Despite scandal, international attention, and having his power constrained by Toronto City Council, Rob Ford has stated he will let voters decide his fate in the mayoral election in 2014. Ford argues he was elected with a mandate to defend “average” Torontonians against the very elites who are now demanding his resignation.
Rob Ford is a recent example of the populist tradition in Canadian politics. Populists argue that they are working on behalf of “regular people” against the established political and economic interests. Populist movements often have their origins in Western Canada, since politicians from Ontario and Quebec have historically dominated the federal government.
Canadian populism is not exclusively a conservative ideology. Both the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the New Democratic Party started as populist movements by farmers and workers. Populism also has a history in Quebec, particularly with the rise of René Lévesque’s Parti Québécois. Even Jack Layton’s Orange Crush in Quebec of 2011 harkened back to the NDP’s populist origins.
In recent times, Western Canada has promoted a distinctly conservative type of prairie populism. Many western populists were disillusioned with both the governments of Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney and joined the Reform Party under Preston Manning, demanding, “The West Wants In.” Since then, populists have tended to join conservative parties at the federal and provincial level even in Ontario and Quebec, arguing government programs benefit the so-called establishment.
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Rob Ford ran in 2010 against the “big city elites.” He claims to represent the average taxpayer against the entrenched interests that led to a protracted garbage strike, inefficient government services, and increased taxes. The belief that he is confronting these elites in Toronto is one of the reasons Ford Nation remains to stubbornly supportive.
READ MORE: Mayoral voters: Just who is Ford Nation?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper –once a founding member of the Reform Party – is part of the same conservative populist tradition as Rob Ford. Harper has been reluctant to condemn Rob Ford for fear of alienating voters in suburban Toronto who are necessary to ensure another Conservative majority government in the next federal election.
Rob Ford’s politics speak to suburbanites who demand lower taxes and have little use for government services. So, for him, when the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, the National Post, and countless others criticize his antics, it’s just par for the course for a conservative politician in an otherwise progressive city. He feels victimized by the press who have always been against his brash brand of populism.
Whether Rob Ford will win the next mayoral election remains unclear. But the populism that launched him, and Stephen Harper, into office remains a potent force in Canadian politics.
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