March 27, 2006
City Council Sleepover
If Torontoist is as big a civics junkie as he claims to be he'd be sleeping over at council chambers Wednesday as council starts its big budget debate. Thanks to the intervention of Dalton and crew the city's budget will balance. But not before the city had to hike both residential and business taxes plus raise fees for services, TTC fares and god knows what else.
Councillor Sylvia Watson, the budget vice-chair, suggested that councillors bring a cot because the city's budget debates are notorious for being LOOOOONG. Sadly there are no open fires allowed in council chambers so smores and sing-alongs are probably not going to happen. Torontoist thinks watching the budgeting process would be more fun if we turned our sleepover into a drinking game. We could take a drink if:
1) A councillor mentions downloading
2) Councillor Pitfield blames the mayor for being fiscally irresponsible
3) A councillor mentions the tax burdens of residential homeowners (which Torontoist admits have ballooned in recent years because of higher assessments)
4) A councillor is caught napping at their desk
5) A councillor insults another councillor
6) A councillor/the mayor sucks up to Queen's Park
7) A councillor bashes the homeless, the unemployed or anyone on welfare
8) A councillor blames something, anything on the 905
This is an incomplete list and only the wonkiest of us would do this. But seeing how TV on Wednesday nights is pretty atrocious (ok, there's Lost) since they moved the West Wing to Sunday this drinking game is starting to sound tempting.
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You could actually make a drinking game just out of Councillor Rob Ford's budget-day antics.
Take a shot every time Ford -
- attacks some small-scale program/ outreach centre, etc, as being a waste of money, his proof of which is the fact that he's never heard of it before.
- demands an explanation from a committee or board member about an expense, then pretends not to understand the explanation
- suggests that a city service should be privatized
- suggests that the money being earmarked for whatever the service under discussion would be better spent on cops (two shots if the service is part of a preventative crime reduction plan)
- makes a genuinely reasonable cost-cutting suggestion that everyone ignores because it is lost amid the rest of his grandstanding bullshit
- whines melodramatically that council never follows his suggestions.
I didn't want to single out Rob Ford.... but in hindsight, your drinking game WOULD be more fun!