Okay, okay, I get it. Rob Ford, Mayor of Toronto, is a big dumb wiener. He's crass, ignorant, and advocates policies that might have made Mike Harris shiver. This is well established and hard to refute. And while his most recent run-in with a Can-con celeb has made headlines and prompted yet another profusion of Facebook-Ford-bashing, I want to officially advocate for a breather on the anti-Ford rhetoric that is becoming so common (and admittedly, pretty fun. I mean, he's saying the 911 people are lying now!).
For one thing, making fun of Ford is like shooting dead fish in a barrel. He's so easy a target, vision-impaired sharpshooters wouldn't even waste their time. For another thing, are we really surprised that a member of the new Radical Right in this country isn't familiar with a mildly popular CBC comedy show? And really, sure, he overreacted, but that shouldn't be surprising either. He has a history of overreacting (I am thinking of that video that came out just before the election that showed Ford and one of his minions chasing a reporter down the City Hall stairs yelling, "What did you say! Did you call me fat?!" Or whatever it was).
What I'd really love us to spend our energy on instead, is mounting a substantive criticism of his policies. Or even find a way to get him out of there sooner. After all, this is where he is doing the real damage: the decisions he's making at City Hall, not the hijinks and weirdness he's a part of outside his official duties as Mayor. And it makes me kind of sad that his approval rating is dropping because of what he is doing wrong and not because of what his opponents in City Hall (and the legion of Ford-bashers) are doing right. It's a huge difference!
Further, why don't we talk about how in tarnation he became Mayor in the first place? Which part of the system is so terribly broken that an electorate would vote for such a man, that so many would believe the 'gravy train' line? This was blatant populism at its worst and it worked like a charm. I hate to say it, but Ford as Mayor says more about us than it does about him. Furthermore, it is worth remembering that he is a man who has seen his approval rating fall while basically doing, or trying to do, all the things he said he was going to do. How many times does that happen in politics?
Alas, I fear that this obsession with his stupid antics amounts to the kind of trend we see in U.S. politics: fame over form, chaos over content, stupidity over substantiality.
Let's tone down the Ford jabbing. It's too easy, and it only lowers us to his level.
For a really intelligent and insightful take on the Toronto-Ford dilemma, check out John Lorinc's "How Toronto Lost it's Groove: and why the rest of Canada should resist the temptation to cheer" in the most recent issue of The Walrus.
Here here.
ReplyDelete