Unsatisfying fix for Ford junkies
Towhey’s account of working for Ford has juice, but something feels lacking
There’s a book in this. You oughta write a book. I’m going to write a book. Mark Towhey, chief of staff when Rob Ford was mayor, did what many working in the Ford administration mused and joked about doing — he wrote a tell-all tale of the meteoric rise and crack-fuelled fall of the world’s most infamous chief magistrate.
While at times Towhey provides a unique look at battleground Ford, his book lacks the suspense and pacing of the single best account of the Ford escapades. That’s because so much of what Towhey writes about is already in the public domain.
Still, it does give us more than a glimpse behind the facade of public life. We learn of the internecine struggles between Rob and councillor/brother Doug, or “Jones” as they called each other, two beefy bully boys from Etobicoke who have each other’s back in public. How Towhey saw how much Doug wanted to be mayor, the man in charge, how they squabbled behind closed doors and how Rob was the one who really made all the decisions.
There’s a recounting of the Ford magic, the “rock star” like adoration that got him elected mayor in 2010. Towhey, a military man with significant credentials overseas was by Ford’s side while campaigning. He served in roles including policy director before becoming chief of staff in summer 2012.
During debates, Towhey describes how he would sit in the audience in front of Ford and signal cheer or displeasure, trying to help this ungainly politician get elected. If Ford was coming across as too cold to the audience, Towhey said he would mime throwing a football “to remind him to connect with the audience like they were his team.”
Here was Towhey, someone few in public life had heard of, thrust into what was a happy spotlight, until Ford’s addictions took over. Much of the book saunters through the Ford politics at city hall. Towhey does foreshadow what is to come early on in Mayor Rob Ford: Uncontrollable. He describes his ground rules: as an aide he won’t do anything illegal, won’t harm anyone, won’t lie and won’t “do something I wasn’t comfortable with.” In fact, he sits Ford down and grills him when he signed on to help. “Ask away buddy, I’m an open book,” Ford responds.
Of course, the media reported long before Towhey started typing, Ford was anything but an open book. When Towhey’s tale eventually gets into the issues readers will be looking for — drinking, lewd behaviour, crack — they will see that Towhey, the trusted adviser, was faced with a fair number of uncomfortable situations. While he tried to help and control Ford behind the scenes, he never went public, even though he had information that, arguably, the public and the police should have.
Towhey is told Ford has been driving drunk. Towhey is told that Ford physically assaulted two staffers and “sexually harassed another.” He sees increasingly erratic behaviour and does little or nothing. He makes no reports to authorities who could step in.
In one chilling phone call he makes note of, Ford is at home, high on something, with his wife, Renata, and their kids in the wee hours of the morning.
Ford is clearly aggressive with his wife over a cash issue and Towhey hears Ford say “or I’m putting three bullets in your head.”
Alot of people would have called 911 on Ford. Towhey didn’t. Kids in the house, a wife who may be the subject of abuse. Towhey never calls. In a recent interview with Maclean’s, Towhey said he diEdn’t call police because “I was waiting for any indication that it was going to go to the next step, and it never did.”
After the crack video scandal surfaces, and Towhey does go to the cops with other allegations related to the Ford saga, Towhey is fired by Ford, who did not like the advice his chief of staff was giving. (Get treatment for your problem, etc.) The last section of his chronicle is aptly tagged “From the Sidelines.”
Towhey’s book is certainly worth reading for those who want to glean every bit of information possible from the Ford story. For my money, though, the most gripping account of many of the Ford shenanigans was written by Toronto police Det. Const. Ali Nader Khoshbooi, the “affiant” who swore out the 465-page affidavit to obtain search warrant in the Sandro Lisi investigation that intersected at so many points with Ford’s escapades. First “published” in 2013, reprinted many times on the web, that text offers a serious behind-the-scenes look at key parts of the Ford years. Kevin Donovan has led numerous investigations of Rob Ford for the Star