By Judi McLeod ——Bio and Archives--April 12, 2015
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Columnist/ author Arthur Weinreb’s book, Ford Nation: Why hundreds of thousands of Torontonians supported their conservative crack-smoking mayor, is the one book that lets out of the bag, a secret the mainstream media never wanted out in public.
People the world over know the story of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, whose admission to crack smoking on one of his drunken stupors, took him viral as the quintessential ‘digital mayor’.
Though not written as a how-to book, Weinreb’s Ford Nation: Why hundreds of thousands of Torontonians supported their conservative crack-smoking mayor is a blueprint for how taxpayers hell-bent to keep city hall out of their back pockets during a mayoral race with the media stacked up against them, against all odds, scored incredibly huge Election Day returns.“To people living outside the city of Toronto and even those within its borders who do not follow municipal politics closely, it is hard to understand how anyone could possibly support Rob after all that has happened during his 10 years as a member of council and four years as mayor,” Weinreb writes in Ford Nation: Why hundreds of thousands of Torontonians supported their conservative crack-smoking mayor. “While it is easy to see how fiscal conservatives support his mantras of stopping the gravy train and respect for taxpayers, it is difficult for those unfamiliar with Toronto politics to understand why he received continued support after admitting smoking crack in one of his drunken stupors and after having been videotaped making derogatory comments about gays, Jews and blacks. But they did. “The fact that a large group of people known as Ford Nation stuck by their mayor says more about other politicians than it does about Rob and his brother. These people, hard workers for the most part are sick and tired of seeing their taxes go up, government services reduced and their tax dollars literally wasted. They are sick and tired of having mayors who put the interests of unions ahead of theirs only to be rewarded by lengthy strikes. They are fed up with having their tax dollars used to open fancy offices in London to fight global warming and being told firearms should not be allowed to be manufactured or kept within the borders of Toronto. They are also fed up with having the lives micromanaged by politicians dictating what they can eat and whether their children can toboggan down a hill. “There is no doubt Rob and Doug are unusual people and even more unusual politicians. Rob especially in the way he gives out his cellphone number and attempts to help anyone who asks him to solve a problem they have. The Fords do not seek endorsements or money from corporations, unions and special interest groups. They accept campaign donations from individual residents and if they do not get enough to do what they want to do they use their own.”Weinreb depicts Ford as he actually was in political life riding out the storm:
“Rob is especially admired for his refusal to bend to the constant demands for his resignation and the constant criticism and name calling he endured since he first came on the municipal scene in 2000. A lesser man or woman would have given up years ago. But Rob persisted in order to pursue his objective of not wasting the tax money of Toronto residents. While the scandals are often used as an excuse, those who were constantly calling for his resignation did so because they hate him and his politics. “Although some people might think it’s cool to have a mayor who uses illegal drugs and appears drunk in public, the vast majority of Ford Nation are law abiding people who do not approve of Rob personal conduct but support him in spite of his behaviour. They were willing to overlook the scandals because there were simply no other politicians who cared more about them than Rob and Doug did. These other politicians cared about themselves, their friends, and their corporate, union and special interest group supporters. Had another politician come along who had the same genuine care about taxpayers, things would have been completely different.”By the time Toronto’s mayoral election campaign was in full swing, the international media had thrown in with the local mainstream media in ridiculing Rob Ford as the globe’s ‘Digital, crack smoking mayor’. Late-night television comedians portrayed him not as a lame duck but a maimed one. An openly gleeful media believed they had finished off Ford forever. Hampered by cancer, Ford withdrew from the mayoralty on the advice of his physicians but ran successfully to reclaim the council seat that started his career in municipal politics. Brother Doug Ford, in the mayoral race just one month before it ended, garnered an impressive 34% of the vote. Even though opponent John Tory can officially claim to be Toronto’s new, albeit, wobbly mayor, Tory must conduct council meetings with Councillor Rob Ford in the chamber and brother Doug as usual, is always nearby. As Weinreb points out in his book: ...”Ford nation is not simply a fan club for the brothers. It is a political philosophy of fiscal conservatism and respect for the taxpayer. Ford Nation is not going anywhere and Tory as well as politicians who consider running in 2018 ignore them at their peril.” Weinreb’s Ford Nation is both a story that sends out a proven message that you can fight city hall and win, and a story that gets to be told--not by the media--but by the overtaxed people of Toronto to whom it all happened. The mainstream media, who worked so feverishly to hound Rob Ford out of office found out too late that the real Rob Ford is, and always was, Ford Nation in action. Tea Party Nation take heart: If Ford Nation could surmount all odds including a mainstream media ganged up against them, so can you!
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