Editor’s Letter (May 2013): is Rob Ford a folk hero or an international embarrassment?
Rob Ford has many fans. According to a poll conducted by Forum Research a couple of days after Sarah Thomson accused Ford of groping her, 43 per cent of Torontonians said they approved of the job he is doing as mayor. The pollster tried to explain Ford’s popularity to a Toronto Sun reporter. No bad press ever sticks to Ford, he said. “He’s made of Teflon.” I don’t think that’s exactly right. I suspect that Ford’s gaffes, his brushes with the law, his peculiar malapropisms and hysterical outbursts endear him to much of Toronto.
He’s unpolished and sincere—rare qualities in a politician. We live in an image-conscious age when even low-level public figures have press advisors. And yet Ford never seems fake. During the speech he gave after he won his conflict of interest appeal (the one in which he said the experience of being almost ousted was “very, very humbling”) he looked beaten down, sad and vulnerable. I wondered if he was perhaps a little disappointed that he still had a job. We know that he often sneaks away from the office to coach football. If he were unemployed he could coach full time, without fear of rebuke.
Plus, his job is inherently frustrating. The one thing lefties and right-wingers agree upon is that the mayor of Toronto has limited power. Ford cannot wave a magic wand to put new subways into the ground. Or single-handedly slash the budget to eliminate gravy. Or snap his fingers and suddenly have the casino of his dreams. He is, as pundits often remind us, just one vote on council. If you’re anti-Ford, his limited clout is a blessing. If you’re a fan, it’s a shame.
So what can the mayor of Toronto do? At the very least, the mayor is a figurehead. As the leader of the fourth-largest city in North America, and our chief spokesperson, he is responsible for articulating our ideals, outlining our aspirations, and generally, in words and deeds, setting the right tone. In this regard, he’s an abject failure. He’s incapable of capturing our imaginations or helping us understand what the city is about or where it should be going. Being in favour of fiscal restraint is not enough.
Toronto is having a pretty terrific decade. The downtown is bursting with new condos and businesses, our cultural figures are international celebrities, and our banking sector is the envy of the world. You’d never know that listening to Ford.
Instead of raising our expectations for the city, or celebrating our triumphs, or setting us all in a unified direction toward shared prosperity, Mayor Ford has a habit of saying things that don’t make sense. This, I’m afraid, will be his legacy.
In 2011, House of Anansi put out a bathroom book of the mayor’s most outrageous and bewildering quotes, called The Little Book of Rob Ford. A few months ago, Gawker posted a similar compendium of zingers in a story called “The Best of Toronto’s Insane, Terrible Mayor Rob Ford: An Introduction for Americans.” The Wall Street Journal ran a piece about Ford’s erratic behavior, his blunders, his alleged obscene gestures. Toronto has become known as the city with the train-wreck mayor.
Is he really as unhinged as his opponents say he is? The answer to that question can be found in “A Brief History of Rob Ford,” on page 42, in which you will find either a modern-day folk hero or an international embarrassment. It all depends on where you stand.
(Image: Christopher Wahl)
: is Rob Ford a folk hero or an international embarrassment?&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/toronto-life-sarah-fulford.jpg&description=Rob Ford has many fans. According to a poll conducted by Forum Research a couple of days after Sarah Thomson accused Ford of groping her, 43 per cent of Torontonians said they approved of the job he is doing as mayor. The pollster tried to explain Ford’s popularity to a Toronto Sun reporter. No bad press ever sticks to Ford, he said. “He’s made of Teflon.” I don’t think that’s exactly right. I suspect that Ford’s gaffes, his brushes with the law, his peculiar malapropisms and hysterical outbursts endear him to much of Toronto.
He’s unpolished and sincere—rare qualities in a politician. We live in an image-conscious age when even low-level public figures have press advisors. And yet Ford never seems fake. During the speech he gave after he won his conflict of interest appeal (the one in which he said the experience of being almost ousted was “very, very humbling”) he looked beaten down, sad and vulnerable. I wondered if he was perhaps a little disappointed that he still had a job. We know that he often sneaks away from the office to coach football. If he were unemployed he could coach full time, without fear of rebuke.
Plus, his job is inherently frustrating. The one thing lefties and right-wingers agree upon is that the mayor of Toronto has limited power. Ford cannot wave a magic wand to put new subways into the ground. Or single-handedly slash the budget to eliminate gravy. Or snap his fingers and suddenly have the casino of his dreams. He is, as pundits often remind us, just one vote on council. If you’re anti-Ford, his limited clout is a blessing. If you’re a fan, it’s a shame.
