The morning after yet another embarrassing defeat at council for Rob Ford, right-wing councillor Peter Milczyn publicly declared on radio what many have been saying privately for months: The mayor’s brother and his advisors are the problem.

Milczyn is a Ford-friendly councillor who, like half a dozen others, has only recently split with him over the mismanaged transit file. Those defectors could be lured back into the Ford fold if the administration adopts a smoother bedside manner. The question is whether the mayor is interested in changing his tactics.

Those closest to Ford suggest he isn’t. Instead, the administration is hoping the worst is behind them and a less controversial agenda going forward will dial down the heat. From there, Ford will do what he does best: campaign.

“When you look at it, what’s left? We’ve accomplished so much in such a short period of time. We had major success on the budget — regardless of how the media reports it — and with labour negotiations,” said deputy mayor Doug Holyday. “I think from here out, there are items where there may be room for compromise and others where there isn’t. Sometimes you’re just dead right.”

According to his allies, this has all been part of the administration’s four-year plan. They jam-packed the most contentious campaign promises into the first year and a half — the core service review, budget cuts, strong-arming concessions out of the unions, and overhauling the transit plan to put new tracks underground — allowing time for a pre-election recovery.

“Look, transit was a hard file. It wasn’t good for us. But we’re going to get that done with next week, whichever way it goes, and move on … Then we’ve got three years to build stuff and work in the wards. This mayor is going to get re-elected,” said one ally, who chalked up criticism by Milczyn and others of the mayor’s advisors to just general frustration with the climate at city hall.

At Monday’s vote to dissolve the TTC commission. Ford lost by a hair shy of the two-thirds margin: 29-15. Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, Ford’s quarterback, characterized the current political landscape at city hall as “a minority government,” acknowledging for the first time that the Ford contingent no longer has strong support.

Along with Milczyn, councillors Gary Crawford, Chin Lee, Gloria Lindsay Luby, Cesar Palacio, John Parker, James Pasternak and Jaye Robinson were among those that did not back Ford, though just half a year ago most would have been considered sure-fire supporters.

Milczyn seemed to pin the blame on Councillor Doug Ford, telling CBC’s Metro Morning that “Councillor Ford has had a tendency to continually add fuel to the fire when others of us have been trying to douse the flames.”

Specifically, Milczyn suggested Doug Ford’s recent heated comments about subways, which appeared critical of Stintz, left “a lot of councillors nervous.”

Ford’s former chief of staff, Nick Kouvalis, is on the record as warning the mayor to keep a lid on Doug or risk losing more votes.

Kouvalis, who still speaks to both Fords, said Doug is a “good guy” who alienated veteran colleagues by telling they’re “not good enough, not smart enough.”

“I don’t want to throw Doug under the bus.” Kouvalis said. “But, at the end of the day, the mayor has to be the mayor — by himself.”

Opposition Councillor Shelley Carroll said that if the mayor wants to avoid future missteps, he could take a lesson from his predecessors.

Under previous administrations, most successfully under Mel Lastman, the mayor’s staff was constantly in discussion with councillors about contentious items. By the time an issue hit the chamber, the outcome had been massaged into something people could live with, Carroll said.

“Mel Lastman and his staff were masters at this,” she said, adding that to some extent the same process continued under David Miller.

But that’s clearly not the course followed by the Ford administration.

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Is that just because the mayor is taking bad advice from his team?

“No,” Carroll said. “This is Rob Ford. A different staff might not stick around. But this is who he is.”

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