In the September issue of VANITY FAIR, Todd S. Purdom wonders if private-sector business people – such as MITT ROMNEY – make good American presidents.  He writes “history shows the opposite – private-sector successes flop in office.”

TORONTONIANS, stuck with an out-of-his-depth, bully mayor, who also happens to be a millionaire business “tycoon”, might wonder if the same basic rules apply here.  Todd Turdom in Vanity Fair: “Conquering adversity could be said to be the essential job description of the presidency.  Each  day brings some fresh hell, some new requirement for multi-tasking or grace under pressure, and the perpetual challenge is . . . to keep all the balls in the air without losing your own”.

“It may well be, as the Romneys of the world like to say, that most politicians have ‘never met a payroll’, but most businesspeople have never dealt with the wily, needy, fickle types who populate a typical legislature, either.”

It doesn’t take much imagination to apply those exact words to the municipal nightmare we have going for us in TORONTO.

<The Mayor looking for non-existent gravy, http://montrealsimon.blogspot.ca

RICHARD FLORIDA, author of “The Rise of the Creative Class” and its updated edition “The Rise of the Creative Class, Updated”, is a renowned academic and urban guru.  He makes his home here in TORONTO where he’s a staff member at the ROTMAN SCHOOL, University of Toronto.  Lately, he’s been looking with displeasure at what’s befallen his adopted city – notably the election of ROB FORD as mayor.

Speaking to columnist Courtney Shea in The Grid, July 26, RICHARD FLORIDA has this to say: “(In 2014) I would like to see a younger person (elected as mayor) and someone who is not a usual suspect.  Somebody who looks and acts like (CBC radio host) JIAN GHOMESHI.”