Ford’s dumb mistakes make Mayor Olivia Chow more likely

There’s a new poll out, showing that Rob Ford would lose in a hypothetical election campaign against NDP MP Olivia Chow. Chow, who was a Toronto city councillor for years alongside her late husband, Jack Layton, hasn’t committed to running, but has of late left the door to a potential run increasingly open. The poll is consistent with others that have shown Ford with a core group of supporters that would give him an excellent chance of being re-elected in a three-way race, but trouble if running against only one (presumably left-leaning) challenger. Ford’s approval rating is still hovering in the low-to-mid 40s, where it’s largely stayed since he took office two years ago. But as much as 10% of the city, while approving of the job he’s doing, would shift their votes to someone else, like Chow.

This might have something to do with what even Ford admits is his habit of doing stupid things. He recently told the media that going forward, he needs to avoid support-sapping little mistakes. “Minor stupid things like talking on the phone [and] reading while I’m driving,” the mayor listed as the sort of thing he needs to stop doing.

That was a pretty generous self-appraisal — the mayor routinely does things that are way stupider than that. Recent examples: Suggesting the city’s integrity commissioner positions be scrapped because they annoy him, giving out the wrong emergency telephone number ahead of Hurricane Sandy’s arrival in Toronto, writing an apology so grudging and half-hearted that the city’s integrity commissioner thinks he should be reprimanded for it, pressuring the city to spend money improving the area around his family business and seeking provincial help for his football team. Only his football team.

This list of Ford fumbles is far from complete. It’s just stuff that’s happened the last few days.

So, yes, there’s some room for improvement. But it seems that, despite all the inane things the mayor does, people still like some of what he’s doing. He’s had some successes — scrapped the vehicle registration fee, privatized more trash collection, secured good labour deals for the city. His approval rate is, as said above, generally steady. But as soon as voters are presented a hypothetical choice other than Ford, they (hypopthetically) leap at it. Why?

One can’t help but think that while voters might like a lot of what Ford is doing, and might even admire his bull-in-city-council’s-china-shop routine, they don’t necessarily feel the urge to choose four years more of it. It’s always risky trying to read collective group conclusions into polling percentages, but the notion that many in Toronto might be enjoying the Ford interregnum while it lasts while appreciating that it might be time to get an adult back into office soon feels about right.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Ford still has two years. If he could somehow simply cut out the eye-rolling groaner mistakes he insists on making — the stupid, minor stuff he rightly acknowledges he has a habit of doing — then Ford might be able to solidify enough support among those who like what he’s doing without liking how he’s doing it. Populist and right-leaning policies need not be accompanied by buffoonery and frequent calls to the police. Is there anyone out there who thinks that John Tory, currently hosting the prime-time afternoon slot at Toronto’s NewsTalk 1010, could not have accomplished all the things that Ford has done without the constant parade of embarrassment?

There’s a tendency among Ford’s supporters to dismiss all criticism of their mayor as simply another media pile-on, to treat Ford as a victim of everything except his own bad decisions and habits. This seems to reflect Ford’s own lack of introspection or ability to self-critique. But the irony is that the kind of people who mostly loudly champion Rob Ford are the kind who would most loudly bemoan Mayor Olivia Chow. But Ford’s unforced errors make Mayor Chow more and more possible.

Rob Ford doesn’t need to change his political agenda. He just needs to do it better. And maybe it’s time even his supporters tell him so. Making excuses for Ford today makes the election of David Miller’s philosophical successor tomorrow more likely.

Original Article
Source: national post
Author: Matt Gurney