Recently we were writing about bumper-sticker campaigning. Nothing seems to say this better when six days before the election, the Ford brothers come out to help the Hair campaign in Toronto’s Etobicoke. And it is hard to say who is joining who at the bottom of the dumpster?
There is no question that Torontonian’s know Rob and Doug Ford better than they know the prime minister. The former mayor and present councillor and his brother the former councillor are still considered to be power house politicos in Etobicoke. They call their followers ‘Ford Nation.’ It is a rag-tag collection of suburbanites kept angry and on edge by the antics of their heroes, the Fords.
Rob Ford actually made it all the way to the mayor’s chair in Canada’s largest city. He is loud; he is crude; he told the media that he used crack cocaine; and he is an embarrassment to the city. He is also one of the best ward-healer politicians we have ever seen in action.
Rob Ford’s claim to fame is that his father left him and his brother with a company and lots of money. It bought Rob Ford a career at the low-end of politics. He became noted for always calling a constituent back. He was responsive and people bought into that. It was not that he was more effective—he was just bombastic. He brought a lot of notoriety to Toronto as mayor. Not much of it was good for the city.
It was a bout with cancer that took Rob Ford out of the mayoralty race for a second term and it was his brother Doug who tried to succeed him. Doug Ford has all the political savvy of bulldozer and his campaign went nowhere. He wanted to run as a Conservative in the last provincial election and found they did not want him.
But the bugle call went out to the Fords the other day. Their friend the prime minister is in a losing campaign—could they rally their troops in Etobicoke? It was one of those staged rallies with just party faithful admitted, to cheer on cue and wave party signs for the media. The best cheers were when the Ford boys were introduced. It was a lacklustre event. The Fords are last year’s players.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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