The last two weeks in Toronto have been a shining example of why the English language contains the words “as I write this,” a phrase that has perhaps never been as useful for municipal politics as it is now. As I write this, Rob Ford’s allies on Toronto City Council are few and growing fewer. Twenty-eight councillors have signed a petition calling for him to be stripped of all of his powers, his office budget, and basically anything provincial law doesn’t require. (They need 30 to succeed.) And the premier of Ontario, Kathleen Wynne, announced Thursday that things are now so bad at City Hall that the province is willing to step in if council asks them to. And, and, the day started with Ford uttering a crudity the evening news had to argue over whether to bleep or not. And, and, and, there’s a strong argument to be made that this wasn’t even Rob Ford’s worst day in the last two weeks.
Let’s talk about Kathleen Wynne, shall we? There is not now, just as there was not in May, any reason for the premier to really relish the thought of inserting Queen’s Park into Toronto City Council. If nothing else, this premier has her own scandal, as her government is currently also under investigation, albeit with orders of magnitude less police surveillance but orders of magnitude more public money at stake. Wynne got her start in politics railing against an uncaring provincial government foisting amalgamation on the unwilling cities that now make up Toronto, and has to tread very lightly when she says Ontario is willing to act. So, naturally, she’s opening the door and asking city council if they’d like to walk through.
Or, if you prefer, she’s put the gun and ammo on the table, and is asking council if it really wants her to load it.
Council may yet decide they don’t want to set that precedent. They are nothing if not zealous guardians of their own self-regard, and the idea that they need outside help to solve a problem like Rob Ford offends some and disturbs others. (Regulate how many pinball machines a restaurant can have? Council is on it. Purge the city’s politics of a vicious poison? Let’s not be hasty.) You can already hear people asking if this doesn’t prod the city down a slippery slope—as if the “crack-smoking, drunk driving, obscene mayor who lets his violent felon friends hang around schoolchildren” precedent was likely to be repeated. And if it were repeated, isn’t ejecting the mayor from office a precedent we want to set?
The other argument for keeping Ford in place is that council will, by Monday, have already thoroughly neutered him, and that fully ejecting him would in effect just contribute to his re-election run. I haven’t watched Ford as closely for as long as some others have, but I can say two things with certainty. The first: barring death or criminal incarceration (neither of which is as unlikely as we’d prefer), Rob Ford will register as a candidate in the 2014 election.
The second: in the three years since he won his election (and two years since council turned against him), at least a dozen separate events have “guaranteed” Ford’s re-election. First it was going to be beating up on Ford for not attending Pride parades. Then it was going to be voting for light rail over subways. Then it was going to be fancy chairs. And yet, for about two full years, Ford’s approval rating has been below 50 percent, and his re-elect numbers have been stubbornly great for anyone who spells and pronounces their names differently from him.
Council can, and should, take Wynne’s invitation seriously without worrying about the electorate reversing them in a year’s time. Ford was elected in the throes of a regrettable temper tantrum, all the more regrettable because it’s embarrassing to watch adult voters offend democracy by voting for someone so offensive. But the tantrum of 2010 is over, and while Ford attracts more support than I’d like, he’s finished in citywide politics. Ford Nation, in the words of councillor and Ford-antagonist-in-chief Adam Vaughan, is a failed state.
You know what we do with failed states, right? We put a new government in, and we don’t get precious about who we offend doing it.
