Pipe Dreams.

So, for those of you who aren't Torontonians, or don't particularly care about politics (I don't blame you, sometimes it just makes me too angry), our mayor needs to make some cuts to keep the city running. Seems city council thinks it makes more sense to cut services than their own salaries, but whatev.

Some of the services that they're talking about cutting include a Christmas program that delivers presents to under privileged children (which makes my stomach turn, but really, there are other service programs that would fill that service gap) and shutting down a number of Toronto's 99 public libraries. Now, 99 libraries does seem like a lot, but keep in mind, "Toronto" includes the Downtown core, Etobicoke, Scarborough, North York, Don Mills, and other pieces of the GTA, and has over 17.5 million visitors yearly. Did you just divide 17.5 million by 99? If you did, you'd realize that a large percentage of our fair city DOES, in fact, enjoy the use of our libraries. Could we imalgamate one or two? I don't know, I"m not a city planner type... but I have heard that they were planning to open another in 2014 because there is a want for it.

So, what am I on about? Well, our mayor, Mr. "No more Gravy Train", is taking some flack over it. His brother, who is a city councilor for Etobicoke, decided to come to the mayor's aid.

He did it, however, by being a jackass.

Margaret Atwood, one of our country's literary treasures, went on Twitter and told her 25, 000+ followers to sign a petition to tell the mayor that shutting down libraries would be a bad plan. They did, crashing the petition site. So, Mr. Brother of the Mayor told the Toronto Star (in not so many words, but without so much as an attempt to hide it) that she could go eff herself. He said that he has no idea who she is (dumb move number 1), and that her opinion doesn't count for squat unless she runs for office (dumb move number 2). If you want to get a little more background on these shinanigans, check out these links:

Doug Ford Blasts Maragret Atwood over libraries, says 'I don't even know her', Toronto Star

Doug Ford's comments spark 'Atwood for Mayor' movement, Toronto Star

So, I got to thinking... Back in the day, I would have liked to have a little fun with this... I would have proposed 24 hour library sit-ins/write-ins/read-ins/knit-ins/love-ins. I would have LOVED to collect donations at these little events, and present them to the city council... See? Here's some cash. Now you can save a library. All you have to do is ask.

But I don't really have time for that kind of thing any more... if anyone else put it together, I"d love to go. For now, I"ll leave it with a single comment for the brother's Ford:

Do the good people of Toronto a favour: Go check A Handmaid's Tale out of YOUR local library and read it. Maybe you'll both learn a few things.