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Toronto Council votes against honouring late mayor Rob Ford

November 2017

Re:  Rob Ford stadium nixed (Sue-Ann Levy, Toronto Sun, 5 October 2017):

Toronto City Council should be ashamed of themselves for refusing to approve the re-naming of Centennial Stadium after the late Mayor Rob Ford.  This refusal is particularly galling given that council voted 33-2 to approve the naming of something in memory of Deputy Mayor Pam McConnell and Ron Moeser, both of whom died this year.  Even a year and a half after his death, these shameless hypocrites just can’t resist taking yet another shot at Rob Ford.

Councilor Jon Burnside even suggested that a five-year “cooling off period” after their death should be followed when considering naming something after a politician.

Have they forgotten that it was Ford who fast-tracked the naming of the Toronto Island ferry terminal after Jack Layton?  Oh right, they don’t care about that because Ford was a conservative and Layton was a socialist.

Sure Rob Ford had personal failings, including an addiction, becoming an international laughing-stock and a penchant for being his own worst enemy at times, but before he was struck down by a rare form of cancer, he was well on the road to turning his life around and re-gaining the trust he lost with his alcohol and drug-fueled antics.

Fellow Councilor Ana Bailao seems to have regained the trust of Council in the wake of her conviction for impaired driving in late 2012 as Mayor John Torry recently appointed her as Deputy Mayor.  Ironically, it was Ford who rushed to Bailao’s defence in the wake of calls for her resignation in the days after she was finally forced to fess up.  Ford said she had taken “full responsibility for her actions” by pleading guilty, even though she originally stated she planned to fight the charges.

A number of Toronto councilors really need to long look in the mirror before passing their moral judgement including Bailao, who was one of the councilors who voted against naming the stadium after Ford.

Unfortunately, Ford’s illness and untimely death means we’ll never know if he would have won either the 2014 or 2018 mayoral elections respectively, but it really says a lot that he won back his old council seat literally from his hospital bed.

What Rob Ford really didn’t deserve was the constant bullying he received from leftists on council and in the media, which I’d argue played a significant role in his decent into addiction.  I know this from personal experience.  There are only so many kicks to the head that most people can take and with all the pressure, humiliating comments and torment Ford faced daily, it’s a miracle he didn’t fall apart sooner than he did.

 

Sources:  heartless-councillors-reject-renaming-stadium-after-rob-ford, www.torontosun.com/2017/10/06/unlike-rob-ford-ana-bailaos-past-forgiven

About the author

Bruce Forsyth

Bruce Forsyth served in the Royal Canadian Navy Reserve for 13 years (1987-2000). He served with units in Toronto, Hamilton & Windsor and worked or trained at CFB Esquimalt, CFB Halifax, CFB Petawawa, CFB Kingston, CFB Toronto, Camp Borden, The Burwash Training Area and LFCA Training Centre Meaford.

Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/toronto-council-votes-against-honouring-late-mayor-rob-ford/

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