Who Was Really The Shortest Serving Prime Minister?

With UK PM Liz Truss (who?) out after 44 days people are asking; "So who was the shortest serving PM in history under the British Parliamentary System anyway"? And by “people” I of course mean “Nerds”. And who likes pointless historical trivia and has two thumbs to type with? This guy! So lets do this. Note by British Parliamentary System I am including those countries that inherited the same basic system (albeit with some changes over the years) which would include Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Israel, Malta, the Anglo Caribbean countries (Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana etc), some former African colonies like South Africa and Zimbabwe as well as Newfoundland when it was briefly independent. So with that in mind I give you George Brown; Prime Minister of Pre-Confederation Canada for 4 days in 1858. Here's the story; Brown was the leader of the Liberal Party in the 1850's and 60's and his rival and leader of the Tory Party was John A MacDonald. Brown and MacDonald, in spite of both being Scottish immigrants (like many of Canada's early leaders) loathed each other, with Brown resembling his contemporary British Liberal leader William Gladstone (and most Victorian Liberals); a dour, grimly honest, puritanical, utterly humourless, hot tempered, teetotaler. Meanwhile MacDonald resembled his British counterpart Tory leader Benjamin Disraeli; a charming, clever, flashy, witty, charismatic, hard drinking rogue who took great delight in constantly out maneuvering the Liberals. Besides politics Brown was also the owner of the largest newspaper in the country, the Globe and one of the richest men in the country while MacDonald was a lawyer of modest means.


GEORGE BROWN

The burning issue in 1850's Pre-Confederation Canada (then consisting mostly of southern Ontario and Quebec) was where the capital would be. Toronto? Montreal? Kingston? Quebec City? Nobody would compromise. So the capital would rotate and every few years go from city to city. Eventually the Governor General tired of this colonial silliness and stepped in and suggested Ottawa, then a muddy logging town and trading post in the middle of nowhere (but notably the farthest from the US border and it had an army base) and MacDonald, then Prime Minister, agreed even though he was the MP from Kingston. But nobody else did so he resigned & instead of calling an election (there had just been one) the Governor General asked Brown to form a government which was sworn in on Aug 2 1858. Then the wily MacDonald staged a quick non-confidence vote that brought Brown down on Aug 6 and the Governor General invited MacDonald back in after 4 days in office. There's a record that will never be broken. Brown was predictably furious about being outfoxed by the dastardly MacDonald yet again and during the debate yelled out the MacDonald was playing tricks to “Avoid talking about his duplicity”. To which MacDonald blithely stated “Well we can hardly discuss yours, you weren’t in power long enough to do any”. The capital ended up moving to Ottawa permanently and Brown lost the next election and stepped down as Liberal leader. Then Brown came back and he and MacDonald put aside their rivalry long enough to oversee the Confederation of the four original provinces into a united Canada in 1867. In the subsequent general election Brown, in a shocking turn of events, quickly lost again to MacDonald and resigned once more. He would never get to be Prime Minister again and never forgave MacDonald saying that obviously to be Prime Minster one must have spent time as a “horse thief or similar profession”. To which MacDonald would shrug "Obviously the country prefers John A drunk to George Brown sober".



While extremely wealthy Brown was a staunch Presbyterian Scot and abolitionist who disdained the idle nobility and turned down a knighthood and returned to running his newspaper until he was assassinated by a laid-off Globe employee in 1880. The "Globe" still exists today albeit now as the "Globe & Mail". MacDonald put aside his own distaste for the snooty English to accept his knighthood and died, still in office in 1891.


OTTAWA IN 1858

The Great Canadian Flag Debate Of 1965

February 15 is Flag Day in Canada, or it would be if Flag Day was a thing in Canada like it is in the USA. But in Canada the flag has never been given the quasi-religious status it has in America. Partly of course this is due to the reticent Canadian suspicion of over-emotional displays and hyper-patriotism. But the other difference is that unlike the USA (or Britain or France) the flag is not a symbol of long lost founding fathers and wars, but is instead a modern creation of a single political party and leader, Liberal leader and Prime Minister Lester Pearson.

Like other former British Colonies Australia and New Zealand, the original (post 1867) Canadian flag was one left over from colonial days, the ensign. Based on the British naval flag the ensign had a small Union Jack in the top left corner on a blue (in case of Australia and New Zealand) or red (in the case of Canada, Bermuda, Newfoundland and the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba) while the center of the red background would be placed the coat of arms.


THE RED ENSIGN FLAG

By the mid 20th century many Canadians thought that they had outgrown the colonial flag. At least 30% of the population were French and had never felt a connection to a symbol of British domination in addition there were many immigrant groups, notably the Irish, who felt the same. After two world wars polls showed that even a majority of Anglo-Celtic Canadians felt they had earned their own flag. The Maple Leaf had long been seen as a Canadian symbol since the days of Confederation and had been used on badges and belt buckles in the Canadian military so there was wide acceptance that the leaf could be used in a flag, indeed there were already three Maple Leafs in the coat of arms and thus the flag as it was.


