Crazy Town

Robyn Doolittle’s excellent and entertaining book Crazy Town (Penguin Canada) came out earlier this year.

I read it in the spring and wondered at the time about the author’s prediction that her subject, Rob Ford, could win the October election.

In her closing chapter, she suggested it was possible.

As I write today, Ford is in a hospital bed hospitalized.  Not a good spot to run a campaign from, or so it would seem.

However, as the former Star reporter now with the Globe and Mail wrote:

 “…if it were possible to run from prison, I think he would.” 

So, using Doolittle’s logic, the hospital shouldn’t be a problem.

In fact, since Doolittle’s book was released, Ford has had troubles that might have landed other mere mortals in prison.  But, as Doolittle noted his approval ratings are always up after bad publicity.  And, with the help of his goofy Campaign Manager Brother Doug and other members of Ford Nation, it is pretty certain we can expect more bad publicity.

Doolittle’s supports her argument by citing -Bricker and Ibbitson’s book the Big Shift. (The Big Shift: The Seismic Change In Canadian Politics , Business, And Culture And What It Means For Our Future by Darrell I Bricker, John Ibbitson Harper Collins Publishers, 2013)

Here they argue that a lengthy period of conservative rule is coming because of New Canadians moving into metro areas.  These people are more religious and socially conservative and averse to debt. The authors call them “strivers.” 

They want to own a home in a safe neighbourhood as opposed to “creatives." Creatives (who the privileged Fords would likely call "elites") are more concerned with “community supports, the environment and international engagement.”

That’s why Ford and politicians of his ilk will be more and more successful according to the Big Shift.

I took a look at the Big Shift and don’t agree with the authors.  Time will tell, I suppose.

Back to Crazy Town though.

Having followed the sordid Ford saga over the last few years I wondered what I’d find that was new in the book.

Quite a few things actually.  For example:

On telling the truth

Clearly, Rob Ford is challenged in this area.  He comes by it naturally, however, as his father Doug basically airbrushed” his partner out of history as it relates to developing the Deco label business

On ambition

Ford lost in his first attempt at electoral politics.  Was he discouraged?  Was he finished?

After this 1997 loss, a caller to Ford’s mother Diane to offer condolences received this response.

“Oh, no, no, Robbie’s a career politician.’”

On chutzpah

In the 2000 municipal election, the Fords approached 15-year incumbent Gloria Lindsay Luby suggesting that she run in another ward.  They’d even help her.  Lindsay Luby declined.

On my own reading of the public

Doolittle argues that Ford has a “natural gift for reading the public mood.”  Up until now, I haven’t bought this argument.  But at a George Smitherman focus group midway through the 2010 campaign, mayoral candidate Smitherman’s handlers knew their man was done when they got this comment from an attendee:

  

“If I have to choose between someone who wastes our money and someone who beats their wife, I’ll choose the person who beats their wife.”

On how the media is better able to track down these stories.

The author talks about a 2009 Supreme Court of Canada decision which created “a new defence for libel” that helped and guided the Star in their investigative reporting.

The decision meant that Journalists were permitted to tackle contentious issues where hard evidence was not available if reporters could prove that they:

• ·         acted professionally
• ·         did their best to verify info
• ·         attempted to get both sides of the story.

For Doolittle this all lead to the night of  May 16^th 2013 “the day before my life changed forever…..”  Pictures from the famous crack video went public that day.

Toronto politics hasn’t been the same since.  Many hope that after October 27^th it will return to pre-Crazy Town days.