During his days as a Toronto councillor Doug Ford loved to brag about how he was always fighting for the “little guy” and was cleaning up the “mess” at city hall.

But as residents learned last week, Ford was fighting at the same time for two firms that had business dealings with his family’s company – and he was accepting gifts – in clear violation of city council’s code of conduct.

Clearly, helping arrange meeting and making inquiries with city staff on behalf of clients of your family’s private company is a far cry from helping “the little guy.”

This latest blow to Ford’s self-styled image as a fighter for the underdog came from a ruling by integrity commissioner Valerie Jepson on complaints filed in 2014 about Ford’s dealings with Apollo Health and Beauty Care, and Donnelley and Sons, both clients of the Ford-family company Deco Labels and Tags.

Jepson said Ford “wore two hats” and took “no steps to establish clear lines of separation between his responsibilities as a member of council and his duties as a principal of Deco.” Jepson recommended no reprimand because Ford no longer is a councillor.

Ford’s response? He called the ruling “a joke” and accused Jepson of having a “political agenda.”

These days Ford is musing openly about running for mayor again in 2018 or as a Conservative in the next provincial election. But his dismissive attitude toward his clear violation of the rules should be disturbing to anyone who believes Ford has a future in politics.

As Jepson rightly said in her report, when it comes to ethics, diligence and transparency, councillors “must not only meet the very high standards required of them, but also be seen to meet those standards.”

Doug Ford failed to meet those standards – and by doing so failed all the “little guys” he claimed to represent.

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