Article content continued

The Integrity Commissioner framed the payment as a “sanction,” which certainly supports that interpretation. The City of Toronto Act only provides for a reprimand or a suspension in pay as punishment for Code of Conduct violations, not a financial penalty. Thus any conflict of interest was beside the point, the appeal court ruled, because the the matter at hand never should have existed.

And now, off Clayton Ruby goes to the Supreme Court in pursuit of a long-shot leave to appeal. May he fall in love with Ottawa and take early retirement there, never to be heard from again. Whatever the law says, the punishment Judge Hackland imposed never fit the crime. This is an opportunity for everyone to move on and for Mr. Ford to make the best he can out of the next two years. We have avoided yet another City Hall circus — by-election or no by-election, and if no by-election, whom to appoint? — and we should all be happy. All the more so if Mr. Ford emerges from the ordeal of a new man.

“This has been a very, very humbling experience,” Mr. Ford said at a press conference on Friday. For a Mayor who struggles to compromise with his own reflection, who long ago lost control of City Council, that sounded promising. He certainly looked humbled. And he sounded humbled. But if you listened to the words, you heard the same old Ford-brand bravado, just in a minor key.

What did he learn over the course of this nightmare? That everyone loves him, basically. “I’d like to thank the thousands of people who offered their support and encouragement over the last few months. Your kind words have inspired me to continue fighting on,” he said. “At every restaurant, at every gas station, the people of this city have given me phenomenal support and I truly, truly want to thank them for it.”