Best of all, the squeak-through election of John Tory in Toronto tonight guarantees the future of a thriving Ford Nation.

John Tory’s Squeaker Election Guarantees Future of ‘Ford Nation’

Election night message to Neil Flagg and hard-working, passionate members of the ‘Ford Nation’ who faithfully follow Flagg’s popular blog, ‘I hate the war on Mayor Rob Ford’. You won tonight even though ‘Establishment Man’ and former ‘Cable Guy’ John Tory can finally after five times the loser (1993, Conservative Party’s lowest voting result in Conservative history; 2003, Toronto mayoralty; 2007, Provincial election, and in the same election never even won a seat, and in 2009 lost a by-election in a safe Conservative seat) describe himself elected to public office.

You won tonight because even though all Toronto media, including the Toronto Sun and their leftist American gossip rag supporters, did everything possible to keep him from winning, your man Rob Ford reclaimed his council seat in Etobicoke. But you won tonight most of all because you in Ford Nation achieved something for Toronto never done before: you broke through the glass ceiling of public voter apathy and made Toronto elections really matter. You won tonight because you turned municipal elections back to the little people who have to live with their outcomes in Canada’s largest city, a city lost to the most vicious brand of back-stabbing, self-centered politicking. You made what the people of Toronto want—not what the media want, and not what the Establishment demands—matter the most. It was Ford Nation that made people going out to the voting booths aware that the New Democrat Party (NDP) had run the beautiful city of Toronto for far too long. The NDP’s standard bearer Olivia Chow, finished a humiliating last among the front runners. (Chow’s final vote count at this writing: 227,096, which certainly helped split the vote against Doug Ford. John Tory, like a Barack Obama with all of the media in his back pocket, only squeaked through to wobbly victory, with roughly 64,000 more votes more than Doug Ford’s 331,020 with 1,766 of 1,767 polls reporting at time of this writing.

Four years of relentless mainstream pounding After four years of relentless mainstream pounding, the best that John Tory could do was garner a measly 12,000 votes over Rob Ford’s 383,000 2010 mayoral victory. Thousands of Torontonians will always remember that it was cancer and not a sill unseen drug video that kept Rob Ford from being re-elected as Toronto mayor tonight. Unlike Rob and Doug Ford, John Tory, an anointed mainstream darling will have no problems with the ugly smears of a harassing media. Worse, his every move will be closely watched by knowing-what-went-down Toronto voters. At the end of the day, at least one media outlet did not gloat: ‘Tory Edges Ford in closer-than-expected Battle for Mayor’ was tonight’s City News headline. Given the strong Ford vote count from the suburbs, the gloating of Interim Ontario PC Leader Jim Wilson, who sent out a fawning Tory press statement within minutes of the mayoral results, may someday soon prove presumptuous: “I congratulate John Tory on becoming Toronto’s next mayor and wish him every success in implementing his ambitious vision as he meets the needs and expectations of Ontario’s largest city. “I saw John bring his passion for public service and incredible work ethic to Queen’s Park every day while he was leader of the Ontario PCs, so I know those traits will serve Toronto well. “Voters have put their faith in his vision, character and integrity because they trust him. I know John will work hard every day to continue earning that trust, and to ensure their tax dollars are spent wisely and appropriately.” There’s no guarantee that Tory will ensure Toronto taxpayers that their dollars “are spent wisely and appropriately” given that Tory has no clue on how they are spent in the first place. Perhaps more comically, Wilson seems to be in the dark about what a sizable portion of the Toronto population already knows: John Tory is on the side of LIBERAL Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, and not the provincial Tories. Best of all, the squeak-through election of John Tory in Toronto tonight guarantees the future of a thriving Ford Nation.

Judi McLeod -- Bio and Archives Copyright © Canada Free Press RSS Feed for Judi McLeod

Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years’ experience in the print media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared on Rush Limbaugh, Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com. Older articles by Judi McLeod

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