Oct 10
26
Toronto Sun – October 26, 2010
Rob Ford slays a goliath: Goldstein
The Liberals’ entire Big Red Machine, backed by the Toronto Star, worked desperately to defeat Rob Ford
By Lorrie Goldstein
The crushing election victory of Rob Ford, massively voted in as Toronto’s 64th mayor Monday, is a watershed moment not just in municipal, but provincial and federal politics. Ford campaigned successfully as a fiscal conservative, promising to cut taxes, eliminate waste and throttle political and bureaucratic arrogance and indifference to taxpayers at City Hall. But on another level, he’s also a “Big C” Conservative who defeated what until now has been the Liberals’ unbeatable Big Red Machine in Fortress Toronto, both provincially and federally.
Ford’s victory serves as a warning to incumbents everywhere, regardless of political stripe, that they are facing an increasingly hostile electorate, who see arrogant Big Government and indifferent, tax-and-spend politicians, not as the solution to hard economic times, but as the problem. However, since all the incumbents in Toronto provincially and federally are Liberals — with a few NDPers thrown in — Ford’s victory is also a clear signal to them they could be in big trouble going forward, even in the heartland of Liberal support in Canada.
Dismissed as an ineffective, hot-headed buffoon when he entered the race in March by these self-described “progressive” elites, who have ruled the roost in Toronto for years, Ford and his team ran by far the most disciplined and technologically sophisticated campaign of any of the major mayoral contenders. Indeed, the other camps ended up imitating them. Ford stayed on message and didn’t panic in the face of mid-campaign scandals like the Sun’s reporting of his 11-year-old marijuana/booze bust for driving under the influence in Florida, or overreact to ups and downs in the polls.
Amazingly, Ford, notorious for his uncontrollable temper during his 10 years on council as the representative for Etobicoke North — which his brother and campaign manager, Doug Ford, now inherits — successfully held his tongue as his increasingly desperate opponents threw everything at him, including the cheap shot he was “too fat” to be mayor. As a result, Ford, whose late father, Doug Sr., served as a backbencher in the Mike Harris Ontario government from 1995 to 1999, pummelled the Liberals in their own town.
In the wake of this election, it’s time to put a knife through the heart of the political fiction that only the NDP engages in party politics at the municipal level. The Liberals’ entire Big Red Machine, backed by the Toronto Star, worked desperately to defeat Ford. This time, it included not just provincial and federal Liberals — the former spearheaded, ill-advisedly, considering the results, by Premier Dalton McGuinty — but opportunistic NDPers, Red Tories and ex-Toronto mayors.