If the initial news of his candidacy was met with jeers and sneers from liberal critics, Rob Ford’s astonishing 24 per cent lead in recent opinion polls has left them horrified.
Ford’s critics, who extol a diverse, multi-cultural, tolerant vision of Toronto, are waking up and asking themselves: what went wrong? Or as one columnist recently asked, why have people suddenly gone “nuts?”
Those who, like myself, analyze politics from a Marxist perspective are not surprised. In fact, I predicted the threat of his rise back in April when Ford first declared his candidacy.
Despite what our liberal council establishment will have us believe, the people of Toronto haven’t gone “nuts.” Nor does Rob Ford’s rise signify a general shift to the right in the city. Rather his rise is symptomatic of the current economic crisis. During such crises there are two options. People may flock to left-wing candidate who promises to fight against the status quo attacks on social services. However, in absence of such a candidate, they will flock to a right-wing populist candidate who nevertheless is angry with “status quo” and ready to take on “elitist politicians”, a crew generally hated by the general populace.
This is precisely what has happened with the rise of Rob Ford. His message is simple, direct, programmatic, and consistent: let’s all rally against those councillors who use taxpayer-funded expense accounts for expensive meals and cab rides. Ford attracts those angry voters, especially in the suburbs.
The working people of Toronto have good reason to be angry and frustrated with our supposedly left-wing councillors and the regime of David Miller. After the reign of Mel Lastman ended in disgrace, mired with controversies, Miller was elected in 2003 against the liberals’ favourite, Barbara Hall. This was because he presented himself as a left-wing candidate. He came with a broom to clean up the city. He was the first elected New Democrat to be mayor of Canada’s largest city. This, coupled with the election of many other New Democrats in that year’s municipal elections, was Toronto’s hope to move past the Harris years. More than seven years after Miller came to power, it’s clear this has not happened.
Decent, affordable housing is still next to non-existent in the city. The homeless still fill-up downtown streets, even in the dead of winter. Fares for public transit have steadily increased while transit service itself is truly dismal and not deserving of a city as large as Toronto.
To add insult to injury, Miller’s government was also involved in two nasty strikes with TTC workers and joined the government and media in attacking their cause. Finally, the crowning achievement of his tenure was displayed in the last summer where he took on city workers in a strike. He wanted to solve the financial crunch on the back of the city’s workers while approving a $4 million dollar renovation of the Mayor’s office and a pay hike for city councillors.
Thus, it is not surprising that the only nominally left-wing candidate in the race, Joe Pantalone, is in a distant third. Not only does he support Miller’s past regime, he has never offered even a slight criticism of it. He is seen as a symbol of status quo, as he is himself an inside bureaucrat who spent the last 25 years at City Hall.
What’s worse, he has run an uninspiring campaign that lacks a political program to rally and mobilize people. Saving trees is nice but this is not an answer to people’s everyday problems.
It is true that Rob Ford will truly be a nightmare for anybody who loves this city. His reign will be one of attacks on the working people of Toronto and the public services that comprise it. He is promising to consider major privatization of the city’s key service and a reduction of public spending, including possibly scrapping the Transit City plan and reducing streetcar lines downtown. Ford has also never hid his racist, homophobic, and bigoted views and we can imagine what kind of city government he is hoping to lead. He was previously quoted as saying: “Those Oriental people work like dogs” and, on another occasion, “if you are not doing needles and you are not gay, you wouldn’t get AIDS probably, that’s bottom line.”
There are those, however, who would argue that with Ford’s rise, “progressives” should unite behind somebody like George Smitherman, Liberal ex-deputy premier, to defeat the right-wing Ford. This “lesser evil” approach will lead nowhere. There is not an ounce of “progressiveness” about Smitherman who has promised to consider privatizing TTC and other assets and also freezing wages for the city workers.
The only feasible way to defeat Rob Ford would have been for the candidate that is supported by the labour movement as well as the NDP, Joe Pantalone, to adopt a radical socialist program that would put working Torontonians first. This would include a program that would institute a socialist plan that attacks the ever-rising police budget and fights against the Harris legacy of downloading federal and provincial services onto the city. In no other major city in North America are costs such as welfare and transport downloaded to municipal governments. We needed a candidate that would remind us a socialist city need not be afraid to mobilize against this and fight for people’s services. If Ford actually goes on to be elected, we are set to see a surge of movements and protests against him. Such movements need to be equipped with the above-mentioned perspectives and program.