So what can the mayor of Toronto do? At the very least, the mayor is a figurehead. As the leader of the fourth-largest city in North America, and our chief spokesperson, he is responsible for articulating our ideals, outlining our aspirations, and generally, in words and deeds, setting the right tone. In this regard, he’s an abject failure. He’s incapable of capturing our imaginations or helping us understand what the city is about or where it should be going. Being in favour of fiscal restraint is not enough.
Toronto is having a pretty terrific decade. The downtown is bursting with new condos and businesses, our cultural figures are international celebrities, and our banking sector is the envy of the world. You’d never know that listening to Ford.
Instead of raising our expectations for the city, or celebrating our triumphs, or setting us all in a unified direction toward shared prosperity, Mayor Ford has a habit of saying things that don’t make sense. This, I’m afraid, will be his legacy.
In 2011, House of Anansi put out a bathroom book of the mayor’s most outrageous and bewildering quotes, called The Little Book of Rob Ford. A few months ago, Gawker posted a similar compendium of zingers in a story called “The Best of Toronto’s Insane, Terrible Mayor Rob Ford: An Introduction for Americans.” The Wall Street Journal ran a piece about Ford’s erratic behavior, his blunders, his alleged obscene gestures. Toronto has become known as the city with the train-wreck mayor.
Is he really as unhinged as his opponents say he is? The answer to that question can be found in “A Brief History of Rob Ford,” on page 42, in which you will find either a modern-day folk hero or an international embarrassment. It all depends on where you stand.
(Image: Christopher Wahl)){kind=link}
Fourth largest city in North America? I thought we were 5th: 1. Mexico City, 2. New York City, 3. Los Angeles, 4. Chicago, 5. Toronto. That’s how I remembered it, anyway. Interesting article, though.
he stinks.
Recent stats show that Toronto slipped past Chicago. See http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2013/03/05/torontos_population_overtakes_chicago.html for more information.
“according to the latest census data from Statistics Canada, as of last
July 1, Toronto’s population was 2,791,140, about 84,000 more than
Chicago’s 2,707,120”
This assertion that Toronto needs its government officials to spout aspirational nonsense back at us seems to be a childish fetish of the left, who seem to crave the idea of government acting as a parental figure, telling them stories and guiding them through life.
I don’t need an Obama-esque line of bullsh-t about “hope” coming out of my mayor’s mouth. I don’t need to be lead, or inspired. If I needed to hear pandering lofty bullsh-t there’s no shortage of that in this world.
What I do need is a mayor who can do what I told him to do by electing him based on what he said he’d do, and keep the city running.
Freshly disgraced ex-TDSB head Chris Spence spouted all sorts of complete garbage about community and the future and change. His blog is completely full of it. Even today he is STILL lauded by the left for his “vision” and his “ability to inspire”.
All this, despite the fact that he turned out to be completely full of crap, apparently a complete fraud, and completely incompetent as a manager of the TDSB.
So excuse me if I don’t care for the “thought leaders” of the media telling me that having a mayor that runs the city well “is not enough”.
We haven’t had one that could accomplish that in a decade.
The media has been running a slander campaign against Ford because he’s not a globalist tool (pro-gay, pro-race mixing, socialist, anti-freedom, pro-tax, pro-welfare, etc.).
We don’t need visionary leaders – we need competent ones. I think Ford is doing just fine given what he has to deal with at Toronto council.
Torontonians just want someone to run their city efficiently and effectively while its residents are left alone to go about their day to day business.
Most people wouldn’t consider longtime Mayor McCallion of Mississauga a visionary leader, but lo and behold, she’s been re-elected for 40 plus years and was the runner up in the 2005 World Mayor Foundation awards.
That must tell you something about what “the people” REALLY want….
International embarrassment. Next question…
Canadians are too stupid for democracy. That’s precisely WHY Rob Ford was elected and Hazel McCallion has been re-elected over and over again.
you’re missing the entire point of her article.
Let me summarize: since Toronto’s municipal system does not warrant any special powers to the mayor (as in, say, NYC), Toronto’s mayor only has one vote, and is effectively no more powerful than any other one vote on council. But, where the mayor can add value above his/her one vote is on a) setting tone and b) being a bridge building civic leader/unifying different factions and parties to drive towards goals and c) being a public figurehead for the city both nationally and internationally. Ford has disastrously performed on all 3.
You don’t need to be left or right to agree with common sense, you just need to think a bit with and recognize when someone makes a valid argument.
and he’s an incompetent buffoon, there’s that as well
The author writes “(Ford is) unpolished and sincere”
Sincere, except that he’s lying.
Vic, aside from being a Ford supporter you seam like a pretty reasonable guy. How can you consider Ford to competent? Forget about visionary – I’m just talking basic practical city management here. Have you seen and read about the things Ford has done? Not his media blunders, I mean the destructive and stupid things that would have (if council let him) seriously grave consequences for the city.