Rob Ford: The Man and His Foul Legacy

Although I despised Rob Ford with every bone in my body, I must admit I was sad to hear that he had died.

Because nobody can celebrate the death of a man who died so young from such a terrible disease like cancer.

And I feel sorry for his wife and two young children, and all the others who loved him.

But when I see how so many people are falling backwards to praise Ford, I feel that this must also be said. 



Rob Ford was the worst mayor Toronto has ever known. A crass, vulgar, bully bigot misogynist and Con thug, who did great harm to his city he professed to love.

No amount of lipstick can change that foul legacy. And nobody should forget who he really was. 

There is a difference of opinion on whether speaking ill of the dead is socially acceptable. Some argue that it’s awkward and inappropriate because the unfortunate person has, after all, died. Others wonder why the act of death ought to boost one’s image.

As you can see, I’m of the second school of thought. If one was appalled by Ford when he was alive, why try to buff up his image now that he’s dead?

It’s a pity to see anyone die young, especially if he has a family, but if the truth is told, Rob Ford was a sad, self-destructive man who was an embarrassment to his city and to his country.

For he did embarrass us all in the eyes of the world. And those who praise him so extravagantly are only insulting and hurting his many victims.

And should stare into their own souls and ask themselves this question:


And for defending the indefensible, hang their own heads in shame...



Still, in his squalid career Ford did manage to achieve two things worth mentioning:

One, he did help write Donald Trump's playbook.

As many a political decoder has noted, much of the political wizardry of The Donald today, in the United States, is right out of Ford’s playbook—both in terms of plank (the promises of gravy-train reduction), the populism, but also, most critically, the shamelessness and the truth-scrambling.

As Daniel Dale, the Toronto Star reporter who covered Ford and is now covering Trump, has pointed out. The similarities are impossible to ignore.

“The moment when I really felt it was when Trump said, ‘I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and I wouldn’t lose any supporters,’ and I thought, where have I heard that before? It was almost verbatim the Doug Ford (Doug Ford’s brother and key defense-man) quote from 2010 about Rob Ford being able to strangle someone on the steps of City Hall and still win the election.”

So he was a useful warning to us about what can happen when leaders lose touch with the people they govern, and crass, vulgar demagogues are allowed to run wild.

But as for me, Ford's greatest achievement was helping to bring down his good buddy Stephen Harper...



For polls have since shown that this photo op with Ford in the dying days of the campaign, was for many Canadians the final straw.

And as I pointed out in this video I made at the time, was for the desperate Harper and his Cons the final nightmare...



Or the kiss of death.

And for that I will be eternally grateful.

For the two did deserve each other.....



So yes, as I said at the beginning, I am sorry Rob Ford died so young and so horribly.

I'm sorry for the man and his family.

But like Harper, his political legacy was a foul one. 

And should never be forgotten...

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