Why I Hate Toronto Mayor Rob Ford: A History

Just a few of the many many reasons I wish he’d go the fuck away already.

• Ford questions a grant for a video about homosexuality in Toronto’s South Asian community, telling The National Post: “I have no problem giving money out to physically or mentally handicapped children or seniors, but spending $5,000 on this video is disgusting, it is absolutely disgusting to spend this amount of money on this, whatever it was called, video.” (6/13/2001)
• During a council debate on whether there should be homeless shelters across the city, rather than only downtown, Mr. Ford says: “This is an insult to my constituents to even think about having a homeless shelter in their ward. And you want me to have a public meeting to discuss this? Why don’t we have a public lynching?” (4/17/2002)
• Ford questions the utility of grant programs for transgendered and transsexual people during a council debate. “I don’t understand. No. 1, I don’t understand a transgender, I don’t understand, is it a guy dressed up like a girl or a girl dressed up like a guy? And we’re funding this for, I don’t know, what does it say here? We’re giving them $3,210?” (6/14/2005)
• Security guards remove a drunken and belligerent Ford from a Maple Leafs game. After being asked to be quiet, Ford yells, “You right-wing communist bastards,” and “Who the fuck do you think you are? Are you a fucking teacher? Do you want your little wife to go over to Iran and get raped and shot?” (4/15/2006)
• Ford declares during a debate on a $1.5 million AIDs prevention program: “If you are not doing needles and you are not gay, you wouldn’t get AIDS probably. That’s the bottom line…. How are women getting it? Maybe they are sleeping with bisexual men.” (6/28/2006)
• Ford announces his intention to skip the Pride parade in favour of a Canada Day family weekend at his cottage, becoming the first mayor of the mega-city to miss the event. “We’ve been in Huntsville for the past 30 (years), as long as I can remember, since I’ve been a little boy. I’m carrying on a tradition my father had. Last year I was there during the campaign, we’re there every year,” he claims, although photos later surface of Ford at a Canada Day event in East York in 2010. (6/23/2011) [Personal favourite because he was actually campaigning at that Canada Day parade, and to this day he has failed to attend any of the events at the annual week-long Pride festival - even when they were being held right outside his office]
• Comments about Asians during a holiday shopping debate: “Those Oriental people work like dogs. They work their hearts out. They are workers non-stop. They sleep beside their machines. That’s why they’re successful in life. I went to Seoul, South Korea, I went to Taipei, Taiwan. I went to Tokyo, Japan. That’s why these people are so hard workers (sic). I’m telling you, the Oriental people, they’re slowly taking over.” (3/5/2008)
• Ford staffers hand out “Rob Ford: Mayor” magnets at the funeral of Toronto Sun founding editor Peter Worthington. When questioned about the allegations of his drug use by reporters as he exits the funeral, Ford tells them, “Have some respect.” (5/22/2013) x