Looking back at the mayor of mayhem
UNFORGETTABLE SAGAS, SCOOPS AND SCANDALS FROM THE ARCHIVES |
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Dear reader, The only time I saw Rob Ford in person was in 2013, at Toronto’s annual Christmas tree lighting. I was 18, freshly arrived from the West Coast and completely out of the loop on Toronto news. So when the mayor walked onstage and the crowd erupted into boos—a clear, unanimous declaration of disapproval—I was shocked. I’d never seen anything like it. Who the hell is this guy, I thought, and what could he possibly have done? I soon learned what everyone else already knew: Ford’s mayoralty had devolved into a Mad Libs of political catastrophes, something closer to a season of Veep than the biography of your typical municipal leader. Nearly a decade after Ford’s tragic death, the saga is as bewildering as ever.
This week, as Netflix releases a documentary about his chaotic reign, we’re revisiting two features about Ford’s time as mayor—the pre–crack video era—lest we forget what a truly wild ride it was. For more great long-reads from Toronto Life, subscribe to our print edition here. |
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| By Maddy Mahoney
Features editor |
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By any measure, he’s a terrible candidate for mayor. But his obsession with cost-cutting and his contempt for city hall have pushed him to the front of the pack. The unlikely allure of Rob Ford |
BY GERALD HANNON | SEPTEMBER 29, 2010 |
There are many Torontonians who find the prospect of living in Ford Country scary. To them, Ford is a foul-mouthed buffoon with a long history of embarrassing gaffes and no grander vision of Toronto than a city that could be run more cheaply. His fans, on the other hand, can’t wait to see city hall wrenched from the grasp of big spenders and put into the hands of an ordinary guy who understands the problems facing ordinary people. That man, their man, is Rob Ford. |
THE WEIRDEST MAYORALTY EVER
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Loyal councillors have defied him. His approval ratings have plummeted. And his powerful Conservative backers are nervous. How did it all go so wrong? The strange story of Rob Ford’s city hall |
BY MARCI MCDONALD | MAY 15, 2012 |
Rob Ford started outas the Teflon mayor, a leader with such stratospheric approval ratings that prime ministers had come courting. Now, a small band of independent councillors are in open revolt, dealing him a series of humiliating defeats. In Conservative back rooms across the city, there is undisguised consternation: Ford is becoming an embarrassment—one who could do lasting damage to the party as a whole. How did he let such a massive electoral mandate slip away so swiftly? The story of a mayoralty in trouble. |
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