AN 1870's DESIGN WITHOUT THE UNION JACK

In the aftermath of World War Two Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King seriously considered adapting a new flag which would incorporate the Maple Leaf but faced bitter opposition from the Conservative party. Earlier Liberal governments had toyed with the idea of a new flag (see the above design) but had always backed own in the face of vehement opposition from the Conservative Party. The Tories, largely seen as the party of the Anglo establishment, the Anglican Church and the British Crown had a strong emotional attachment to British and Royal symbols, especially the flag, and denounced any proposed changes as treasonous sell outs to "the French" and immigrants (who tended to vote Liberal). MacKenzie King, always cautious by nature backed down.


THE 1946 PROPOSED DESIGN

He left office in 1948 and the next Liberal Prime Minister Louis St Laurent was a Quebecois and as such would not have the political backing to take on such an emotional fight against an Anglo symbol even if he thought it was important which he probably did not. He was finally defeated by the Tory John Diefenbaker (a staunch Royalist) in 1957 and St Laurent's successor as Liberal leader was Lester Pearson, a former UN diplomat (and WW1 vet) who made a new flag an election promise. In 1962 he won power and started pushing for a new flag. He had a design in mind; a tri-colour using a white center (representing the Canadian tundra as well as purity) with two blues strips on the border to represent the two oceans and in the center three Maple Leafs, taken from the coat of arms, coloured red to represent the red coats traditionally worn by the Canadian Army and RCMP.


THE PEARSON TRI-COLOUR DESIGN

However in the almost twenty years since MacKenzie King's hesitant attempts Conservative opposition had not let up. Current leader John Diefenbaker was a proud Loyalist as was the party's base in Ontario, British Columbia and the Maritime Provinces along with groups such as the Royal Canadian Legion who predictably painted the new design as "betraying the troops" who had fought under the Red Ensign. Although this argument was somewhat blunted by the fact that as stated the Maple Leaf had always been used as a Canadian military symbol. Besides Diefenbaker's no doubt sincere devotion to the Union Jack and the Crown he also saw the flag as being an election issue that he could demagogue his way back in to power, so Pearson (who only had a minority government) was going to be facing a tough fight. Unlike King however Pearson would not back down, however even though Pearson had his own design he was too smart a diplomat to insist on it, especially if it got in the way of the prime goal, a new flag. So while still pushing for his favoured design he also involved the public by announcing a design competition which thousands of Canadians joined in on with designs ranging from the sober and thoughtful to the wildly creative to the downright silly.
Here are some of the standouts in no particular order;


This came from a group called the Native Sons Of Canada who were a conservative, but French group who had actually been pushing for a new design since at least the end of WW2. The red and white symbolize the English (red as the colour of the red coats) and French (white was the colour of the French royal flag) while the red also stood for the blood of patriots and the white for purity and the Canadian tundra. It's not bad, it's a clean design, easy to replicate and it still works if shrunken down. But the lack of borders misses the sea-to-sea theme and the red-on-red doesn't really work from a distance.


This was an earlier effort from the Native Sons and it's more traditional, too traditional really. Don't know the colour scheme but I'm guessing red, white & blue, although there's room for more colours here.


Even though Pearson had made it clear that it was time to move away from the Union Jack and Fleur De Lys some people clearly didn't get the memo. Also this is way too busy


This one either took the above design and simplified it or the above design is a more complicated version of this. Still misses the sea-to-sea theme.


Speaking of people who didn't get the memo and busy designs, this one takes an existing perfectly good design (more on that below) and makes it way more complicated.


This one takes the American idea of using a Maple Leaf to represent each province, and it looks too...American.


This one simply takes Pearson's design and moves the blue borders, which were supposed to symbolize the two oceans, and turns them into a top-&-bottom frame which symbolizes...nothing.


This one obviously works with the flags for fellow Commonwealth countries Australia and New Zealand while changing the blue background with white to represent the Canadian tundra and the big dipper and North Star on the white field. Attractive enough but too derivative and it's still an ensign.


This person went through the effort to make an actual flag but it just looks like a sports logo from 1900.


I believe the arms is taken from a naval arms but this looks like a flag from a mid-sized city. Not a nation.


Red, White & Black? At least the Goths of Canada now have a flag.


Now we're getting some modern designs (it was the 1960's after all) and this is certainly modern. The theme here is English (red) linking up with French (blue) on a white ground representing the tundra. It's a striking design and conceptually this is workable but it's far too modern to ever have a chance. There are Caribbean and African flags that sort of look like this though.


This one has ten towers (or grain silos?) representing each province rushing to the future led by a "C" for Canada surrounded by a blue ocean. Manages to be both creative and bland and looks more like the logo for an insurance company.


