Ted Schmidt, Toronto

The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity.
William Butler Yeats, in The Second Coming
 

The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity.
William Butler Yeats, in The Second Coming
 

     How does one explain Toronto’s cringe-inducing mayor Rob Ford to the rest of Canada?
    Where does one start in analyzing how a man largely considered a buffoon by his fellow councillors could become the chief executive of what we imagined was a sophisticated urban populace?
    Here is my abbreviated take as a concerned citizen.
    Overheard in the Beaches area of Toronto.
    “I don’t care if he is a child molester. He is lowering my taxes. I’d vote for Rob Ford again.”
    She and many others are operating out of a deep unexplored well of resentment. This cesspool of unexamined emotions has many layers.
    Ford is a right wing populist, a scion of a wealthy, angry right wing –  far right Tory millionaire. Rob had shown little ability in school, failed to complete any higher education, showed no interest in the family label business. What can we do about Robbie, his family wondered? How about city politics?
    He becomes a cartoon character who rails against the fat at City Hall. He takes no salary as he is a millionaire. He rants on about “the gravy train” at City Hall – money spent by councillors communicating with constituents, money spent on social capital and culture, affordable housing etcetera. He has no interest in the common good. Why should he – he does not need social services!
    Rob returns phone calls. He is a classic ‘ward heeler’. Pot holes? Call Rob. Neighbour’s playing music too loud. Call Rob. He shows up at Council with ear plugs in. He is regularly outvoted 30-1. Nobody took him seriously until the last civic election when with deep pockets he runs against a tainted Liberal George Smitherman, himself knee-deep in his inability to manage cost overruns in the provincial health budget.
     For many it is Hobson’s choice. Ford wins!
     Most Torontonians did not know his background but he carried the anti-tax mantra with him, the bacillus which has ruined the United States and proceeded north. People can not make the connection between taxes and good services.
    In an economic downturn people resonate with this absurdity. So Ford runs on this populist creed. He gets elected but finds out that there is no fat at City Hall but the rubes in the burbs buy his nonsense. Their man is in charge now. He’ll show the pointy heads how to run a city.
    The educated see through his gross incompetence, his superficial nostrums, his illiteracy. He is absolutely incompetent at presiding over a major Canadian city. His overweening arrogance prevents him from understanding that he is in way over his head. He  loves the attention he gets.
    Imagine his opening day allowing the ultimate buffoon Don Cherry to preside over his inauguration!
    Who would vote for this man? The aggrieved people hurt in an economic downturn looking for scapegoats, looking to stop paying any taxes like the Beacher who would vote for a pedophile if he kept taxes low, the Anglo poor who sense they have lost voice in the new multihued Toronto, the economic elite who have enough private wealth and want a rep to squeeze more money from public services on which so many people count on: libraries, rec centres, social agencies etc.
    Throw in those who have little time to analyze Rob Ford and his fatuous promises. Toss all of these together and in a balkanized city which has lost its centre and its pride courtesy of Mike Harris and you have enough angry people who consider themselves Ford Nation, a huge embarrassment to concerned citizens who cherish the common good.
    Ford nation is a repository of smoldering anger. It wants to lash out at ‘the elites’, whoever they are. Ford to them is everyman. Just like them. Sure he’s made mistakes, but so have I. They vote for somebody like themselves. But the point is you don’t want somebody like yourself as a chief magistrate. You want and need somebody smarter than yourself who understands the complexities of running a megacity.
    The sad fact is the world has not seen enough of the Mike Harrises, George Bushes, guys you could have a beer with. We’re in love with mediocrity.
    All over the world people are laughing at Toronto for voting in such a duffus, a sad out of control man who has made us the butt of humour.
    It is very difficult to pay attention to complex issues  when living under advanced capitalism. The carnival never ends. The diversions never stop. We Canadians. more and more like our cousins to the south, have become the best entertained and the least informed people on the planet.
    As my button says, “If you voted for Rob Ford you owe me an apology.”