The Brother

Chris Selley:

I assume recent days have driven the point home: Doug Ford will say absolutely anything that comes into his head, without a moment’s thought to tact, let alone fact. In a recent interview with the Toronto Sun‘s Sue-Ann Levy, Mr. Ford declared his certainty that the Toronto Star timed its crack cocaine story in order to distract the media from Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s troubles. This is psychedelic nonsense: The Star story was frantically written on deadline after Gawker broke its version. But this is a man for whom life seems essentially to be performance art.

Yeah. That would be a problem. 

Apparently impulse control was not something that was emphasized in the Ford household. Between the fatso and big mouth the two men are a right-wing wrecking crew.

We're not suppose to say that. It's an ad hominem. A cheap one at that. We should discuss only the policies and the ideas of the Fords which are, for the most part, pretty good. If this was a university lecture hall I might even concede that point. But it isn't. This is municipal politics in the Imperial Capital. Reason and big time politics are at best nodding acquaintances. At the local level? Geez. 

As Eric Andrew-McGee notes (HT Quot'd) the Fords are objected to less for what they have done, and much more for who they are. Sure they're rich. That's generally a good thing among the Toronto elite and a bad thing among the ordinary Torontonian, who spends his days being priced out of a single family home. But culture trumps economics. The Fords have been rich as blazes for decades, yet they behave like arriviste white trash. So the parlour Bolsheviks along the Yonge line look down their noses at the Fords, while the schleps living out in Etobicoke regard Rob and Doug as local heroes made good.

Since very few people pay attention to municipal politics, the victor is often the fellow with the loudest mouth and the most garish tie. Getting noticed is half way to winning. This is why Toronto City Council meetings have the faint air of a circus run by high school sophomores. But as Chris Selley points out, the further up you move in the political food chain the more scrutiny you get. Conduct becoming of a municipal councillor will get a pol turfed from a provincial, to say nothing of a federal caucus. The chaps running the show at Queen's Park and Ottawa regard municipal politicians as one small step above people who serve on condo boards.

Having the right ideas and good work ethic isn't enough. Part of what a politician is selling is themselves. A Doug Ford who wins a seat at Queen's Park is a Doug Ford who will expect to sit in cabinet. The phrase the Honourable Douglas Ford is going to get stuck in a lot of throats, both right and left wing.

 

Comments

[Jimmy Levendia]

The Left's mantra for decades has been "the personal is political", substituting lifestyle for more substantive economic and other issues. It was only a matter of time before the lesson was learned by populist conservative types. I was listening to talk radio a couple weeks ago when a Ford supporter called in and actually said "so Ford smoked crack. So what? Who hasn't smoked a little crack?". Now that the tag is on the other toe, the idiot Left shrieks. Not that I object to the Left's irritation...a little schadenfreude goes a long way with me...but I am getting mightily tired of all this lifestyle crap for one. Also the "Blue Grits, the inarticulate small c conservatives who like to think of themselves as Liberals in the 905 and the Toronto inner suburbs, will be frightened away. Since the electoral victory of any kind of Conservatism in Ontario depends on these people, this is a concern.

[mitchel44]

I'm sure the idea of Ralph Klein as mayor of Calgary and then Premier of Alberta stuck in a lot of throats.

Sadly, the last two leading Alberta as "Conservatives" have been anything but.

Frankly, it's hard to see Rob Ford in any manner that is not influenced by the media smears.

Whether that's in his favour or not remains to be seen.