My barber Tony, who has operated his shop in north Toronto for decades, is one of Rob Ford’s biggest supporters.

Virtually every time I see him, Tony lets me know why he thinks the Toronto mayor is doing a fabulous job running the city, especially when it comes to “stopping the gravy train” and cutting taxes.

So it surprised me when Tony told me the other day that Ford is wrong to snub all Pride festival events.

“I don’t think it’s a big deal if he doesn’t take part in the parade,” Tony said.

“But as mayor he should show a bit of respect and participate in some event, such as the opening flag-raising ceremony. Whether you like something or not, as mayor you are mayor of all the people.”

As every politician knows, it’s a bad sign when even boisterous supporters start questioning your actions.

That holds true for Rob Ford, whose political honeymoon has clearly come to an end with his controversial decision to snub all Pride festival events, from the raising of the Pride flag over city hall on Monday to marching in this Sunday’s colourful Pride parade.

Only the most rabid Ford Nation supporters and anti-gay residents — and there are plenty of both in this city — can truly believe the decision to boycott the 10-day festival is worthy of a mayor of a major cosmopolitan city.

By his actions, though, Ford has shown that his Toronto doesn’t include all Torontonians.

Until now, Ford had been riding high, with an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted in April putting his approval rating at 70 per cent. Voters especially liked his moves to cut councillors’ office budgets and eliminate the vehicle registration tax.

Every political leader is initially popular, however. They can blame all problems on previous leaders and make some changes that are popular with their hard-core supporters. This is known as the honeymoon period.

But as former mayors David Miller and Mel Lastman as well as Premier Dalton McGuinty learned, the honeymoon always ends.

For Lastman, that time came early in his second term when before leaving for Mombasa, Kenya, in 2001 to support Toronto’s bid for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, he said to a reporter: “I’m sort of scared about going out there, but the wife is really nervous. I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives dancing around me.”

Ouch! Even Lastman’s most ardent backers were embarrassed.

For Miller, his honeymoon with core supporters lasted for years. In the summer of 2009, though, Miller oversaw a civic workers’ strike during which garbage piled up in parks for weeks. When the strike ended with the union the clear winner, Miller’s stature plunged again — this time among his faithful backers. Soon after the strike, Miller announced he would not seek re-election.

For McGuinty, the honeymoon ended less than six months after his election when, despite promises not to raise taxes, he imposed a new health-care tax of up to $900 a year.

In Ford’s case, his decision to skip every event during the 10-day Pride festival is inexcusable.

Even the Toronto Sun, his biggest media cheerleader, urged him in an editorial to at least attend the raising of the rainbow flag at city hall to show support for the gay and lesbian community and for the Pride festival, which attracts huge tourist money to the city.

No way, was Ford’s reaction.

Call him stubborn. Call him childish. Call him foolish.

All those labels apply.

By refusing to recognize even in a small way a vital Toronto community, Ford has shown he is incapable of growing and adapting. Worse, he’s shown he doesn’t want to grow or adapt.

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As my barber Tony rightly points out, even if Ford has a last-minute change of heart and shows up for Sunday’s parade, it will be too late to stop the criticism and the resulting damage to his mayoral image.

It will definitely be too late to save the honeymoon.

Bob Hepburn’s column appears Thursday. bhepburn@thestar.ca

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