John Tory has won a tough battle to become mayor. At the age of 60 he has come back from a long string of defeats to claim the prize he lost a decade ago to David Miller. Speaking in victory on Monday night Mr. Tory was the gracious, educated and charming man we know him to be. So much more finished and presentable than Rob Ford. So much more capable, as the mantra of his campaign had it, of bringing the city together. John Tory will be the very model of a big-city mayor and with any luck he will build us a transit system too. Nonetheless, Doug Ford, the man who came second, was surging toward the end and he came closer than many thought he might. The quick count shows Tory taking 395,141 votes (40 percent), Mr. Ford 331,020 (33 percent) and Olivia Chow 227,096 (23 percent). There were 981,179 ballots cast so between them the three top candidates took more than 95 percent of the votes. Why didn’t John Tory win with more than 40 percent of the popular support? Even though Olivia Chow ran third it is an easy take on Ms. Chow that she is a political force whereever she appears. She was over her head this time but not without impact. It is the really quite unique quality of the Ford brothers when it comes to money that drove the substantial vote for Doug Ford. And it has to be said first that Doug Ford is different from his brother. Some will say he is just plain smarter. He is certainly more articulate. And yes, he can be combative, nasty and mean. But his belief in the value of money lives outside of his petty conduct. Forget Ford Nation. There are thoughtful voters who supported Doug Ford who don’t give a damn about the Fords personally. The Ford brothers have suffered not from bad politics but from bad behaviour. In the end, most people found they disliked the hideous conduct of Rob Ford enough that they elected John Tory. We do not know how many of Tory’s supporters might have preferred a tougher discussion about money. But for many of them, it seems, the election was a case of better safe than sorry when it comes to the Fords. We do know that the quite conservative Jane Pitfield worried publicly about John Tory’s capacity to stop sloppy waste. She may have nothing to be concerned about but it is a clue as to why Doug Ford came as close as he did. Photo: John Tory and wife Barbara Hackett greet happy workers — Twitter.
