Welcome to Ford Nation

 On Monday the Mayor's Executive Committee and Council watched on as members of the public gave deputations on proposed budget cuts in the city of Toronto. Usually in these situations an individual is given five minutes to speak but Council voted to reduce this time to two minutes due to the sheer volume of (mostly) complaints. By 10am there were over 300 registered deputants.

Three overflow areas were opened to handle those who could not fit into the main room. That's where I spent most of my time.

There was a similar meeting in July that ran all night and into the morning where Torontonians got up to speak about what they loved most about this city. As the night wore on it transformed into a sort of civic slumber party that unified strangers in hope of a better Toronto. Some people brought cake, others wandered the halls in PJs with their teddies in tow.

But this meeting was different. It was all about business and anger.

As I was drawing an older lady leaned in to tell me how much she loved my work. I thanked her, then she went on to ask if I receive city funding for my art. I answered no, but explained that I had recently made a film at the NFB. She then proceeded to lecture me about greedy artists who leech money from taxpayers to fund their silly art projects. "In the time of Da Vinci," she said, "There was no such thing as an Arts grant." We didn't speak much after that.

There was an hour-long break for lunch, and at that time the media swarmed Mayor Ford for comments on the meeting. The Mayor refuses to give interviews to many of the major news organizations (CBC! Toronto Star!) so they have had to resort to more aggressive tactics to get the story.

After lunch I was able to get in line early enough to snag a seat in the main meeting room.

There were some photographers there documenting the proceedings for the paper.

The man of the hour, Mayor Rob.

This photographer looked familiar to me, I think I saw him shooting at TIFF. He might be from The Star.

There was one moment where Ford had to pause the meeting because they did not have quorum. In order for things to proceed there must be at least seven members of the Executive Committee present and they were having a hard time keeping them in the room.

I almost signed up to make a deputation against Arts cuts but was afraid of being bullied by some of the Councillors. I've noticed that a few in particular tend to pounce on people, making it seem like they shouldn't be there. Even though it is their legal right.

I stayed until about 4:30pm, but the meeting went on well into the early morning. Let's just hope that someone was listening.