Rob Ford is handing out Ford Nation passports to the youth of Toronto
Rob Ford won the 2010 election in much the same way Barack Obama won the U.S. presidency in 2008: he inspired a bunch a people who rarely vote to come out and cast a ballot for him. Now, it appears he’s doing the same thing. The 2014 municipal election is seven months away, and Ford is again building his coalition along unconventional lines. So far, he seems to be going after homophobes and young people.
The latter group has been getting attention from Ford this week. On Wednesday night, the mayor was out glad-handing at Gravity Soundbar with his campaign manager Doug Ford, taking pictures with partiers, handing out Ford Nation t-shirts and celebrating the birthday of his friend DJ Tony Monaco. The Instagramming, as usual, was out of control. NRG Lifestyle and Marketing Group, who promote clubs like Gravity and Fiction, went so far as to promise their votes to the mayor via a grammatically dubious tweet:
@TOMayorFord Thank You for the appearance @GravitySoundBar You got all 57NRG members votes+Gravities staff #robnation pic.twitter.com/vbx10st9Cp
— NRG LifeStyle (@NRG_LifeStyle) February 13, 2014
“It was a great bar, people treated us like gold,” Ford said yesterday morning during a 30-minute appearance on the youth-oriented dance music radio station Z103.5, where Monaco works. “[I] support the youth. I’m really out there, I can relate to the youth. We’re going to have a ton of youth out for the campaign.” He went on to advise listeners to campaign for him because it would “look good on their resumes.”
Doug took some time with reporters at city hall on Thursday to confirm that the youth vote is indeed in Ford’s sights. “The young folks out there absolutely love him, and we just want to get them engaged in the election, make sure they get out and vote and get them (to be) part of the campaign team too,” he said. “They know the mayor relates to them, understands them, and that’s a huge demographic so we just have to get them out to vote.”
Toronto’s youth vote is a double-edged sword. 62.9 per cent of people 18 to 21 turned out to vote in the 2010 municipal election. That’s higher than the one in three that voted federally in 2011, but still leaves 37.1 per cent unaccounted for—a large number of voters who can only remember Toronto as an amalgamated city, live largely in the suburbs and are more willing than their older counterparts to tolerate drug use. In other words, it’s fertile ground for a populist former crack smoker like Rob Ford.
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/city/rob-ford-youth-strategy-election-2014/&title=Rob Ford is handing out Ford Nation passports to the youth of Toronto&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Featured1.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_260157" align="aligncenter" width="656"] (Images: Instagram)[/caption]
Rob Ford won the 2010 election in much the same way Barack Obama won the U.S. presidency in 2008: he inspired a bunch a people who rarely vote to come out and cast a ballot for him. Now, it appears he's doing the same thing. The 2014 municipal election is seven months away, and Ford is again building his coalition along unconventional lines. So far, he seems to be going after homophobes and young people.
The latter group has been getting attention from Ford this week. On Wednesday night, the mayor was out glad-handing at Gravity Soundbar with his campaign manager Doug Ford, taking pictures with partiers, handing out Ford Nation t-shirts and celebrating the birthday of his friend DJ Tony Monaco. The Instagramming, as usual, was out of control. NRG Lifestyle and Marketing Group, who promote clubs like Gravity and Fiction, went so far as to promise their votes to the mayor via a grammatically dubious tweet:
https://twitter.com/NRG_LifeStyle/statuses/433851748042952705
“It was a great bar, people treated us like gold,” Ford said yesterday morning during a 30-minute appearance on the youth-oriented dance music radio station Z103.5, where Monaco works. “[I] support the youth. I’m really out there, I can relate to the youth. We’re going to have a ton of youth out for the campaign.” He went on to advise listeners to campaign for him because it would "look good on their resumes."
Doug took some time with reporters at city hall on Thursday to confirm that the youth vote is indeed in Ford's sights. “The young folks out there absolutely love him, and we just want to get them engaged in the election, make sure they get out and vote and get them (to be) part of the campaign team too,” he said. “They know the mayor relates to them, understands them, and that’s a huge demographic so we just have to get them out to vote.”
Toronto’s youth vote is a double-edged sword. 62.9 per cent of people 18 to 21 turned out to vote in the 2010 municipal election. That's higher than the one in three that voted federally in 2011, but still leaves 37.1 per cent unaccounted for—a large number of voters who can only remember Toronto as an amalgamated city, live largely in the suburbs and are more willing than their older counterparts to tolerate drug use. In other words, it's fertile ground for a populist former crack smoker like Rob Ford.){kind=link}
Fertile ground? Notoriety is not necessarily the same thing as respect. If the commentary on these social media photos are of any indication, many of these kids are mocking Ford behind his back. Whether they think it will be fun to elect the class clown as school president remains to be seen.
Ford should be kept away from children at all costs!
He relates to people that are high and drunk.
$10 says Rob Ford wins the election!
people will always go against the norm and at the moment that norm wants Ford out of office. The Toronto Star unfortunately, is rebuilding Ford Nation so to speak.
Rob Ford is quickly becoming out of fashion.
“Vote for Rob! It will look good on your resume!”
Now there is a winning slogan, if ever I saw one.
He said, “The check is in the mail.”
He said, “Of course I will respect you in the morning.”
He said, “It will look good on your resume.”
Rob Ford won the election in 2010 much differently than Barack Obama won the election in 2008.
Who doesn’t want their picture taken next to a train wreck or any other disaster. It makes for an interesting conversation piece. It blows me away that he has avoided answering questions when it’s apparent that he hasn’t quit anything. Caught on camera out on a binge with Lisi. If that’s not thumbing your nose at Toronto’s citizens, what is?
Does ford nation support importing guns, using them to kill people on the streets and selling drugs to children like R*b F**d does? I do! Go Dixon Bloods!
So he’s courting the votes of a segment of the population that probably does not own their home and pay property taxes. I plead with the people of Toronto to not vote for this buffoon.
“I’m really out there, I can relate to the youth.” Acting childish does that.
Courting youth vote is great and all. But to vote for Ford you.need to be an idiot or a nihilist, who wouldn’t bother voting anyway. So that only leaves one type of Ford supporter.
People take their photos with him just like people take photos of themselves next to the drunk and passed out idiots at Spring Break.
How vain can he get? People treated us like gold? Hopefully this will be a lesson in not counting before they’re hatched.