On October 25th 2010, Councillor Rob Ford was overwhelmingly elected Mayor of Toronto. I say overwhelmingly because in our quaint Canadian electoral system, 47% is a strong majority - a resounding thunder of the people speaking, sweeping aside the puny 53% minority who didn't vote for the landslide victor. If you are at all confused by this, keep in mind that Canada inherited its political system from the British - a right proper people who are only too happy to cede to the will of the masses, so long as doing so doesn't interfere with established traditions of privilege and entitlement.
Observing the proceedings from a safe distance of some 10,000 km, one thing really struck me about this particular orgy of municipal "democracy". For some strange reason, I kind of wanted Ford to win.
To be clear, Rob Ford will not be a good mayor of my beloved hometown. He won't be an OK mayor, or even a not-very-good one. He will be a terrible mayor whom, if allowed to implement any of his publicly-stated agenda (which was rather thin on details) will probably undo any and all good that was done by his once-popular-now-reviled predecessor David Miller. I say if he is allowed to implement it, because I'm not convinced Council (or reality for that matter) will make it easy for Ford to initiate the policy agenda that he seems to think will cure what ails City Hall at the stroke of a pen. At least this is what I'm hoping.
