Toronto’s Wurst Family would have us believe in the divine right of Fords. But as Doug Ford shamelessly gathered his family in front of his teary-eyed mother’s house last night to formally announce his run for mayor – and then had the nerve to ask the media to leave them alone – the scene looked more like reality TV’s Duck Dynasty than the Kennedys.
The sullen one standing in the back wearing the cowboy hat was biggest brother Randy who Doug once told me was the craziest of the fightin’ Fords. He was regaling me with a tale of Big Bro head-butting a fan in the washroom at a pick-up game of hockey. Doug didn't know who I was. (Here’s a tip, Doug, next time Google my name before, not after, we take a trade mission to Austin, Texas together.)
Just as we were beginning to imagine a Ford-free future, they’re back, as outrageous as ever. Rather than gathering the clan to support their ailing brother Rob, the Fords pull a mad dog move of a desperate tribe determined to ram their right-wing populism down the throats of a progressive city.
We have to seize the agenda folks. The Fords have made this city a punch line for too long. Time to punch the clock on this pathetic parade. We need a real debate over the last few weeks of this campaign between the only two serious candidates left in this campaign, John Tory and Olivia Chow.
Like a car wreck, it’s hard not to stare in disbelief at the Fords but we cannot let them continually hijack the city-building debate in Toronto.
Doug doesn’t have what it takes to be mayor. He’s a rookie politician, an amateur technically since this multimillionaire Everyman is so rich he doesn't need to take a pay cheque. Astoundingly, he is less likable than his little bro. Even Rob seemed intimidated on our Texas trip, moving that inexplicable gaze perpetually skyward to the floor like someone dreading a smack whenever Doug entered the room.
Dougie is not even a good fake Man of the People. So let’s get Chow and Tory to stop fighting this over-sized Boogie Man, and explore the real differences in their policies so we can wake up from a four-year nightmare.
If it’s story line the people of Toronto want, we already have a compelling one: can a onetime Conservative leader and perpetually unelectable politician, Tory, successfully convince a city he has reinvented himself? Will a city that rarely elects Tories elect Tory? And can a career politician, Chow, the widow of one of this country’s greatest campaigners, save what has been a stunningly flawed campaign and re-emerge as the progressive standard bearer?
The press and the public need to be ready to treat this as the real two-person race. Rob Ford has left the building; we can’t let the rest of the family sneak back in.
Source: nowtoronto.com/
Author: MICHAEL HOLLETT
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