Rob Ford should never have become mayor of Toronto.

Not because he’s incompetent, too far right, or had no feasible plan. And definitely not because the voters were wrong.

But because he’s not playing to his strength.

“All he wants to do is help people,” said Andrew Pask, Ford’s executive assistant for eight years pre-mayoralty.

He’s adept at it, too, often circumventing a complicated and bureaucratic system to find quick solutions. He’d float from ward to ward during his decade representing Ward 2 in Etobicoke, taking up complaints citizens had about any city responsibility and getting them fixed — while jumping the queue and driving his fellow councillors nuts, it should be noted.

Evidence of his desire to help is clear in his passions, too. Ford is one of the biggest supporters of youth football in this city, with both his time and his chequebook.

You’d think those skills would go a long way toward making a successful politician.

But instead of sticking to answering his personal cellphone and mopping up messes as the city’s alternate ombudsman, Rob Ford is our mayor and his local strengths have transferred into city-wide blunders.

Today marks a year since Ford made tackle dummies out of his underwhelming competition and won the election.

He figured he could also crush the city’s exploding budget — even as the pundits attacked his numbers as phony, fudged and fictitious. His brother Doug, at a meeting last year, went so far as to give me a Pierre Trudeau-like “just watch me” line about how the brothers would run this city with private business sensibilities and all our problems would be quickly solved.

Rob should have stuck to his knitting.

Instead, he’s been exposed as a non-leader and a fiscal flop, a guy who knows how much it costs to water the plants at city hall, but little about billion-dollar portfolios like the TTC, police or the waterfront.

So did Ford live with his head in the clouds as a councillor, drink the Nick Kouvalis election machine Kool-Aid, believe his older brother could fill in any potholes and show up for work on day one with no clue, or did he win the wrong job?

A number of city staff, both past and present, paint a picture of a councillor who would come to their offices with an issue and want it solved immediately.

“He never ranted or raved,” said one ex-staffer. “He was totally reasonable.”

Ombudsman Fiona Crean revealed last week that most complaints filed by city homeowners for things like damage caused to cars by a pothole were automatically rejected. That’s red meat for Ford. As a councillor, Ford wouldn’t have sat back and let that happen to anyone who called him and asked for help.

As mayor, he can’t possibly assist everyone who feels the city isn’t treating them fairly.

An ombudsman-type position for Ford may sound absurd as many people in this city feel they’ve been ignored by an uncaring man during his first year in power. His loudest critics believe he’s so inept he couldn’t organize his own trip to the washroom. But as a councillor Ford starred as the local fix-it man, and that helped fuel his ascension to the mayor’s office.

The ombudsman’s office is an island unto itself, investigating independently and generating power through the ability to embarrass the sitting government. Playing well with others is not part of the job description — or Ford’s game plan.

As a councillor, he wasn’t even invited to join the conservative Responsible Government Group that tried — and failed — to become a coordinated opposition to David Miller.

As mayor, though, you need to have 22 other votes to move forward. Ford often skips that step. As a result, Kumbaya moments have been rare. Tossing out Toronto Community Housing’s leadership, ditching Transit City and pushing through on a Sheppard subway plan and the surprise Port Lands initiative have been his biggest flashpoints, all advanced without council input.

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But that’s Rob Ford. He’s a one-man band. He wants to help. His perfect day is taking calls, fixing problems and cutting through the bureaucratic tangles of city hall.

Maybe he should look for a secondment.

Rob Granatstein is a former editorial page editor of the Toronto Sun, and has written about Toronto City Hall for almost a decade.