CREDIT: METRO
London Mayor Joe Fontana marches to the beat of his own drum, even if it's out of beat.

Recent events seem to indicate that we've reached a point of no return with inept politicians. Whether out of incompetence, apathy or ulterior motive, there's an inevitable point where they make a choice that seems indefensible. Take the Mayor of Toronto, for example. Rob Ford was summoned to a hearing to address his use of city staff and vehicles to support his charity football team. At the hearing, it quickly became apparent that Ford was primarily guilty of not knowing anything. At no point did he go through the proper channels to learn the fundamentals of what a public official in his position was responsible for and therefore he didn't even know the definition of the "conflict of interest" when he was charged with it. As inexcusable as this is, it also falls into the context that he is the mayor of the largest cultural hub in the country — a whopping one million people more than the runner-up, Montreal.

Which leads to the good news. The hearings have yet to come to a conclusion and it's almost impossible to conceive that he'll be allowed to remain in power. The most disturbing aspect is that Ford himself seems unaware of exactly how incompetent he is. The posturing and mudslinging is primarily what gets reported in politics, but underneath it all, the politicians in charge of most vital public services are incredibly intelligent, resourceful individuals. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case with Ford, and there will be many breathing a sigh of relief if he's removed.

On a more local level, there was a remarkable display of either ignorance or apathy as the Mayor and warden of London addressed a letter to the provincial Minister of Health, Deb Matthews, asking her what powers they had to alter local healthcare programs apart from the Board of Health. Predictably, when the Board of Health met on September 13, the first item was the response drafted by Deb Matthews to Mayor Joe Fontana and warden Jim Maudsley informing them they had absolutely no powers to act outside of the Board of Health. The primary topic of debate was whether the Mayor and warden had broken any city bylaw by contacting the Health Minister without informing or collaborating with the Board of Health. Councillor and health board member Stephen Orser rightly pointed out that as Mayor of the City, Fontana is not bound by the rules attributed to the Board of Health.

While Orser's point stands, that the Mayor is not obligated to Board of Health regulations, it would have behooved him to, if not consult, at least inform the Board of the letter's existence. The debacle may have been a trivial one, but it consumed no less than 15 minutes of a meeting of over a dozen board members that, if you do the math, equates to a colossal waste of time. Petty jealousies and feeble power grabs seem to be the most consistent marker of both municipal and provincial politics and when it gets to that point polls have shown voter turnout drops to its current rate, the lowest in history, 49.2 percent.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.