The Fords and a friendly chat with Mike Harris
In The Only Average Guy, John Filion writes that the former Tory premier wanted a meeting a few weeks before the 2010 mayoral victory. It did not go as planned
Although the Ford family had supported Conservative candidates for decades, when Rob Ford began his race for mayor the party establishment (except for family friend Jim Flaherty) wanted nothing to do with him. Undaunted, Ford happily played the familiar role of outsider, a candidate who denounced politicians and sought to dismantle the government he asked to lead.
Towards the end of summer, as a series of polls established Ford as the mayor apparent, some notable Conservatives decided it was time to ingratiate themselves. Ford campaign manager Nick Kouvalis, not wanting to mess with the success of Ford’s anti-establishment appeal, wasn’t going to make it easy for them.
By August 2010, Ford seemed unstoppable, vulnerable only to a coordinated and concerted effort by his opponents to get behind one candidate. Co-operation of this sort seldom happens in Toronto politics, and George Smitherman had chased after Ford so far to the right that supporters of the left-wing candidate, Joe Pantalone, weren’t inclined to move to him.
Toronto’s “progressive” leaders were in a state of shocked disbelief at Ford’s increasing lead in the polls. The Conservative hierarchy, which at first kept their distance from the uncouth, uneducated Ford, now wanted to reserve a seat on the new gravy train. “Near the end of the campaign, a lot of Conservatives were coming in to say, ‘We support you, Rob,’” Kouvalis recalled. “I was like, ‘No you don’t! Get the f--- out of here!’ Including Mike Harris,” he said, smiling. “Do you want to know that story?” I did. In Ontario, Mike Harris is a Conservative icon, the former premier who twice led his party to majority governments under the banner of his “Common Sense Revolution.” In office, Harris had cut spending and slashed government programs. Ford was looking forward to doing the same at city hall.
“All right, it’s August,” Kouvalis began, with enthusiasm. “We’ve spent a lot more money than we’ve raised. They were desperate to raise money. Here comes Mike Harris. Calls up Doug Ford and says, ‘Doug, you and Rob should come down to my office, we should have a meeting.’”
It has taken Kouvalis weeks to wrestle control of the campaign from Doug Ford’s grip. “There’ve been so many meetings that I didn’t know of, that have all turned into a disaster, that I’d made a rule: no f---ing meetings. None of you f---ing guys are f---ing talking to anybody unless I know about it. I need to f---ing know everything.’ I was swearing like that at them. And so Doug says, ‘Oh, we’re going down to Mike Harris’s office for an afternoon coffee, just to chat with Mike.’ ” (The late Doug Ford Sr. had served that one four-year term in Harris’s government. An enormous photograph of Ford Sr., posing with Harris, would later dominate the wall behind Rob Ford’s desk in the mayor’s office.)
“So I said, ‘I’m coming,’ ” Kouvalis continued.
“Doug says, ‘Oh, you can’t come. You weren’t invited.’
“I said, ‘I’m coming! I know what he wants, and I’m coming. Because you guys don’t have the balls to stand up to him. I’m coming.’ “‘What does he want?’ Doug asks. “I said, ‘He wants to offer you money, he’s going to raise you money so he can get in on the campaign. Right?
“‘These guys are all in business to make money. These are the f---ing people we’re running against. These downtown elites include Conservative elites. We’re running against these people. We should not be spending one minute of our time with them. I’m coming.’”
Doug Ford didn’t share Kouvalis’s aversion to elites, especially if they were influential Conservatives with money. “‘Don’t create a scene,’ he warned. “‘I will if I have to. I’m coming.’ “‘You’re not coming. You’re not coming.’
“So I just went anyway,” Kouvalis told me. “I showed up.
“We get into the elevator going up and Doug is telling me in front of Rob, ‘You don’t say a word in there. You don’t say a goddamn word in there. You shouldn’t be here.’ And Rob is, ‘C’mon, Jones [the brothers’ nickname for each other], leave Nick alone. He’s part of the family.’”
Rob was tired of being outmuscled by his big brother. Grabbing the chance to make it two against one, he sided with Nick.
“So we go in and they have this long chat about their father in Harris’s caucus, and what a great guy Doug Ford Sr. was, how much Mike Harris appreciated him. You know, the niceties, it’s all nice, a nice chat, everybody feels good about it. Then they get down to brass tacks. Mike asks, ‘Where are we at with numbers?’ Very official. ‘What’s the spread? Do you think you’ve peaked too soon?’ And then he gets into, ‘Where is the spending at? How are you on the campaign funding?’ And then he offers, ‘I’ll do a quarter-of-a-milliondollar fundraising for you.’”
Kouvalis had remained silent as it unfolded as he expected. He knew Doug would happily give Harris whatever he wanted in return for a much-needed cash infusion.
“Doug’s like, ‘Great!’ I’m waiting to see what Rob says. If Rob says great, I’m not going to say anything, ’cause he’s the candidate and I work for him. But if Rob shows any bit of discomfort, I’ll just jump in and I’ll be the bad guy, not Rob. So Rob says, ‘Well, you know, I’m not sure we need a fundraiser right now.’
“‘What are you talking about?’ Doug jumps back in. ‘We’re bleeding all over the place!’”
And so Kouvalis interceded. “What I think the candidate for mayor is trying to say — even though Mike Harris in all of our eyes is a Canadian patriot — he would be a f---ing disaster for us at this point in our campaign.”
Kouvalis looked right at Harris and continued. “We will win, and you will raise three-quarters of a million dollars. After we win — but not before.”
Harris can’t believe he’s being spoken to like this. “Who the f--- are you?” he asked Kouvalis.
“I said, ‘My name is Nick and it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m a big fan of what you did as premier in the nineties. But you, and all the people that you associate with, will not be associated with this campaign until after we win, and then you will help us raise money.’ Doug and Rob were just shocked, and that was the end of the meeting. Mike was furious, furious. Still furious. Still.” Years later, Kouvalis remained disturbed by the opportunists-come-lately who tried to join the campaign at the end.
“Yeah, well they all wanted to be on the winning team. All of them. All of them who said Rob Ford is a knuckle-dragging animal who couldn’t tie his own shoes and should never be the mayor of Toronto, they were all lining up to literally put their fricking lips right on his ass. It was disgusting to watch all of it, and I’m happy if you quote me on that. Because it was disgusting.” Excerpted from The Only Average Guy: Inside the Uncommon World of Rob Ford by John Filion. Copyright © 2015 John Filion. Published by Random House Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.