To much of the world, Rob Ford, former mayor of Toronto, was the punch line of jokes and fodder for water cooler chatter. But to his dedicated supporters, Ford’s time in office represented the reign of true fiscal conservatism and an elimination of patronage and wasteful spending. In Ford Nation, author Arthur Weinreb explores the ideological power at work behind this controversial political persona.
While Ford’s detractors mocked his faithful fans, suggesting that they might as well be members of a cult, his loyal admirers supported him throughout the 2014 campaign because he never wavered on true fiscal conservatism. Meanwhile, the more Ford’s opponents lobbed criticism at him, the more passionately he stuck to his ideological guns—and the more fiercely his faithful followers loved him, despite the storm of scandals hanging over his head.
Although some pundits and Ford critics wrote off his supporters as knuckle-dragging Neanderthals, Weinreb makes a deft argument that these people are followers of true fiscal conservatism in the great tradition of Thatcher and Reagan. And, as such, they are a legitimate force in the city of Toronto that should not be ignored.