John Tory Is the Boring, Rob Ford-Antidote Toronto Asked For

John Tory took the election with 40.3 percent of the vote. Photo via Twitter.
Last night, in what was no surprise to anyone who had been following the Toronto election even peripherally, John Tory defeated Doug Ford and Olivia Chow to win the privilege of becoming Toronto’s mayor in 2015.

It’s an odd moment for many journalists, myself included, as we are finally facing the reality of a 416/647 no longer run by the crack-smoking, high school football-coaching, wildly inappropriate force of nature that is Rob Ford.

During his four years as mayor, he managed to get fired, get his job back, face drug and sexual harassment scandals, make numerous racist remarks, hang out with alleged criminals, get sued for allegedly orchestrating a jailhouse beating of his former brother-in-law, go on Jimmy Kimmel dressed as a cheap magician, receive an invite to the White House Correspondents’ dinner, get made fun of at said dinner, and gain the endorsement of Mike Tyson.

This smattering of insane crap represents only a fraction of the twisted, noteworthy things Ford accomplished as mayor.

There is almost zero chance that Toronto will ever witness a mayoralty as unpredictable, embarrassing, and darkly entertaining as the one Rob Ford forced the city to endure between 2010 and 2014. Even before the crack, Ford was a total shitshow. He compared “orientals” to dogs and asked a woman if she wanted to get raped in Iran, after getting into an altercation with her that he initially pretended did not happen, at a Leafs game. He charged at Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale with a cocked fist (and later called him a pedophile), and fell off a scale during his failed weight loss program which resulted in a twisted ankle.

Most importantly, Rob Ford was the subject of a major police surveillance operation (which may still be ongoing) that included a Cesna plane to tail the mayor. The Toronto police’s endeavour came up with all sorts of information about how Rob Ford likes to drink, pee in public, and hang out with an alleged extortionist named Sandro Lisi. Around that time, he was even caught on camera in an inebriated state, threatening to commit “first degree murder.” And while it’s clear the Toronto police were chasing a very big fish, no charges were ever laid.

With all of that negativity floating around, Rob Ford was still able to capture the admiration of people around the world. On a recent trip to Denmark, I was told by a friend that he loved Rob Ford. Last night, a colleague from New York expressed his disappointment that Ford would no longer be the mayor of Toronto. And I can understand, from their outsider perspective, why they feel that way. If you only heard bits and pieces of Ford’s absolutely insane mayoralty (presuming you are not one of the Kool Aid drinkers in Ford Nation) you would think Toronto had the most entertaining political scene on the planet. And maybe to some extent that’s kind of true.

But the day-to-day reality of having that man as mayor created a bleak mess that had long overstayed its welcome.

We are now about to open a new chapter of municipal politics in Toronto, where the city is not overseen by an addict with criminal affiliations who cannot even go for takeout at Steak Queen without causing a media storm.

Our new mayor’s platform hinges primarily on the controversial SmartTrack transit plan, which represents 53km of a new rail system—though the majority is repurposed GO rail—in Toronto set to start moving passengers (according to Mr. Tory) by 2021. Tory claims he can get this done without raising taxes, a dubious claim that has been punctured by some experts, but it is certainly a more nuanced and sophisticated transit plan than Ford’s subways subways subways.

Tory has also claimed he wants to revitalize the city’s parks, increase funding to Toronto’s social housing and also to arts and culture in the city. While he certainly doesn’t fall as far left as Olivia Chow, he has always taken a more measured and practical approach to actually enacting said changes; whereas Chow’s failed campaign often saw her faltering in debates by standing on the shaky ground of waxing poetic with pie-in-the-sky nonsense.

Our new mayor will need to embrace a council that (for the incumbents, anyhow) have spent four years being bullied and condescended to by Rob Ford; while observing his gradual and spectacular implosion. He will also hopefully learn to embrace the diversity of the city, especially since Toronto’s “fresh” council has less than 30 percent women and only 13 percent people of colour. These are sad statistics in a city where 49 percent of its citizens are of a visible minority. And Tory, of course, is one of the whitest people alive.

Given John Tory’s history as a Conservative party campaign director who approved the infamous Jean Chretien “face ad” that attacked our former PM’s palsy, and as a man who has both denied the existence of white privilege and has insisted women should learn to play golf to help close the wage gap; it’s hard to see Tory as the man to unite our diverse metropolis. Plus, during his time working at Rogers, he instituted sketchy billing policies that snuck hidden fees onto customer bills, which makes him very, very hard to like.

But after four years of the fucked up carnival that was Mayor Rob Ford, John Tory was able to successfully position himself as the non-Ford option for a city that was fed up with being embarrassed all of the time. With Olivia Chow floundering, and Doug Ford running around telling the father of an autistic child to go to hell or calling Jennifer Pagliaro at the Star a “little bitch,” it wasn’t hard for Tory to quietly smile during the debates and let things play out as they have.

Toronto has the antidote for Rob Ford that it asked for, and it’s almost a given (despite the fact that Rob did win a City Council seat for Ward 2) that Toronto politics will be immensely less exciting going forward. With a city as diverse and vibrant as Toronto, this new regime is looking to be as interesting as soda crackers. But if Tory can make good on some of his more ambitious promises, unite city council, and embrace a left-leaning side that is painfully hard to believe in, given his many gestures of entitled male whiteness—we just may have a very positive change on our hands.

@patrickmcguire