This is just lazy and absurdly literal. Also looks like a gas station logo.


I assume this incorporates some Native artwork but all I see are googly eyes and now so will you.


This one probably also incorporates some vague notion of Native art (specifically Inuit) but the sixties was also when Toronto and other cities were putting sculptures by Henry Moore in front of City Hall and this also looks like that along with linear abstract art. Don't know why it's in B&W though. Unless that's a really dark blue.


Speaking of the Sixties. There's always a few jokers in the pack.


This one has some cute Micheal Snow style Canada Geese with nine leafs for each province and a fleur de lys for Quebec and a Union Jack. If they were to just drop all that business and just moved the geese to the right and put a single red leaf in the top left this would actually make a cool flag for some Ontario Muskoka town.


And we're back with the rank amateurs again. This one takes three other designs and slaps a beaver on it. A little surprised we didn't see more beavers actually.


There we go, that's more like it.


A amateur effort using a Scottish St Andrews cross (although the colour scheme is wrong) using the red & white of the Union Jack (but oddly not the blue) with the three gold Leafs from the Coat Of Arms. Conceptually a workable design and maybe suitable for a yacht.


This one just adds a red field on top of a Union Jack then adds a Native head on it. The artist included a helpful note saying that if the committee wanted they could just switch out the head for a Maple Leaf. Either way it's ugly.


I take back everything I said about other designs being too busy, this one has everything; mountains, forests, wheat fields, oceans, fish, Maple Leafs, provincial coats of arms and an entire box of pencil crayons. At first I assumed this was from a school project but the amount of detail in this has to be from a trained illustrator. Albeit a delusional one.


This one actually was from a seven year old girl and while the committee obviously didn't consider it they did forward it to the National Archives so that's nice.

In the end even though many of the designs may have been frivolous the contest was probably most helpful to Pearson's cause as it invited everyday Canadians into the process and got them used to the idea that the flag could indeed be changed. Eventually the designs got whittled down to a few finalists which included the existing Red Ensign, Pearson's triple Red Leaf tri-colour and a new tri-colour design made by historian George Stanley that also took Pearson's Maple Leaf design and slightly simplified it by using a single leaf and changing the thin blue borders to broader red ones.


THE STANLEY DESIGN

By September 1964 these designs were forwarded to a Parliamentary Committee to be voted on. That's when the politicians really got involved. Diefenbaker and older Tories remained bitterly opposed to any compromise but some of the younger Tories were starting to get concerned that the parties uncompromising stance and some of the anti-French and anti-immigrant rhetoric was going to hurt them in urban and Francophone areas. There were also three other parties to consider. The CCF (forerunner to the NDP) was supportive of a new flag with a Maple Leaf but not eager to give Pearson a complete victory by endorsing his favoured design. Then there was the other party, the now extinct Social Credit Party. The So Creds were a uniquely Canadian party difficult to classify ideologically. Based in Alberta and parts of Western Canada they were essentially a socially conservative populist party but they were also suspicious of the Conservative establishment (the So Creds also always attracted conspiracy theorists including those hostile to the Royal Family) and much of their support came from non-Anglo (albeit still white) voters. The So Creds were also divided into different and often feuding wings in English and French Canada, neither of whom were interested in fighting to the last for a symbol of the British Crown. Accordingly the Parliamentary Committee was made up of fifteen members broken down as seven Liberals, five Tories, one CCF and two So Creds (both from Quebec who probably backed the Native Sons design).


DIEFENBAKER, PEARSON AND CCF LEADER TOMMY DOUGLAS HAVING A REASONED DEBATE ABOUT THE FLAG

When it finally came time to vote on designs they had narrowed it down to three. The first option was to keep the existing Red Ensign, which all the Tories promptly voted for with all other voting against.The next option was Stanley's Red Maple Leaf and now the horsetrading began. The shrewd Pearson decided to pull away from the design he had been pushing and instead accept the Red Leaf design the CCF favoured and So Cred MP's followed suit. The Liberals had in fact met secretly with the CCF and So Creds and agreed to accept the Red Leaf. They did not however invite the Tories to these meetings. Meanwhile the Tories had come up with a plan to embarrass the Liberals. Thinking the Liberals were still committed to the Pearson design they decided to vote for for the Stanley design, assuming the NDP and So Creds would do the same and the Liberals would then be isolated and would be forced to try and ram their design through Parliament which could force an election with the flag as an issue. So when the option of the Red Leaf came up the Tories voted yes along with the CCF and So Creds as expected then to their horror saw the Liberals do the same to make the vote unanimous making the Pearson design superfluous and moving the vote to Parliament. In vain the Tories tried to force a committee vote to say the previous vote was non binding but the other parties voted it down, probably while stifling a giggle. By the time the vote made it's way to Parliament Diefenbaker was furious at being out-foxed by Pearson (who he loathed) and hoped to filibuster the bill but the Liberals and CCF controlled enough votes to stop that and by that point several Tory MP's had had enough of Diefenbaker's antics and voted with the government as well, much to his fury. Diefenbaker was so blindingly angry in fact that when Pearson, showing some class, offered to give some of his speaking time to Diefenbaker he bitterly turned it down. The final vote the new flag passed easily and at the flag raising ceremony, where Diefenbaker attended but again refused to speak, he wiped tears from his eyes and later claimed that the new flag (which he called "insipid") would never be accepted by Canadians.


