One mayoral candidate criticized over immigration comment
Posted August 18, 2010 6:12 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO, Ont. – Outspoken councillor Rob Ford – the current front-runner in the race for mayor – was under attack, Wednesday, over comments he made about more immigrants coming to Toronto.
In the latest mayoral debate, Ford said the city has a hard time coping with the 2.5 million people who already live here and it just cannot handle any more.
And that has brought much criticism from opponents George Smitherman and Rocco Rossi.
Rossi said the comment illuminates Ford’s weakness.
“This is hard economic common sense – without newcomers we simply have no growing future in the city of Toronto.”
Rossi went on to say that this could be a breaking point in the election.
While Smitherman called Ford’s words – disgusting and offensive.
“This man is a divider. His values are anti-Toronto values.”
He also said if “you don’t look like Rob Ford – you don’t talk like Rob Ford – then you don’t fit in his Toronto.”
But Ford said he would not back down in the face of what he is calling a political spin.
Instead he explained to 680News his actual point.
“What your race and religion is – it has nothing to do with that. We’ve got traffic congestion, which is absolutely chaotic to the whole city. We have homeless people laying on our street and that’s only with 2.5 million people – imagine if we bring another million people in here.”
Ford added it is time to stop playing games and get to the real issues.
