The Rob Ford era of Canadian politics

The once unlikely victory of Toronto's outsider mayoral candidate now seems like a sure thing. Pundits say Rob Ford's success is indicative of a larger political trend sweeping North America.

With Toronto’s mayoral election just over a month away, municipal maverick Rob Ford has all but locked up a landslide victory. The gaffe-prone, anti-immigration, anti-arts funding, budget-slashing candidate’s impending victory will upend the city’s seven-year-old liberal establishment, personified by current mayor David Miller, but the pundits want you to know this election isn’t just about Toronto.

Ford has “busted up at least five articles of received wisdom regarding Canadian politics,” says the National Post’s Jonathan Kay, including the notion that municipal politics are boring, that the media manipulates elections, and that Canadians vote strategically. Unlike provincial or federal politics, in municipal elections “Party-less free-agent loose canons like Ford … can mouth off about whatever they want” without worrying about tarnishing the party brand. And despite the fact that every Toronto paper has run anti-Ford editorials, voters aren’t listening. They refuse to strategically rally behind an “anybody-but-Ford” candidate.

The Toronto election presages the coming federal vote, according to the Post’s Tasha Kheiriddin. Proof of this is Conservative John Baird recently accusing pro-gun registry Liberals and NDPers as being “Toronto elites,” a seemingly silly thing to do considering the Tories need to pick up Toronto seats. But it turns out a “large swath of the city apparently hates its elites as well” and in the next election the Tories’ “narrative is likely to be that of the anti-elite party.” It could play well in the city and push the Conservatives towards a much-coveted majority.

This anti-elitism is not just a Canadian phenomenon, says the Toronto Star’s Christopher Hume. The Tea Party in the U.S., the Harper Tories, and the Fordists represent a “wave of nasty right-wing populism sweeping North America. Its newly emboldened hordes may not know what they need, but they know what they want: payback.” This type of politician harnesses voter discontent by “stoking voters’ worst instincts: Politicians are corrupt. They waste your money. They don’t listen.” Beyond that, says Hume, they have few ideas. If “the Rob Fords of the world understand where this anger comes from, there’s no sign they know where it’s going — beyond the next election.”