DIEFENBAKER & PEARSON

This prediction turned out to be untrue of course. In a remarkably short period of time the new flag was accepted and was given pride of place at the massive year-long Canadian Centennial celebrations in 1967. Today the Canadian Red Maple Leaf is consistently being rated one of the most recognizable and popular flags international and beloved at home. Even the Tory Party quickly reconciled themselves (especially after Diefenbaker was deposed as Tory leader) and the flag was not even an issue in the 1968 election. However the partisan battle for the flag explains why Flag Day never became a holiday in Canada. Even if the bitter partisan battle and rhetoric over the flag have been largely forgotten, it would have been seen as gloating for the Liberals to have made Flag Day a holiday and Lester Pearson was far too shrewd and diplomatic to cheapen things by doing something that crass. When Diefenbaker died in 1979 he was buried not with the Maple Leaf but with the Red Ensign.


In the last decade there has been an attempt by some on the far right to attack the Maple Leaf flag. Starting with the Proud Boys other white nationalist and anti-immigrant groups have started flying the Red Ensign to symbolize the white, Anglo Canada they want to "Make Great Again', while supporters of Wexit (mostly in Alberta and Saskatchewan) refuse to recognize Canada at all and have designed their own flags. If Diefenbaker were alive today I seriously doubt he would be happy to have his beloved Red Ensign sullied by racists, fascists and separatist conspiracy theorists. While Diefenbaker may have been a bitter old crank who hated the Liberals and NDP he proudly supported immigration and was definitely no fascist. And he was a proud Canadian who would have had little time for Wexit grifters. He might have even mellowed on the flag by now.

The SUN Sets On Rob Ford, King Of All Media

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford (along with his equally lunkheaded City Councillor brother Doug) is literally the most famous Mayor in the world. The Council session that began the process of stripping the Mayor of most of his powers was actually broadcast live to the entire world on CNN, which has to be the first time a city council session anywhere received that kind of coverage. Can New York, Chicago or London say that? We're number one!! So there, take that all you cities with reasonably competent governance. Even San Diego's incredibly disgusting serial sexual predator Mayor Bob Filner didn't get this much press. So after getting a chance to see and hear Ford's bizarre and wildly incoherent ranting talking points first hand the question that most non-Torontonians ask is; "How the Hell did nice polite Toronto elect such an obvious jackass?"



Well, glad you asked. Actually that's kind of a complicated question, not to mention an incredibly frustrating one for those of us who predicted that the Ford Brothers were the barbarians at the gates. I could point out the simple fact that since Toronto was forcibly amalgamated with four suburban cities (plus East York which was not really a suburb) the suburban vote has outnumbered the downtown and East York vote, and Ford's core message of snarling resentment at the "Late' Sipping, Granola Eating, Bike Riding, Corrupt, Socialist, Tax & Spend, Probably Gay, Downtown Elites" plus free subways in the suburbs was a powerful, if sleazy, vote getter. The Fords are the rampaging id of the suburbs come to power. It's a cult of personality not a coherent ideology.



The Fords claim to be fiscal conservatives but the numbers and outrageous and hyperbolic claims they make are almost all easily debunk-able lies. To-wit;

"Rob Ford single-handedly saved Toronto from bankruptcy." ~ False; Toronto was never bankrupt and our bond rating was an excellent A++

"Rob Ford is the first Mayor to balance the budget." ~ False; All Mayors in Ontario must balance the budget by law and they always have.

"Before Ford Toronto had the highest taxes in North America now we have the lowest." ~ False and false. Toronto actually had the lowest property taxes in the region. Former Tory Ontario Premier Mike Harris used to make the same bullshit claim BTW.

"Rob Ford has cut spending more than any other Mayor in history." ~ False, spending is actually slightly up, and this was before his absurd billion dollar subway boondoggle.

"There is a billion dollars in taxpayer waste and I will root it out and stop the gravy train" ~ False; Ford even hired corporate accounting firm KPMG to search for this mythical billion dollars. They didn't find much and instead ended up calling for calling for cutting such waste as libraries, zoo's, museums, housing, and my favorite, the Christmas Fund for disadvantaged kids.

