politics Rob Ford’s Found Poetry

At a council debate about Uber, Rob Ford gives the world an accidental poem.



This afternoon, the former mayor of Toronto gave the city a gift.

Rob Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) spoke at city council’s debate about the taxi industry and Uber, and, as is his wont, stumbled upon something extraordinary.

A poem. A poem that flowed from his mouth with Gerard Manley Hopkins’ understanding of metre and Elizabeth Bishop’s ability to bring everyday moments and ideas alive with vivid imagery. He continues to astound.

Behold this art, which we have preserved in all its beauteous splendour.

I’m a pretty blunt speaker

I’m not a smooth talkin’, fancy long-words-use guy

I’ll leave that up to people much smarter than me.

Lemme bring this into context

Lemme bring this into context

Same game. Same rules.

We’re talkin’ about the Blue Jays

Blue Jays have two games today.

Same game. Same rules.

(That’s how smart he is.)

Say there was a by-election

And a councillor got in here and made twice as much

as the regular councillors.

People would be screamin’ bloody murder.

We do the same job. We go by the same rules.

These people. I know many, many of them.

I probably represent more taxi drivers

than anyone in the city.

I’m very proud of that.

I see how hard they work.

I see how hard their parents work

how hard their children work

day in and day out.

You gotta think

Uber

has piggybacked

on their hard work.

That’s what it comes down to.

And they’re saying:

“Hey, we’re the new drivers in town,

we’re going to have a new set of rules.”

They do the work

You don’t get one complaint.

I happen to have been down here for 15 years

I get compliments

after compliments

after compliments

of taxi people

taking people here

taking people there

taking people everywhere.

A triple-A service.

I’m a capitalist.

I believe in competition.

So do they

But everybody has to

play by the same rules (Madam Speaker).

To defer it or refer it

Deal with it today

The rules are already here

Technology, technology, technology my ass.

It has nothing to do with technology.

They already know what’s going on

This is just a delay tactic

Delay, delay, delay tactic.

Like other things

A delay, delay, delay tactic.

There’s no reason to

delay

The rules are here

there’s no reason.

All they want is to say

here

“You can have five million people come in here.”

Let’s play by the same rules

And we’re not playing by the same rules.

From what I understand

there’s going to be one set of rules for Uber

and one set of rules for the people that started this industry from nothing.

From absolutely nothing.

nothing

Ok?

Many of our parents here, including my late father

came from

nothing

Just like Mr. Mayor’s father.

nothing

That’s how they started.

And it’s not fair for someone to come in here

and piggyback and say:

“You missed the boat.

We’re the new cowboys in town.

And we’re going to run the town like we wanna

And we don’t have to listen to people.”

That is absolutely wrong.

You run a city or you run a business equally.

And these poor people up here are getting treated wrong

totally totally unfair.

And I hope people see the light to deal with this today

and there is no need to move this one day further.

We wasted enough time.

And Miss Cook—I dunno how she does it.

Serious issues to deal with.

Let’s move the ball forward.