Doug Ford Enhances Brother Rob's Reputation

Despite the way it may appear in some of my blog postings, I really take no particular pleasure or delight in pointing out the deficiencies and foibles of most of our politicians. Such is the weakness of my character, however, that I do exclude the brothers Ford, the mayors of what was once a proud city, Toronto, from that assertion. Rarely has caricature come to life in the political arena as manifestly as it has under their administration.

The latest source of my amusement and bemusement comes from the Sunday edition of The Toronto Star, which has the following headline:

Doug Ford suggests schools explore UFC-linked program

It seems that brother Doug, apparently oblivious to, or contemptuous of, both local and province-wide attempts at tackling (there's a word I know Rob understands) bullying (another word I suspect he is intimately acquainted with) in schools, believes that the best way to ensure at-risk students turn into real men and women is to teach them how to fight.

As reported by The Star, still experiencing the petulant wrath of the Ford bros, Ford’s constituency assistant, Anna Vescio, asked a Toronto District School Board trustee to circulate a brochure touting an initiative called UFC Community Works.

According to the brochure, the program promotes “the development of discipline, respect, teamwork, honesty, time management and physical fitness” through mixed martial arts training and meetings with UFC fighters.

UFC has become notorious for its brutal, bloody, no-holds barred fighting. Mixed martial arts events were banned in Ontario until this year.

I suppose that none of this will come as much of a surprise to close observers of the scrappy duo, who have formed a tag-team of sorts in the political arena, supported by the howling crowd known as their executive committee and those seeking elevation in their municipal status. Nonetheless, even if they like their confrontations at City Hall to be nasty, and brutish, they really should curb their blood lust and not try to inflict it on Toronto students.