"If we don't get a billion dollars in cuts we will have to raise taxes 30%" ~ They didn't get most of their cuts and taxes did not go up 30% or even 3%

"The plastic bag recycling fee costs families a thousand dollars a month" ~ For a five cent fee? That's about 20,000 shopping bags a month! Just how much frickin' shopping does that guy do? Talk about the munchies.

"I saved taxpayers a billion dollars" ~ Ford's never been able to quantify this claim and it has been debunked in great detail a number of times.

"I won the biggest mandate in Canadian history" ~ Not even the biggest mandate in Toronto history, the two previous mayors, David Miller and Mel Lastman won more than Ford's 47% in their re-elections.

"I promised subways, subways, subways and I delivered" ~ Actually he promised that those subways were going to be free, paid for by private investors that he swore were "lined up" outside his office just waiting for the green light to start digging. Turns out they don't exist so now we are on the hook for a subway vanity project that will cost more than double the previous transit plan, cover half the distance and take twice as long to build and which will only serve areas in the suburbs with population density too low to actually break even. Because you know; "Respect for Taxpayers".

"LRT's are streetcars (or even "trolleys")" ~ No they aren't damn it! They are LIGHT RAIL TRAINS. Just like subways except they are above ground for much (although not all) of their route. Do you hear me? NOT STREETCARS!! They are no more affected by the snow than the those parts of the existing subway network that are above ground, like the entire route from Victoria Park and Warden Woods (where I grew up BTW), and how often are they shut down for snow? Almost ever; that's how often. Unless the power cuts out, and that can, and has, happened even with the those nice shiny subways. Oh and by the way you know those street car-like things you see in San Francisco? Those are trolleys. Are we clear on this?

"But subways last for a hundred years" ~ This is both simplistic and irrelevant. The tunnels last for a hundred years (assuming they are maintained, which isn't free BTW) but the tracks and rolling stock still need to be replace every twenty years or so, which also isn't free. Incidentally if we are going to get hung up on this hundred year mark you may want to recall that most of the above ground rail lines that run through the city are actually more than a hundred years old.

"I'm he best Mayor Toronto's ever had" ~ Good Lord.

So the Fords have always been hucksters who pretend to preach fiscal responsibility when they actually market petty suburban resentment. We have a Mayor who openly sneers that subways will only be build in the suburbs, regardless of population density because the downtown core "has too much". We have a Mayor who complains that the downtown core has too many museums, theatres and zoos. We have a Mayor who vowed to rip up the bike lanes and streetcar tracks downtown to make room for more cars. We have a Mayor who, along with his idiotic brother actually complained (and I swear I'm not making this up) that Toronto has more libraries than doughnut shops. Needless to say this absurd claim is laughably untrue, or at least it should go without saying. None of this nonsense can in any way be considered "fiscally conservative" or even responsible. It is however the sort of boiler-plate petty jealousy you hear from ignorant douchebags in Etobicoke. Like the Fords.

The eminent political scientist Dr. Stephen Colbert coined the term "Truthiness" for "facts" that feel as if they should be true even if they aren't and Rob Ford is the master of suburban truthiness. For some reason suburbanites are particularly eager to believe that there is a vast mountain of cash hidden somewhere in the budget that those "downtown elites" have been wasting and if only Rob Ford can find it he can balance the budget, cut taxes and build free subways. It's utter simplistic bullshit of course but that message still sells. At least from the Fords, provincial Tory leader Tim Hudak has been slavishly pedaling the same talking points and slogans with fiendish single-mindedness with notable lack of success.



So Ford was always a big fat fucking liar even before we knew he he was lying about his rampant drug and alcohol abuse. So how did he get away with this? Well one factor is the media support from right wing cheerleaders like The Toronto Sun, SUN News TV and talk radio where Ford has always been a regular guest. Once he became Mayor radio station Newstalk 1010 even gave the Fords their own radio show after cancelling the previous municipal affairs show hosted by centrist Councillor Josh Matlow who had committed the cardinal sin of being far too staid, sober and even-handed. What an amateur. That's not how you do News. The Fords sure didn't make that mistake. Their weekly show became a byword for shameless pandering, lying, bragging, name calling, childish insults, threats of retaliation against political foes, simplistic talking points, bizzare digressions, inarticulate attempts at humour, and lots of football talk. Seasoned with occasional call-ins from Ford's legions of pre-screened worshipful dittoheads who sometimes actually made Ford sound somewhat reasonable by comparison. No matter what a laughing stock the show was for many people, Ford Nation (trademark no doubt pending) ate it up and the show got decent ratings.

It also gave the Ford's a platform from which to campaign for re-election (even though the 2014 campaign doesn't officially start until the end of January) that his potential opponents don't have. Ford wasn't shy about using it of course. When Scarbourgh Councillor Paul Ainsley, a former Ford ally, decided he could not support Ford's Scarbough subway boondoggle and voted against it Ford wasted little time attacking him on air. Ford also fired off a series of insulting robo-calls to Ainsley's riding. These sort of nasty attacks may be fairly common in America but they are still a little shocking in Canada, especially since the election is a full year away. It just isn't done.



