WHEN Rob Ford’s time as mayor of Toronto became a reality show that lurched from one cringe-inducing revelation to another, one question loomed: How did he come to lead Canada’s largest city? His rumpled suits, fondness for profanity, racist and homophobic remarks, public drunkenness, admitted drug use and general boorishness made Mr. Ford seem like an outlier in a city that had carefully cultivated a reputation for multiculturalism, tolerance and sophistication.

But Mr. Ford, who died on March 22 while being treated for a rare form of cancer, wasn’t a sign that something was wrong with the city, but evidence of the smart planning and foresight that helped Toronto avoid many of the problems that plague American cities. In short, Toronto works because its suburbs never separated themselves economically or politically from the city core. Mr. Ford, a suburban populist, may have been an embarrassment to some, but his election shows that the system works.

In 1953, the city itself was doing just fine, but the 12 smaller municipalities surrounding it were struggling to keep up with their postwar sprawl. So the province of Ontario imposed a metropolitan government over the entire region to handle big, costly projects: policing, water and sewer systems and major roads. Each of the cities, still run by their local councils, paid into the kitty according to their tax base assessments. Toronto, which had 57 percent of the population, paid 62 percent of the metropolis’s bills.

The system certainly had its problems, but it made common cause between the suburbs and the city center. But the rapid rise of suburbia swiftly reversed that cash flow. Just nine years later, Toronto made up just 38 percent of the metropolitan area’s population and it contributed 44 percent of its budget.