Rob Ford is out of office. And there was much rejoicing.
The only question I have...well, I have two, but let's focus on the first. The first question I have is how, exactly, did he get into office? I know much of the city was pissed at David Miller, and not for unreasonable reasons. Transit City, among other things, was a hodge-podge of lines, some of which even made sense (I'm not sold on a Jane Street LRT and I do wish that I had included a sorely needed Downtown Relief Line subway); he mishandled the civil servants (aka, the garbage strike) of 2009; and
Rob Ford, by contrast, was full of hot air, bluster and poorly concieved ideas.
His subways "plan" might as well have been sketched on the back of a napkin, and how exactly extending the underused Sheppard Line further east would have helped benefit the city is a mystery to me. Thank God he didn't get the chance to be rid of the city's streetcars (an opinion that will evapourate when our snazzy new streetcars hit the streets in two year's time). It never had any serious funding behind it, and any attempt to suppose that the private sector would magic a subway into existence was just delusion.
When Karen Stintz succeeded in getting council to return to the Transit City-esque light rail plans, Ford should have learned something. He didn't. Fortunately, he has not succeeded in disrupting Toronto transit plans any further. Chanting "subways subways subways" will not magic them into existence, and the Federal and Provincial governments have bigger problems on their hands than funding subways (and I do not think they have any idea of how urban transport works---looking at you Tim Hudak!).
This does not take into considerationt he many smaller offences, some of which were really trivial but compounded themselves to the point where they were anything but invisible. The point is not that he could be acquitted of them or that they are relatively minor; the point is he keeps accruing them. The point is that he is simply too obtuse to understand why, say, yelling at a reporter for trespassing on land that was not his, or calling 911 on This Hour Has 22 Minutes, or reading documents while driving, is problem both as a mayor or a citizen.
Ford can run in the byelection to be held to choose a successor and the 2014 election. I pray that he does not win either: in his ruling the judge described Ford as having a sense of entitlement, among other unflattering things. The Toronto right wing is hopping mad at this, and would likely make hay of Ford being sidelined by a politically motivated aggressor. If they truly think that this is an appropriate narrative to run under, they are very, very stupid.
Rob Ford lost because he did not understand the law. If he wins again, it will be because we do not want to understand it either.
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