It’s official. I live in the stupidest city in Canada.
Toronto City Council just approved spending $8.5 million for a fucking flag pole! This 125 meter erection will be in the lovely community of Emery Village, near Highway 400 and Finch Avenue.
CBC reports, “Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti, who has been pushing the project, says it’s about time the city invested in the neighbourhood.” Apparently Giorgio doesn’t really understand investing, so if he gives you stock advice, run.
The $8.5 million dollar price tag breaks down into $5 million for the land, (which one can only presume is owned by a city councilor or a family member) and $3.5 million for the pole itself. The cost of which will be paid for by the lucky business owners, whether they like it or not. You know, because they will reap the benefits of the thousands of tourists who will flock to gaze in wide-eyed wonder at the mighty erection. Each business will have the pleasure of forking over almost $1,300 to those idiots at city hall who approved this.
Next thing you know Toronto will elect Rob Ford mayor which will be perfect because you can be sure, “if there is a flag pole in the yard, there is a redneck in the house.”
It gets even better though. They are now talking of asking either Pfizer (the maker of Viagra an erectile dysfunction drug) or Eli Lilly (the maker of Cialis, another ED drug) to sponsor the flag pole.
Seriously I can’t even make this shit up!
*** UPDATE ***
I tweeted about this and @mayormiller responded assuring me that the tax payers would not be on the hook for the money. I wonder if the 2700 business owners know they will be shelling out $4,000 each?