As fed-up and crabby as the Toronto electorate seems to be, to judge from the polls with their show of support for Rob Ford, the angry white guy of mayoralty candidates, so was the mood mellow at Toronto City Council.
Honest to Pete, to the bitter end, to the last gasp, to their collective dying breath, this council remains in tone at a whopping disconnect from their voters.
Outside the council chambers, a revolt of sorts may be in the making, but inside, councillors were in a cheerful, self-congratulatory, even pleasant frame of mind at their final meeting before the October election.
The day began - late, dare I note - with Mayor David Miller welcoming federal NDP Leader Jack Layton back to his old stomping grounds, where he made his political bones.
Mr. Layton, looking thin but well after a battle with prostate cancer, had arrived early to endorse Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone outside in the square. Accepting the endorsement, Mr. Pantalone described Mr. Ford as having "learned his politics on the political knees of Mike Harris."
Many hours later, he used the same line on a couple of us journalists, and when we laughed, he said proudly, "I thought of that myself!"
"Jesus Joe," I said, "you've been here too long if you're congratulating yourself for having had an original thought."
But that was the frame of mind: Councillors congratulated their colleagues who are retiring - as well as Mr. Miller, at least seven councillors aren't running for re-election, with another one or two, Mr. Ford and Mr. Pantalone, who could be added to that number depending on the outcome of the mayoralty race. They thanked city staff on numerous occasions. They congratulated themselves. They were filled with largesse.
"As we always try to do around here," Councillor Gord Perks said once of a sweeping new zoning bylaw, "we may not have come up with perfection, but we've done a pretty good job." Even less modestly, Councillor Shelley Carroll told her fellows, "You're the council that doesn't waste!"
As a measure of just how pleased the tone, John Parker even congratulated Sandra Bussin for the fine job she's done as speaker lo these many decades (okay, mere years, but time takes on a different meaning at City Hall, particularly with Ms. Bussin in the chair, as I noted while attempting to slash my wrists).
The Toronto Sun had sent a photographer to take pictures of the happy gang feeding at the trough - literally, as it was council's "finish dinner" or "finish plate," as Ms. Carroll called it while raging in defence of free snacks.
She was figuratively crapping upon Mr. Ford, who wanted the outgoing council to leave the matter of the new zoning bylaw to the incoming council. At least that's what I think he wanted.
As Stephen LeDrew, a CP24 host and smart guy, noted dryly, the chamber acoustics are so bad they must be borrowed from the TTC.
But my hunch is that council is rather modelling itself after the criminal courts, another place where the clocks don't work and citizens can't hear what they should be able to hear.
But back to Ms. Carroll, who railed that delaying the zoning bylaw would be a waste of $7-million worth of professional expertise (presumably city staff's) involved in the multi-year zoning exercise.
Instead, Ms. Carroll said, Mr. Ford (and by inference The Sun) was obsessing about the snacks supplied for councillors.
"That costs $8,870.51 a year!" Ms. Carroll thundered, meaning, it was clear, a mere pittance.
Now, her point may have been that Mr. Ford is a one-issue penny-pincher who can't see the forest for the trees, and she may be perfectly right.
But it is a measure of the gaping chasm between voter perception and council-chamber lunacy that mere weeks before the election, a councillor rises to defend free food. As my boss said, when I described that exchange, "Who gets free snacks at work?"
Ms. Carroll et al do seem to have cottoned on to one hard truth: The more they dump on Mr. Ford from a great height, the better he looks.
Thus, no one "held" for debate the city integrity commissioner's report about Mr. Ford using the city logo, and his status as councillor, to solicit funds for his football foundation.
That report finds that he violated the Code of Conduct and recommended he repay about $3,200 to lobbyists and a corporation doing business with the city. Because it wasn't held for discussion, the report and recommendations passed.
Mr. Ford seemed unperturbed by the finding, which survived an attempt by Councillor Michael Del Grande to re-open it, but he also appeared annoyed at the process, saying he wished council had had the stones to debate it.
As the vote on Mr. Del Grande's motion was called, Ms. Bussin said, "Councillor Ford, this matter deals with an issue regarding your conduct; do you intend to declare a conflict?"
"Nope," said Mr. Ford, "I'm voting."
He did, and it failed, 26-10.
Well, he can put what he didn't eat in snacks toward the debt, I guess.