When I tell you that I think Doug Ford is a simpleton, I don’t mean that he’s stupid.
Ford grew up as the third child of an affluent family in suburban Toronto in the 1970s and 80s, and while he was never spoiled (at least according to some of the profiles I’ve read), it’s at least safe that he’s never had much experience with want. Sure, he’s wanted things, but he’s probably never had to suffer the indignity of having to choose between three square meals a day and paying the electric bill, for example.
I don’t resent people for their success, but I do resent people for a lack of understanding or compassion, or failing all else, a lack of imagination. All three were on display last September when Ford said what I think is the most ignorant think he could have said about the affordability and housing crises.
“You know, the best way to get people out of encampments … get out of homeless? Get an application, drop it off at one of these companies and start working,” Ford said. “But if you’re healthy, get off your A-S-S and start working like everyone else is. It’s very simple.”
Simple.
When Ford said this, I had spent three months trying to find a job, and it would be another month before I was able to finally get one. By this point, I was filling out between 10 and 20 job applications every day and I could count on one hand the number of interviews I had. I don’t mind saying that I was in crisis, not only because of the financial stress but because of a general feeling of worthlessness that was inevitable. How little did I have to offer if I couldn’t find a job? Any job?
Adding to the frustration, not to mention the depression, were posts I saw on social media from people in the same boat as me, people who had more experience and expertise than I did and were struggling to find a job too. If financial independence and success was really as simple as filling out a job application, then there was a serious glitch in the matrix.
And then I thought about Doug Ford. How many times in his life had he filled out a job application? How many sleepless nights has he had about paying the rent? When was the last time he tracked his grocery spending to figure out where to cut his household budget further?
Before his entrée into politics, Ford was running the company his father founded in 1962. When Doug Ford Sr. passed away, the majority stake of Deco Labels and Tags was left to Doug Jr. and, to his credit, the business rose to new heights of success according to many sources. But having said that, Doug did not rise to the top by merit; his big brother Randy suffered many personal issues, and his little brother Rob was more interested in his political career.
And while I can’t say that I admired former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, I understood him and respected his hustle. He had a very specific definition of what it meant to be a public servant, and he lived by that. It’s tough to assign blame when it comes to addiction, but was it a coincidence that Rob started struggling when Doug joined him at city hall? Doug, it seemed, believed that the mayoralty of Canada’s biggest city was an extension of the Ford enterprise and acted accordingly.
In campaign ads, Doug’s made a lot of his accessibility, talking to voters constantly by phone and the like, but that is a trick he stole from his brother. When Rob passed away, Doug was once again the recipient of inheritance. Though it seemed like he was done with politics at the time Rob passed away, Doug resurrected his movement and branding when he made his run for Ontario PC leader and the premiership of the Ontario legislature.
Again, I say all this not to attack Doug Ford for the act of inheriting, but to make the point that when things come to you this easy, it’s understandable why you would be under the mistaken impression that the only thing keeping people from a job is the will to fill out an application.
I don’t want Ford to apologize for his success, I want him to stop for a minute and imagine what it would be like to fill out 200 job applications and still have no job. When I finally got the job I have now, I cried. I’m not ashamed to say that. I balled from the sheer force of relief that there was reason to hope after weeks of pity and doubt. It would be tight, but I would be able to buy my nieces and nephew Christmas presents, and that was no small victory for me.
Has Doug Ford ever worried that he couldn’t buy his four girls Christmas presents? Could he imagine what *that* would be like?
I’m not here to tell you who to vote for, but I do ask everyone to think in this election: What does Doug Ford know about the struggles around housing, grocery prices, finding a job, finding a job that pays a living wage, work/life balance, saving for university or college, saving for anything, or even the luxury of being able to afford to take a few days off even if “vacation” means staying at your home and not your Florida condo or your cottage in northern Ontario?
Doug Ford wants this election to be about Donald Trump, but it should be about Doug Ford. Trump is mercurial and impulsive, and he’s as likely to do the exact opposite of the thing he promised to do as he is to follow up depending on who he’s listening to at any given moment. You can’t skate to where the puck is when it comes to Donald Trump because he isn’t playing with a hockey stick, he’s playing with a machine gun full of pucks!
So that means judging Doug Ford on his own record, which is a record of neglect, a record of inaction, a record of access for the wealthy and well-connected, and a record of misunderstanding the crises being faced by his constituents and an unwillingness to learn better. Whether that’s enough to send him back to the family business on Feb. 27 is a choice I leave to you.