The taxpayer isn’t here

David Rider:

Doug Ford thanked the tenants for attending but said their views were unrepresentative.

“Folks, I’m telling you, there’s no one that cares more about the folks at TCHC than Rob does,” he said. “Out of the 164,000 tenants that are in TCHC housing, I see maybe four or five hundred, which — I appreciate you all coming down, but there’s 163,500 that’s saying, ‘Move forward. Let’s have a clean slate.’”

via Council ousts TCHC board, appoints Ootes as temporary leader – thestar.com.

This part of last night’s meeting was illustrative of the weird semantics used by the Fords and their allies. They can talk at length about respecting the taxpayer, but the ‘taxpayer’ they care most about is seemingly never represented by an actual person.

People who come to meetings, who give deputations, who write about city issues — basically anyone who pays attention — don’t count. Because, we’re told, the real taxpayers, who we hear about but never see, are out there. And they agree with the Fords. They called the mayor and told him so.

That’s the story, anyway.

 

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