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Gurney: No objections to what has happened. As you say, it was all done within the rules, and as you also said, the voters can decide. In a way, I actually am pleased that RoFo is running for Ward 2 councillor. He always seemed happier in that job and if Ford Nation really wants to reward their man, putting him back there isn’t the worst way to do it. As for Mayor DoFo, I can’t see it. I have always understood — barely, at times, but still — the Rob Ford appeal. I get why some voters continue to see him as their man, despite all the billions of reasons not to. Other than the name and the endorsement, I don’t see Doug having any of his brother’s advantages, but he has most of the same disadvantages, plus a whole slew of his own shortcomings. Fundamentally, in his own weird way, Rob Ford loved the city and loved his job, or at least what he thought his job was. Doug, meanwhile, has been very clear that he hates pretty much everything about the city government and he barely seems to even like Toronto. He always seemed to be eyeing the next flight to Chicago. And now he’s running for Mayor. Sure, Doug.

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Goldsbie: Rob Ford may have been happier as a councillor, but that doesn’t mean he was any good at the job or deserves reelection to it. The notion that he could retreat back to that role without campaigning for it betrays the same sense of dynastic entitlement that lets Doug think he can just swap himself into the mayor’s race. The switcheroo is democratically offensive not for what it is but for what it represents: the idea that power is bestowed and not earned, as though the maintenance of a genealogical brand is a political goal unto itself. They can run for whatever offices they damn well please, but if they can’t articulate why they are doing so (beyond an obligation to themselves and each other), then that should be held against them. In the best-case scenario, the public will see through Doug’s cold calculations and realize he has no legitimate interest in the job of mayor. Rob, at least, wanted to help people, even if his understanding of how to do so was backward and wrongheaded. Doug wants to be mayor because the opportunity presented itself; he is a vanity candidate. You could argue the same about Michael Ford running for the TDSB. He has never exhibited an interest in educational policy, or any policy, or anything at all, for that matter.