Toronto elected a mayor, not a priest

It’s not easy being mayor. And it shouldn’t be. Not in a big city with complex relationships, disparate dreams, and citizens sprung from the corners of the globe and brought together to navigate ancient grievances.

No, it’s not easy being a mayor of a large city with a world view and global reach.

So, there is only a little corner of sympathy today for Mayor Rob Ford, the people’s choice who chose to fold his arms when extended hands were what Toronto required this past week of gay community events.

Stubbornly clinging to a narrow view of his role, his purpose and his job, the mayor squandered a civic moment and laid the carpet for many hateful people to engage in cruel thoughts and spout vitriol.

I got a full dose of that, following a column stating Mayor Ford had a civic duty to attend the Parade or some other Pride week event. Yes, a full 90 per cent of the reaction supported Ford’s decision to snub Pride.

I expected the same from friends, family and fellow church members.

I understand where Ford is coming from — all the excuses about family time at the cottage notwithstanding. If family time was the real reason, the mayor would have spent the past weekend with his immediate family and still find time to spend one hour or fraction thereof with the gay side of his civic family. There were a multitude of events that need not upset his sensibilities or offend his sense of right or wrong.

So, the mayor didn’t have to attend the Pride parade. Many citizens refuse to attend the parade because it’s too risqué, too racy, too much nudity, too much exhibitionism for their prudish, some say sexually conservative or repressed selves.

Those are moral choices made by the individual, the citizen, not the civic father.

If the only way to give a civic, secular imprimatur to this major city event was to attend the parade, then, as mayor, you must bury your personal misgivings and attend. Alas, Ford had many other options — including the Pride flag-raising on the civic square right outside his office.

By avoiding every single event, no matter how innocuous, Ford sent out the signal that gay people are not part of his city. He will take their taxes. He will take the economic benefits that flowed from the event. He will even give a couple hundred thousands in seed money to deliver millions. But gays don’t count.

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Source: Toronto Star