Why Rob Ford Does Not Deserve to be Honoured With a Statue

I don't really mind that Rob Ford's body has been lying in state at Toronto's City Hall for the last two days.

Even if he did so much to dishonour his city and his country.

He was once the mayor, and it did give his so-called Ford Nation a chance to say goodbye. 

But when it comes to honouring him with a statue, as some have suggested, I must draw the line.




And say as this Torontoist columnist does, absolutely NOT.

How can we forget the mayor who described himself as “the most racist guy around“? This incomplete spreadsheet with 121 entries related to Ford incidents and scandals might jog some memories; it doesn’t feature anything from the past two years.

He was arguably the worst and most harmful mayor in Toronto’s history, and his legacy can be seen in worse TTC service, an unprecedented social housing crisis, and an increased debt load.

Crass vulgar bullies, racists, misogynists and virulent homophobes deserve to be denounced not honoured, even after death.

For not to do so would offend his many victims who lived through that democratic nightmare, and add insult to injury.

And while I'm at it, for me that long list of victims includes the humblest one, my old donkey friend Jake...



Who lived for many years at the small city-run hobby farm on the Toronto Islands, until Rob Ford privatized it. And Jake was soon dispatched to a horse "rest home" and no doubt the glue factory.

For which I can never forgive Ford. 

Along with so many other things, and the way he degraded the image of this country in the eyes of the world. And made it look dumb and grubby.

Which is why I find it bizarre and deeply disturbing that so many in the MSM are bending backwards, until the back of their heads sink slowly into their buttocks, to praise that crude bully.

Now he's the "Man of the People" Or the "Best Ordinary Mayor" Toronto ever had. The man you could call to get a pot hole fixed. Yippee !!!  

Even as he allowed the city's infrastructure to crumble...



And now they want to put up a statue in the rubble of the city that Con redneck left us? 

So the Ford Nation can gather around the statue of Robbie, hold up candles, and pledge their allegiance to its new leader Doug Ford, who was busy yesterday working the funeral.

As only he could.

You know, Shakespeare wrote this about death and memory:

The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones. 

But in the case of Rob Ford the opposite seems to be the case.

The media should stop hyping his story or buffing his legacy. Let Ford rest in peace, and let the rest us who lived his nightmare try to forget it.

And if the city has not named anything after the decent progressive mayor John Sewell, who was brought down for supporting LGBT rights, and standing up to police brutality.

Rob Ford should receive no honours either...

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