:: sigh of relief ::
Doug Ford is apparently not going to be mayor of Toronto.
Jeez, when you said ‘sigh of relief’ I thought I was about to read: “Olivia Chow is apparently not going to be mayor of Toronto”.
Rob Ford has been re-elected, not as mayor, but to council!
Wha…?
It boggles the mind, doesn’t it?
“Our long national nightmare is over.”
Yeah, it’s not original, but it works here.
Has anyone heard if the Ford nephew who stepped down from the Council race, to allow Uncle Rob to run, was instead elected to the school board?
Without ever giving any sort of speech, declaring a platform, or attending a debate.
He was indeed elected.
Ford Nation lives!
Not sure if everybody has already seen John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight segment on the Doug and Rob.
Looking at the picture, he’s already got the distinctive Ford … profile …
Skimming through the article, he is a 20 year old guy who’s never attended a board of education meeting, and does not appear to bring any experience to the position. And yet, he beat the incumbent, winning a solid plurality of 44% in a multi-candidate race.
Ford Nation Lives!
Briefly resurrecting this thread, for no good reason other than I just finished reading a used copy of “The Only Average Guy”. It gives an insider view of the Fords, which supporters may justly criticize as being unbalanced because it was written by a critic serving on city council. But it does shed some light on why he was so popular in Etobicoke, something I always found fascinating. I genuinely laughed out loud a few times, which was unexpected.
The Fords have some good qualities, and raw political skills. One cannot help contrast some elements of their approach with those of Trump, although they are different people and such a comparison is of limited value.
Toronto has another mayoral race coming up and the most popular candidate by far dropped out to save his marriage among what seemed a somewhat milquetoast accusation. Tory was a policy wonk and a well educated man. It remains to be seen what is said of his replacement.
I guess no one is enthusiastic about this. Hard to blame anyone.
There seem to be two issues here, the current Toronto mayoral race (which no Ford is running in) and the Fords in general. The mayoral race is the usual silliness, with something like 100 candidates, many of whom are the typical crackpots that always run in these elections with zero chance of winning. The Toronto electorate has always been pretty reliably left-leaning, despite the regrettable election of Rob Ford years ago due to an anti-left backlash from the 905-area suburbs. This time they seem to be back in standard form, with the uber-left Olivia Chow the strong front-runner. So, an unremarkable race.
As for the Fords, the only Ford who is currently relevant is Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario. As a progressive who would normally vote Liberal, I have to say that the Ford government has been generally competent and unremarkable. I thought they handled COVID well, and I’m happy with Ford’s retroactive cancellation of all annual license renewal fees for personal vehicles (yes, I can be bought!). Only a few years ago you not only had to pay annual renewal fees but the vehicle also had to pass an annoying and largely unnecessary emissions test every two years. Ford canceled both.
So I’d venture that the reason there’s not a lot of commentary here is that neither the mayoral race nor Ford’s premiership have got anyone particularly riled up. It’s Canadian politics at its most typical – boring. Which is just the way I like it. 
I think Mike Ford has had political positions in Toronto.
He took Rob’s old city council seat in Etobicoke, and is now an MPP and minister in his Uncle Dougie’s cabinet.
I think Olivia will take this handily, with the progressive vote rallying behind her. The concern would be 4 progressives among the front runners splitting the vote and letting someone like Saunders take it with 20% of the popular vote, but I don’t think that will happen.