Old School Toronto Votes Regular Guy Rob Ford in as Mayor

By Gary Morton, October 25^th 2010.

Toronto Municipal Election News Page

http://photosc.msspro.com/megaelect/index.htm

 I have a section on my web site for every Toronto Mayoral Race since 2000. In this one I had the prediction up early that it would be a Rob Ford mayoral win.

It turns out I was correct and everyone I voted for won. I voted left and right, marking in Ford for mayor and the Mike Layton/Chris Bolton tag team for council/trustee in Trinity Spadina.

I felt a Rob Ford victory was there because Rob came into the race grabbing a huge lead in the polls. Large enough that it would be hard for George Smitherman or the others to cut him down. Another reason is simply what ordinary people said. The guy working at the beer store said, “I’m voting for Rob Ford because he’s like an ordinary guy or your buddy.” The third reason is that as a working person, I like many others have noticed how city workers and city budgets have gone way up, while the rest of us don’t see those fat increases. We work for hard bosses and there is no free city hall lunch or gravy train if any benefits at all. We’ve even heard city workers brag about their top benefits and easy jobs.

So I had it in mind that Rob Ford would win, but city council also needs voices for social justice so I voted for Layton/Bolton.

In life no matter how sure you are about something, you have those moments of uncertainty. And I had them after I saw the relentless unwavering attacks on Rob Ford at the tail of the ten month mayoral campaign. A large part of Big Media tossed everything at him from his mug shot on an old minor arrest to a bizarre, offensive and fake historical article in the Globe comparing him to Henry the VIII. Near the end three Star columns appeared in one day attacking Ford and in general the Toronto Star launched an assault on Ford that was amazing in that I can’t think of anyone else hit by so much media rocket fire.

NowToronto was about the same, running an issue with a feature with two top writers saying why they were voting for Pantalone or Smitherman but with no promo for Rob Ford. People asked me if Ford had dropped out of the race. Then NowToronto ran a voters’ guide with Ford’s photo at the left side with the caption Vote, but not for this Guy.

There were the elite endorsements for Smitherman from former Mayors Sewell and Crombie. Justin Trudeau even came to town to boost George Smitherman, with the two of them wearing flowered victory necklaces. George Smitherman had been so sure he’d be Toronto’s next mayor he’d taken a free trip to China on that basis. In the beginning and in the end nearly the entire Toronto elite were behind George Smitherman, with a few out for Pantalone.

Polls were also a distraction. I’ve never seen a city election with so many polls. The media used two of the polls with small samplings that showed Smitherman a point ahead to say it was a neck and neck race. They said it to the end and tried to explain it when the final results came in … which of course showed that the polls with a higher sampling and showing a sizable Ford lead were the accurate ones. The truthful explanation is that most media wanted Smitherman to be seen as winning so people would vote for the winner, and to portray a tight race to get people tuned in to election coverage.

Living in downtown Toronto I couldn’t even keep my Rob Ford sign up. The large sign was attacked two nights in a row and thrown down. Then finally someone came by at night and simply cut it up. Neighbours asked me why I would vote for Ford, and one friend tried to get me to vote Smitherman because it would be great for Toronto to have its first gay mayor.

But the gay thing never became much of an issue; there were some hate signs and an anti gay Tamil radio spot. If anything killed Smitherman it was (a) his record as a wasteful spender (b) his swing way to the right while trying to attract voters from the left and (c) his elite image, meaning he just doesn’t seem like your pal but more like a rich politician who snorts whatever the political version coke is with the high political rollers.

Ordinary people voted for Rob Ford and the next thing I’ll hear is voices saying what a big mistake I made in voting for him. But so what … Pantalone couldn’t win and because of Smitherman’s record I didn’t vote for him. For my friends who want Toronto to have its first openly gay mayor, I would say, “Give us a better candidate than Smitherman.” I’m sure Enza Anderson probably watches the dollars she spends while Smitherman doesn’t.

The way I see it things might balance out with a council still leaning left and a mayor leaning right. Compromise will build a city.

------------------------