Five things we learned about Doug Ford from Saturday’s Globe and Mail
Doug Ford is a toughie for Toronto press corps to write about. Officially, he’s just another councillor, and a really green one at that. But he’s also the only member of the Ford posse who doesn’t seem bound by the cone of silence surrounding the mayor’s office, so he’s the guy reporters go to when they need a sense of what the mayor’s thinking on issues like NFL franchises, monorails or the waterfront. This weekend, however, the Globe and Mail went all out, featuring a profile of the senior of the Brothers Ford. Five things we learned about Doug, after the jump.
1. He’s worried this job will kill him
Talk to the mayor, councillor. Despite being on the job for little over six months, the 260-pounder is worried that the go-go-go pace of being a city councillor is going to break him. He won’t even commit to running again in 2014 (yikes!), telling the Globe: “I know one thing, I don’t want to be reading my obituary in the newspaper, and this place may very well kill me if I go much longer.” Rob Ford, meanwhile, has been at city hall since 2000. He’s a healthy eater—although he’s no longer a vegetarian (as Josh Matlow recently revealed he had been), he still doesn’t eat red meat.
2. Six Sigma: not just for 30 Rock jokes anymore
Six Sigma, the management style developed at Motorola, popularized by General Electric’s Jack Welch and lampooned by Tina Fey on 30 Rock, is a Doug Ford favourite (just like Republicans down south). Basically, it’s all about streamlining and getting good data on work processes. Who could object to that? Well, they used to call Welch “the buzz saw” because he cut GE’s departments pretty fiercely. We’re guessing this might become an issue.
3. Doug makes more friends than Rob
Even Adam Vaughan, who plays the role of Moriarty to the mayor’s Sherlock, basically gets along with Doug, telling the Globe, “He’s open to talking. I have two or three conversations a week with Doug. I’ve had more conversations with Doug this week than I’ve had with Rob in 10 years.” He also thinks Doug is “a more complex person” than the mayor, which is probably kinder than the abbreviated “he’s the smart one” councillors sometimes use.
4. His plan for building Sheppard is to… start building Sheppard
From Ford: “Let’s just get the shovels in the ground.” We could note that there already were shovels in the ground on Sheppard (for Transit City), but that would be petty. Instead we’ll just say that Doug’s plan—start building with limited funding and hope the process snowballs—is “intriguing.” We also say that Gordon Chong is probably tearing his hair out somewhere.
5. He really does respect his little brother
Despite getting snubbed by the Conservative establishment, Doug believed in his brother’s ability to win the mayoral election last year. “Just imagine calling 80 to 100 people from all across Toronto, hearing what they have to say. He gets this city.” Of course, we still want to know which phone calls the mayor—and his brother—are listening to. Say a few hundred cyclists called them up and told them to leave Jarvis Street alone—would they?
• Doug Ford: Riding shotgun in the Fordmobile [Globe and Mail]
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[caption id="attachment_72627" align="alignleft" width="275" caption="Councillor Doug Ford (Image: City of Toronto)"] [/caption]
Doug Ford is a toughie for Toronto press corps to write about. Officially, he’s just another councillor, and a really green one at that. But he’s also the only member of the Ford posse who doesn’t seem bound by the cone of silence surrounding the mayor’s office, so he’s the guy reporters go to when they need a sense of what the mayor’s thinking on issues like NFL franchises, monorails or the waterfront. This weekend, however, the Globe and Mail went all out, featuring a profile of the senior of the Brothers Ford. Five things we learned about Doug, after the jump.
1. He’s worried this job will kill him
Talk to the mayor, councillor. Despite being on the job for little over six months, the 260-pounder is worried that the go-go-go pace of being a city councillor is going to break him. He won’t even commit to running again in 2014 (yikes!), telling the Globe: “I know one thing, I don't want to be reading my obituary in the newspaper, and this place may very well kill me if I go much longer.” Rob Ford, meanwhile, has been at city hall since 2000. He’s a healthy eater—although he’s no longer a vegetarian (as Josh Matlow recently revealed he had been), he still doesn’t eat red meat.
2. Six Sigma: not just for 30 Rock jokes anymore
Six Sigma, the management style developed at Motorola, popularized by General Electric’s Jack Welch and lampooned by Tina Fey on 30 Rock, is a Doug Ford favourite (just like Republicans down south). Basically, it’s all about streamlining and getting good data on work processes. Who could object to that? Well, they used to call Welch “the buzz saw” because he cut GE’s departments pretty fiercely. We’re guessing this might become an issue.
3. Doug makes more friends than Rob
Even Adam Vaughan, who plays the role of Moriarty to the mayor’s Sherlock, basically gets along with Doug, telling the Globe, “He's open to talking. I have two or three conversations a week with Doug. I've had more conversations with Doug this week than I've had with Rob in 10 years.” He also thinks Doug is “a more complex person” than the mayor, which is probably kinder than the abbreviated “he’s the smart one” councillors sometimes use.
4. His plan for building Sheppard is to… start building Sheppard
From Ford: “Let's just get the shovels in the ground.” We could note that there already were shovels in the ground on Sheppard (for Transit City), but that would be petty. Instead we’ll just say that Doug’s plan—start building with limited funding and hope the process snowballs—is “intriguing.” We also say that Gordon Chong is probably tearing his hair out somewhere.
5. He really does respect his little brother
Despite getting snubbed by the Conservative establishment, Doug believed in his brother’s ability to win the mayoral election last year. “Just imagine calling 80 to 100 people from all across Toronto, hearing what they have to say. He gets this city.” Of course, we still want to know which phone calls the mayor—and his brother—are listening to. Say a few hundred cyclists called them up and told them to leave Jarvis Street alone—would they?
• Doug Ford: Riding shotgun in the Fordmobile [Globe and Mail]){kind=link}