Incidental aside I couldn't figure out where else to put; The producer for the Ford's radio playhouse was one Dan Jacobs whose previous job was as manager of a company that produces bedbug spray. Not sure why I pointed that out but he is now the Mayor's Chief of Staff. That's the third one since he took office. Chief of Staffs I mean, not bug spray makers. As far as I know anyway. Back to our rant already in progress.

Paul Ainsley, never thought of as a high profile Councillor, didn't take this lying down though. He fired off a complaint to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CSBC) making an argument that others had been pondering but not acting on. Namely that Ford and Newstalk 1010 were acting improperly and in violation of the Broadcast Standards Act barring political candidates from hosting their own shows while campaigning, since this gives them an unfair advantage. Since Ford had repeatedly boasted he was "absolutely" going to be on the ballot in 2014 and was clearly using his show to campaign, Ainsley claimed that Ford was therefore required to take a leave of absence until after the election as previous Conservative candidates Peter Kent and Karleen Nation had done in the past. (An aside here, if the media is so liberal why do so many of them become Tory candidates? The names Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin come to mind as well)

Ainsley's complaint to the CBSC was not a serious threat to Newstalk 1010 since the CBSC is a toothless body that does not have the power to actually cancel a show. They can only issue a ruling to require the offending station to issue an apology and air the final ruling. However it was an embarrassment to Newstalk since they still pretend to be a legitimate news body. It would have been a bigger embarrassment if the CBSC had actually ruled in favour of the complaint, which there was no guarantee of since the election campaign doesn't officially start until next January. A copy of Ainsley's well written complaint is below;

PAUL AINSLEY'S CBSC COMPLAINT LETTER;

Ainslie Cbsc Letter

It turns out the complaint will be moot since after the Ford Circus Geekshow became too much of an embarrassment for Newstalk 1010, good ratings or not. After a week in which Ford admitted to smoking crack, being a heavy binge drinker (to say the least) and drunk driving, after lying about this on air for months and calling the media "maggots" for bugging him about it. And after brother Doug Ford issued a blustery demand that the Police Chief and a Police Board Member step down or be investigated for unspecified improper acts. And after both Fords made veiled threats to out other Councillors and media for their alleged drug use. Newstalk finally decided enough was enough and cancelled the show. Of course they didn't say it that way, instead they issued a press release which blandly stated that Newstalk and the Fords had "mutually agreed" to abruptly end the show with less than a week's warning. Sort of like how Charlie Sheen and Chuck Lorre mutually decided that Sheen would rather hangout with skanks than be on Lorre's hit TV show.

So Newstalk decided, however belatedly, that having the bloviating buffoon show that is The Ford Follies was not up to their journalistic standards. But it turns out that there is somebody with much, much lower standards than even talk radio. Cue SUN News.



SUN News (aka FOX North), shameless in it's role as Pravda for the Conservative Party and a stubborn cheerleader/enabler for Ford, wasn't going to let this opportunity slide, no siree. Less than a week after Newstalk pulled the plug on Ford's radio show Sun News announced that they would be giving the Fords their own TV show to be called, wait for it, "Ford Nation". This did not come as a total surprise of course.

SUN News has become increasingly desperate in it's attempt to secure itself as Canada's version of the powerful FOX News in America. Since going on the air during the last federal election the station has been a ratings disaster, averaging a pathetic 20,000 viewers at peak times, and less than half that at off peak times, and those figures are actually nationwide. That is literally less than a local community radio station. They lost their over-the-air free TV signal soon after starting up when it was discovered that they hadn't waited to get permission from the CRTC before rushing to air (they are apparently applying again for that signal). A flailing SUN News ended up crawling back to the CRTC and demanding "mandatory cable carriage", a system that would have forced all cable subscribers to pay for the channel whether they wanted to or not.

Of course SUN News had spent the previous years viciously attacking artists and musicians who get art grants and waging a jihad against the CBC for it's taxpayer subsidy so more than a few people were more than a little outraged at the blatant hypocrisy of SUN News' attempt to mooch off their cable bills. Thousands of them wrote to the CRTC to tell them so and SUN News had their application shot down.

SUN News originally swore they would be forced out of business without mandatory carriage but months later they are still around, not that anybody watches of course, and desperate for a right wing media hero, so lo and behold The Worlds Most Famous Mayor is suddenly available. Newstalk 1010 may have discovered a few journalistic scruples but the deep thinkers at SUN News know that scruples and integrity are for for pussies. So this last Monday the Fords took their traveling freak-show to it's new home in the SUN.



So how'd it go? For two hours the Fords, along with smug and smarmy SUN News host Ezra Levant brought their greatest hits;

The media are persecuting him, again. Especially the Toronto Star who are worse than the paparazzi who killed Princess Di.

