Eye Weekly’s Edward Keenan has written a virtuoso account of the mayor’s first 100 or so days in office. Required reading for those who are struggling to understand the Ford phenomenon. I don’t think anyone is able to get inside the mayor’s head like Keenan does. It’s compelling and kind of creepy.
I liked this bit in particular:
In Ford’s dealings with the tax freezes, the budget, transit policy, the TCHC and on other files, here’s the discernable pattern: first, the mayor makes a rash and poorly reasoned statement in the press that nonetheless channels legitimate anger in the general public. He then does an end-run around all the usual procedural checks to ram the policy through. Council’s left-wing members put up a fight that impresses their base of supporters while earning no concessions and looking worse for it to the general public. Then Ford wins a landslide victory in the council vote, and his will is done.
With each decision, the city is left worse off—financially and otherwise—than it was before Ford took action.
via Rob Ford’s first 107 days – EYE WEEKLY.
That the opposition left has been painted largely as a bunch of whiny obstructionists in the media is, I think, a symptom of the fact that neither side has seized upon a truly polarizing issue as of yet. That’ll come next year.