Toronto, Finally Rescued

"Tonight, voters have sent a message that is abundantly clear. Voters want their elected officials to get down to work on the priorities that matter most to them. Better transit, more jobs, an end to the gridlock that is choking our streets."
"And the electorate has spoken on one other issue: Torontonians want to see an end to the division that has paralyzed city hall in the last few years ... Toronto, I hear you."
"We live in a good city. A really, really good city. My goal in the next four years, together with council, is to unite this city as one Toronto and to build a great city."
Toronto Mayor-elect John Tory

Well, then finally time for the clown contingent to bow out. One might wish it to be so. The notorious Ford clan, however, has other ideas; down but not completely out. Rob Ford is on the mend from cancer surgery, and was handily re-elected -- to city council, not the mayoralty. Big brother Doug thought he could vault on his little-big-brother's still-puzzling popularity from council to the mayor's seat, but failed. For the time being, however, and for the near foreseeable future, a man who is competent and dignified takes his place.

Amazingly, not by much, as it happened With the worthy John Tory winning the mayoralty with 40% of the vote in his favour, while brother Doug took a still-whopping 34% support, leaving Olivia Chow to wonder what happened as she trailed with 23% of the unpopular vote. It is nothing short of mind-boggling that a bumptious loud-mouth with a drug and alcohol-addiction problem who consorted with the criminal class, would have been able to sustain his popularity level.

Portraying himself as a populist concerned with saving the taxpayers grief and money, the man was an insult to the public office he held, degrading the position and Toronto's reputation not only across the country, but into the international sphere with people looking on agog at once-staid Toronto's fall from grace, embracing a lout with a mysterious appeal to a large segment of the population. Which, it would seem, speaks volumes for that large segment's values.

There surely were many who felt that Toronto had hit rock bottom electing and then re-electing the artlessly absurd Mel Lastman with his circus-barker intelligence quotient embarrassing the city across Canada; at least he kept his ineptitude and graceless performance solidly at home. Rob Ford celebrated his obtuse bumptiousness as a consummate art, secure in the belief that he was loved and admired even while onlookers regarded him as a rarity less than admirable.



But, that's the past, sad as it is. Oh, wait a minute; that's right; Rob Ford is sticking around on council. A Ford nephew was elected to the school board. And, groan, the young and resiliently rotund Ford promises to return in four years' time yet again to compete for the mayorality, a candidacy he is certain will be acclaimed next time around.