Ford has saved a billion dollars and "the left" are out to get him for it because, just cuz.

He's quit drinking so there, back off.

Rob Ford brags he spends two hours in the gym every day, which seems a little unlikely unless Jim is the name of his crack dealer.

Jack Layton hung around with hookers and Justin Trudeau is a pothead. So there. Doug Ford calls for mandatory drug tests for all government officials. Because you know, "smaller government". Rob Ford offers to take one anytime. I'm picturing a TV set with a giant monitor showing the results after a drumroll. We could have a pool, like the Lotto.

Ford is the only honest politician in Canada. I bet his Tory friends Harper and Hudak love hearing that BTW.

Ford brags that he has never missed a day in council which is of course not true.

Ford whines that he lost his football coaching job (that he regularly skipped out of meetings for) because of "politics", because everybody knows that alcoholic, rage choked, crack heads make the best coaches.

Ford brags that he's saved more taxpayer money than "any Mayor in history" but as usual he of course can't explain how. Probably because it's total bullshit.

Ford claims that those dastardly leftists of council are spending $500,000 on studying bike-lanes which is another lie but who's counting? Certainly not the Fords, or anyone else at SUN News, which is supposed to be in theory a NEWS organization.

Ford boasts that he has "built subways" even though a single shovel hasn't been in the ground yet. He doesn't point out that he promised numerous times that these subways would be built for free. They are actually going to be at least a billion dollars more than the previous mixed use plan and will cover half the distance and will take twice as long to build. Granted I am no accountant but I am pretty sure that a "billion dollars" is a tad more expensive than "free".

The Fords complain that the Police wasted tax dollars investigating the Mayor of Toronto for petty things like; smoking crack, buying crack, driving drunk, hanging out with drug dealing scumbags, paying the utilities on a crack-house, using said crack-house to make campaign phone-calls, using his tax payer funded staff to run the simplest of house-hold errands, loitering about in gas stations and school parking lots where he exchanged brown envelopes with a known drug dealer, employing said known drug dealer as a driver, apparently employing said known drug dealer to obtain that crack video (this is sometimes known as "extortion" and "obstruction of justice"), assaulting other staff members, urinating in a school parking lot and a bunch of other activities that normally belong on "Cops". Because you know; "Respect for Taxpayers"! Remember when Conservatives used to be all about "Law and Order" and "Personal Responsibility"? Me neither.



It's nothing we haven't heard a thousand times before. And as always delivered with that grating, hesitant monotone and the vague glassy eyed stare that shows that Rob Ford ain't no elitist like those commie fags Trudeau and Miller. Appalling as it was, it was also of course a huge ratings success, getting a reported five times larger audience than SUN News ever gets for any other show. "Ford Nation" was the “biggest night ever for Sun News, by a country mile,” according to SUN News president Kory Teneycke. The show's ratings attracted "155,000 viewers for its first airing, 45,000 more during a Western Canadian repeat and was downloaded an additional 65,000 times from the network’s website", he said. These are by far the biggest SUN News has ever gotten. So naturally SUN News announced the two days later that they were cancelling the show.

Wait; What, You ask? Did SUN News suddenly discover that allowing an admitted crack smoking, drunk driver and liar to use the airways to lie and hurl insults while running for Mayor might be considered unethical, not to mention undignified? Ha Ha; You're funny.



This is SUN News after all, the proud home of "Freedom Fighter" (seriously, they actually bill him that way) Ezra Levant and his race-baiting smear campaigns against Roma and Aboriginals. The equally proud home of the Holy Taxpayer jihads against the CRTC, the CBC and arts groups. Notwithstanding their own history or getting millions of dollars every year from the same sacred Taxpayers in the form of government subsidies. Not so proud that they actually want you to see any of this of course, if you try to search Youtube for back episodes of Levant's jawdropping racist attacks on the Roma. The Police actually investigated that one for Hate Speech and SUN News had to belatedly put out a half assed apology, months later, as they were going in front of the CTRC. Or try and search for Krista Ericson's insane ambush of award winning dancer Margie Gillis in which she demanded, on behalf of the Sacred Taxpayers and The Troops, that Gillis return Arts Grant money she had gotten. That one generated the highest number of CBSC complaints in history. Or Ezra Levant's previous ambush of some indie band who also got a grant which resulted in the shell-shocked band's grovelling apology and actually returning the few thousand dollars, just in time for SUN News, through their parent company QMI, to get their annual multi-million dollar taxpayer subsidy. You can try and find these clips but you won't since whenever anyone tries to post them on Youtube SUN News, a "crusading" media organization dedicated to accountability for Unions, Native Councils Arts Groups and non-Tory governments, has their lawyers file bullshit copyright complaints to have them pulled. When the CBC reported on the millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies the anti-subsidy SUN News gets each year, SUN News threatened to sue for libel, but then didn't actually file any suit. (The Fords have done the same thing several times BTW). So while they are not quite proud enough to have their sleazy "reporting" scrutinized, they were certainly proud enough to air it in the first place. Especially if it gets ratings, which the Fords clearly got. The network’s previous record was 100,000 viewers, achieved when the network had the exclusive rights to the charity boxing match between future Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and soon-to-be-disgraced Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau in which Trudeau pounded the living snot out of the arrogant Brazeau much to the horror of the assembled Tories.

