So... what's your take on Rob Ford?
ha ha ha
Rob Ford, mostly through Doug Ford, has taken the role of a populist. The mayor’s ongoing conflict with “Downtown Elitists†and the “Gravy Train†is the basis for his tenure, and ongoing campaigns.
Classically, Populism is a set of rules, or doctrine, that defines the sides of “the people†and “the elites†and pit them against each other. So far in the 20th and 21st centuries we have seen the most growth of this movement is in Latin America, India, or other emergent economies.
As usual, movements like populism take on local flair. In the United States, there was the People’s Party which captured the essence of popularism; however, the precepts of such a movement are not held to just a partisan “partyâ€.
That said, Canada has had several populist parties, including the Social Credit, Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, and Reform Party of Canada. Knowing Rob Ford’s intensions you would not have to go farther than the evolution of the Reform Party to the present Conservatives.
(The following is quite an abridged time line)
The Reform Party of Canada started as an answer to the federal Progressive Conservatives in the 1990’s. After it’s founding, the party in the 1990’s drifted towards a small “c†conservative flair of popularism to present an alternative to the Liberals, and became the Alliance party.
The biggest step happened in 2002, Stephen Harper, the present PM, won control of the Alliance party, and consolidated it with the federal Progressive Conservatives. Since then the politics of the party has sifted down to the other levels of government.
Ford’s support for the Ontario Conservatives contradicts his campaigning for “anti-elitismâ€, and has been revealed through his and his brother’s own words, the terms “leftyâ€, “socialistâ€, and “communist†are used in a derogatory manner. Although Rob sees himself as more a centrist, his actions of vilifying all things not conservative, paint a different picture. Rob’s attacks on the media, and reluctance to transparency and disclosure in my opinion only show distain towards the voters, and distance them from municipal democracy, pushing the lines of partisan politics, specially the Conservatives.
Personally, I think Rob Ford is a lying sack of shit, or is so ignorant that he actually belives what he spews; I lean toward the former.
The world has seen his machinations; however, people in Toronto are so tired of having someone else calling the shots they are easily persuaded by Rob's propaganda. A democracy does not end at the polls, it ends when fundamentalism, or in this case, fascism denies rights to all voters and embraces just the few.
Canada has seen the dawning of ideas, then made tangible from diversity and understanding. "Equal but separate" and the ignorance of "tolerance" has never served all the people, only those who only seek power on their terms.
