers 142/567, Bell 506, Shaw Digital 177, Shaw Direct 149, Bell Fibe 518/1518

It seems a shame that the lovely-looking young woman  shown above should have had to spend the St. Patrick’s Day evening last year at City Hall with a foul-mouthed 44-year-old out-of-shape elected official. According to his paid employees, it was Mayor Rob Ford wandering the corridors of the seat of city government that night taking swigs from a large bottle of vodka.  That’s what the police records say. The account was compiled from an interview with a man named Isaac Ransom, who at the time was Mayor Ford’s assistant. What can it all mean? The woman, named Alana, is said to hold the title of Miss Toronto Tourism.  Few people could tell you just what this title means. As for the evening at City Hall, all we can say is we are very sorry about Alana’s bad luck.  

The Toronto Argonauts have criticized Mayor Ford today for his behaviour while dressed in an Argo jersey. The mayor used obscene references as he responded to suggestions that he may have associated with prostitutes. Here is the statement from the football club. “It’s well-known that the Mayor is a big fan and supporter of the game of football. The Toronto Argonauts organization is not in a position to comment on the manner of dress of public officials. The situation with respect to the Mayor and his leadership is unseemly at best. These latest remarks, while wearing our team’s jersey, are particularly disappointing given our organization’s work in the community to help youth deal with issues of bullying prevention. We hope for the benefit of the wonderful citizens of Toronto and this great city that this situation is resolved expeditiously.”