A family friend said he came because Ford Fest is “a family event.” A Progressive Conservative organizer said he came because Ford Fest is “a party event.”

The event, held by a clan for which family and politics have long been inseparable, was, in truth, a little bit of both — and a little bit of lots of other things. Hundreds of people, most of them unequivocal Ford supporters, gathered Friday evening in the gargantuan Etobicoke backyard of Mayor Rob Ford and Councillor Doug Ford’s mother, Diane, for the annual extravaganza that is unlike anything else in local politics.

A sign on the roof of the shack beside the pool read “Welcome Ford Nation.” As at any family barbecue, attendees drank beer and Pepsi, ate burgers and made mingling small talk. They also wore name tags handed to them by the people at the backyard gate — who insisted they write down their names and contact information, ammunition for campaigns to come.

Not that the people in attendance would mind getting emails from the Fords. Veronica Douse, a 65-year-old Jamaican-Canadian personal support worker, likes the mayor so much she came to the house twice from the Bathurst St. and Wilson Ave. area — once in the early afternoon, when she thought the event began, and then again at night, when it actually did.

“I like all the things he says,” Douse said. “My co-workers, they give me hell and damnation, excuse my French. ‘You gonna vote for that man? He’s gonna cut this and cut that!’ I says, ‘I don’t care.’

“And yes, I do believe he should cut. I’m sick and tired of having the gravy train — secretaries having secretaries having secretaries. It’s come to the time that all that should stop.”

PC Leader Tim Hudak spoke, but Ford urged attendees to vote in the provincial election no matter which party they support. And he gave speaking time to Liberal MPP Mike Colle, who passed on regrets from the invited but absent Premier Dalton McGuinty, and NDP candidate Paul Ferreira, who prompted quiet snickers when he told attendees they can indeed decide to support New Democrats on Oct. 6.

They nonetheless applauded Ferreira politely when he finished.

The mayor got the night’s biggest cheers. Dressed in a dark suit with no tie, he delivered a campaign-style speech in which he recited a familiar list of accomplishments that included the repeal of the vehicle registration tax, the cut to councillors’ office budgets, and the dismissal of the Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s board.

Ford added a couple of newsworthy remarks. He promised that any property tax increase for next year would be no higher than 2.5 per cent; he said he still wanted to avoid an increase altogether. And, without explicitly endorsing his brother’s controversial waterfront vision, he mentioned he supports “an accelerated plan, as you’ve heard recently, in the Port Lands.”

In a rare display of emotion, he blew a kiss skyward for his late father, Doug Sr. “I know you’re up there,” he said, his voice breaking slightly.

The upbeat evening weathered at least one hitch. Radio host John Oakley said the Metro supermarket across the street was threatening to tow away Ford Nation cars.

Among the dignitaries in attendance: boxing legend George Chuvalo; former Ford chief of staff and campaign manager Nick Kouvalis; former Ford mayoral opponent turned PC candidate Rocco Rossi. Several other PC candidates and organizers made the rounds, glad-handing.

Trained well by her salesman father, Doug Ford’s daughter, Krista, did not miss the opportunity to promote her own cause: the Lingerie Football League. She got her dad to implore the crowd to buy tickets — “Honey, wherever she is, I did it for you, there you go,” he said afterward — and got others to hang banners for the team she captains, the Toronto Triumph, from the deck on the second floor of the large house.

“I was like, ‘Hey, you have to put these up if I’m coming,’ ” Krista said, laughing.

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Several of Ford’s council allies donned black t-shirts that read “Fordfest Rocks,” which were handed to them by Ford’s press secretary. Musical entertainment was provided by Councillor Gary Crawford’s rock band, Gently Bent, and an eclectic mix of recorded music that included hits by Aretha Franklin, Cee Lo Green and Journey.

Fireworks were set off around 10 p.m., pleasing people at the Metro plaza.

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