But it turns out that The Fords are truly incompetent at being media pundits. I don't mean because they are shameless liars, that's not an impediment to be a pundit of course, especially on SUN News. No it turns out that even after a few years of radio experience they are so inept that according to Kory Teneycke "taping the two-hour show took five hours, and it required another eight hours to edit". That's less time than it takes to do the "Tonight Show". So if you were wondering just how much editing it takes to make Rob Ford sound like somewhat less like a drunken, babbling idiot now you know. According to Tenyecke 'The Fords are “great TV but not necessarily great TV hosts”. Well he's certainly right about the second part anyway. Even some at SUN News couldn't resist taking shots at The Ford's wooden and glassy eyed performance with Sun News anchor Sneha Kulkarni writing in a Monday night Tweet, “Rob Ford really needs to stop looking at the table…”

Unfortunately spending an entire day on a single show means that SUN News, already a huge money loser, would end up losing even more money on the show no matter what the ratings were. This problem was exacerbated by the reluctance of some advertisers to associate with "Ford Nation". Canadian Tire for one publically insisted that their ads be pulled and the Ford Motor Company, Iceberg Vodka and even his beloved Toronto Argonauts has been particularly vocal about not wanting to have anything to do with "Ford Nation". Even actor Harrison Ford took pains to clarify that he is not in fact related to Ford Nation.



Keeping up a brave face Kory Tenyecke blithely denied that skittish advertisers had anything to do with the show's cancellation and even seemed to deny that the show was actually cancelled at all saying; "I’ve been clear both with them and the media, our commitment was for one show and then we’d see how it’d all come together.” If he means by being "clear" that he never publicly said anything like this beforehand, then yes that was perfectly clear. He also said that the Fords would definately be back as occasional pundity commentators.

Losing their radio and TV shows now denies the Fords the ability to go over the heads of the "Liberal Media" which is a real problem for their political futures. They have been all over the American media lately but they will inevitably get bored with our freak-show and move on to one of their own.

This triumphant one episode run has been lauded by some as the "shortest TV series ever" which is not technically true. For the record that honour is actually held by a late 1960's comedy show called "Turn On" which was so odd, scatter-shot and offensive to some that in some markets it was actually cancelled in mid show. Just thought you'd like to know.



UPDATE:

After this was originally written Rob Ford went on a TV on the cable access Vision TV Chanel show hosted by former Media Baron and convicted fraudster Conrad Black for a fawning interview. Vision TV incidentally was also recently turned down for the same "mandatory carriage" package that SUN NEWS got shot down for, and has a not unrelated need for ratings. Anyway during the mutual right-wing persecution makeout session Ford snickeringly implied that Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale was a pedophile. Dale quickly threatened a lawsuit for libel and the Fords just as quickly doubled down and insisted that Mayor MacCheese would "stand by everything he said. Since Ford has regularly threatened critics, especially The Star, with lawsuits and then backed down he probably thought Dale was bluffing. Bad move. Dale has since filed a libel suit against Ford and Vision TV (but not Black). Ford would later offer a half assed apology in which he blamed others for misleading him, blamed the media for "taking my remarks out of context" and denied implying what he clearly implied. Dale refused to accept this non-apology apology and is continuing the suit. The usually not controversial Vision has wisely kept quiet but not our intrepid "Freedom Fighters" at SUN NEWS. Naturally the Toronto SUN immediately published an editorial by Fordista Joe Warmington in which he expressed his opinion that Ford had nothing to apologize for and blamed Dale and The Star for "Piling on". He ended on a triumphant note stating that since Ford was the real victim he could play this for sympathy and get re-elected. Stay classy SUN News. Stay classy.

POST UPDATE UPDATE:
Two days later Ford (who had always insisted he would "stand by every word") made a more explicit apology and retraction to Dale who then immediately accepted it and announced he would drop the lawsuit against Ford. However the lawsuit remains in place against Vision TV.

POST-POST UPDATE UPDATE;
Yes I realize that the Youtube clips of the Ford Show no longer work. That's because once again SUN News (supposedly a media organization with a "fierce commitment to free speech" filed yet another one of their bullshit copyright claims and had them pulled. As they do with any embarrassing footage, of which there is no shortage. I know I could simply delete the now blank screens but I figured I would leave them there as a memorial to, you know, Free Speech.