“It’s like watching an episode of The Simpsons, quite frankly. Although I think Mayor Quimby actually has more integrity.” 

- Councillor Adam Vaughan following Mayor Rob Ford’s announcement cancelling the casino debate

Mayor Rob Ford celebrated Mother’s Day by having his mom, Diane Ford, on his weekly Newstalk 1010 show Sunday. The conversation provided some insight into Ford’s origins – he was an “afterthought” according to his mom and was supposed to be another daughter rather than another son.

Here’s a transcript of the conversation:

Mayor Rob Ford: “You had Kathy (in) 1960, you had Randy in 1962 and then you had Dougie 1964 so you must have had this planned – two, two, two. And then I don’t know what happened five years later you decided to have me in 1969.”

Diane Ford: “Yeah.”

Mayor Ford: “What was going on there ma?”

Diane Ford: “I guess it was an afterthought.”

Mayor Ford: “Wow.”

Diane Ford: “You were supposed to be a girl.”

Mayor Ford: “I was supposed to be a girl?”

Diane Ford: “Yeah.”

Mayor Ford: “Wow.”

Diane Ford: “I had a girl first then the two boys and then it was going to be another girl.”

Mayor Ford: “Wow.”

Diane Ford: “Wow.”

Toronto Sun photographer Craig Robertson got this shot of Mayor Rob Ford and his brother city councillor, Doug Ford, getting a visit from one of the Toronto Zoo’s marmots during the Mayor’s radio talk show on Sunday  May 12, 2013. Robertson reports the Ford brothers didn’t want to get too close to the agitated animal.

During Thursday’s transit tax debate, Councillor Adam Vaughan floated the idea of a label tax as a possible revenue tool for subways.

Vaughan introduced his motion to needle the Fords whose family firm is Deco Labels.

“I’ve listened to representatives of the vinyl label industry and they have said the  private sector is prepared to stand-up and pay for subways so let them put their money where their mouth is and support that motion even though they can’t because it will be a conflict of interest to stay on the floor of council to move this,” Vaughan told council.

Vaughan blamed the tongue-in-cheek motion on the four years he spent sitting behind former Councillor Howard Moscoe – the City Hall king of such cheeky motions.

Not everyone was laughing at Vaughan’s label motion – Councillor Doug Ford blasted it when he got up to speak.

“I find it insulting to our company and I find it insulting to our employees and the 50 years our business has been in business and employing people in Toronto,” Ford said.

After Ford’s rant, Vaughan agreed to withdraw the motion.

“If Councillor Ford can’t see the humour and is so offended, I will withdraw the motion just to make him feel happy,” Vaughan said.

Buds booster Mayor Rob Ford is predicting the Maple Leafs will win tonight’s playoff game against the Boston Bruins.

Ford – who has predicted the Leafs will win the series in six games – was confident they’ll pull off a win Wednesday during Game 4.

The mayor told reporters he thinks tonight’s final score will be 3-1 Leafs.

We’ll find out if he’s right in a few hours.

Ford isn’t the only member of his administration predicting a Hogtown victory.

Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday was confident the Leafs will win.

“You’re dealing with a young team and a young team do strange things – sometimes they’re good and sometimes they’re bad,” Holyday said. “I’m predicting that they are going to come out with their good team tonight.”

Public Works chair Denzil Minnan-Wong testing the Sherbourne St. separated bike lanes (Toronto Sun file photo)

“The TTC has enough problems making the buses run on time and trying to run a capital program. They shouldn’t be buying new businesses that are just going to be sucking more money out of the system.”

- Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong on TTC chair Karen Stintz floating the idea of the transit authority riding to the rescue of the BIXI Toronto bike-share program (full story here).

“It would be juvenile of the City of Toronto to sit here with the biggest need for transit funding, the most well-developed plans for how we would like to expand our transit system and then shy away from the serious question of just how we pay for it.”

- Councillor John Parker on why city council should have the transit tax debate this week (full story here). Although he wouldn’t confirm it Monday, Parker is the odds on favourite to move the motion that will spark the council debate on transit taxes at the council meeting.

Here’s a few photos of Ford from today as worlds collided between Ford Nation and Leafs Nation:

Mayor Rob Ford cheers on the Leafs at a Blue and White Day rally at Scotiabank Plaza Monday morning (Don Peat/Toronto Sun).

Mayor Rob Ford is all smiles as he poses for photos with Leafs-loving residents (Don Peat/Toronto Sun)

Councillor Doug Ford and Mayor Rob Ford pose for a photo before they head out of City Hall to the Leafs first home playoff game in nine years (Don Peat/Toronto Sun).

UPDATED:

But a few minutes later it became clear Leafs Nation isn’t exactly Ford Nation:

Et tu, Leafs Nation?

Someone has to blow the whistle on the error in the first sentence of Mayor Rob Ford’s Blue and White Day proclamation.

Ford signed the proclamation Wednesday ahead of the start of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ playoff series against the Boston Bruins. The proclamation encourages Toronto residents to wear blue and white on Monday ahead of the Leafs’ first home playoff game.

Nothing like a little hometown pride in Hogtown’s hockey team.

Except for one problem, here’s the first sentence in the proclamation:

“WHEREAS after nine seasons without playoff hockey, the Toronto Maple Leafs will host the Boston Bruins for game three of the best of seven series.”

What’s the problem? It has only been eight seasons since the Leafs were last in the playoffs. There was no NHL season – or playoffs for that matter – in 2004-2005 due to the lockout.

The proclamation would have been correct if someone had written “nine years” instead of “nine seasons.”

A small but embarrassing gaffe for Toronto’s Commander-in-Leaf.

You’d think he’d know by now the devil is in the details.

UPDATE:

The proclamation has been changed online to “nine years”. The corrected version is online here.

Go Leafs Go!

Ahead of the start of the Toronto Maple Leafs playoff run, Mayor Rob Ford declared Monday Blue and White Day. Here’s the proclamation he signed and read out Wednesday:

Blue and White Day