Moving past Rob Ford
We are officially at a point where there is simply no valid reason left to support Rob Ford as a candidate for Mayor of Toronto. Barring any surprises there will not be any further high profile candidate entering the race for Toronto’s Mayor. With the entrance of Olivia Chow, the former New Democratic Party (NDP) Member of Parliament (MP), Toronto’s socialists have their standard bearer. Moreover, with Karen Stintz, the former Chair of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), David Soknacki, David Miller’s former Budget Chief, and John Tory, the former Ontario Progressive Conservative (PC) Party leader, in the race there are simply too many options available to rationalize any support of Rob Ford going forward. I will go far enough as to suggest that doing so is deserving of ridicule.
Rob Ford has proven himself wholly inadequate at fulfilling the job of Mayor. This is not merely because he has engaged in recreational experimentation of crack cocaine while in one of his now infamous ‘drunken stupors’. This is not even because he refused to seek assistance for what is clearly a problem with alcohol and narcotic drug use. Rather, Rob Ford has proven him to be and uninformed, belligerent, childish, thuggish liar.
The fact of the matter is Toronto deserves better. Toronto deserves a Mayor who can work with across the aisle with their fellow Council members to achieve their promised goals. Rob Ford and Doug, his brother and campaign manager, assert that personal life is separate from public life. Look past the crack smoking to see the penny pinching. But here is the thing; the younger Ford does not have the record of success that he proclaims. Spending at City Hall has risen during the Fords’ tenure. Property taxes have gone up; including the largest increase in the City’s history. Despite this, services are being cut year after year, including at the TTC; which Rob Ford used to refer to as ‘essential’.
If this is a fiscal record one can support, Stintz has endorsed the ‘Ford fiscal plan’. Tory, Chow, and Soknacki: not so much. All four opposition candidates will offer varying platforms, all valid in their own rights. Torontonians are encouraged to carefully consider these plans, because at this point in time (even if I have my own personal preference) anyone would be better than Rob Ford.
I can already hear the Ford supporters firing back that I am just afraid of a Ford victory. To them I say, “You are damn right I am.” Nothing scares me more, as a citizen of Toronto, than ‘Ford more years’.
