Ford’s nephew squares off with family ally for seat
OPPONENTS’ POLITICS, HISTORIES INTERTWINE
The endorsement John Tory perceived as a betrayal came on a Tuesday in September 2017, when Toronto city councillor Vincent Crisanti declared his support for Doug Ford’s fledgling bid to unseat Tory as mayor.
To Crisanti, a personal friend of the Ford family, the confirmation of his allegiance shouldn’t have been much of a surprise. He credited the late Toronto mayor Rob Ford, Doug’s brother, with helping him win election to council for the first time back in 2010. He’d publicly said so the previous Friday, when he introduced Doug on stage at the annual Ford Fest barbecue. Tory, though, thought he had good reason to feel stung. He called Crisanti to strip him of his post as deputy mayor in Toronto’s west end, a ceremonial role Tory had tabbed him for in 2014.
Ford, of course, went on to ascend to an even higher calling than Toronto mayor — and the imprint he has made on the city’s politics as premier of Ontario may soon put Crisanti out of a job entirely.
Unless it torpedoes the electoral campaign of Ford’s nephew, instead.
For the past two years Crisanti and Michael Ford have served as city councillors in neighbouring wards in Etobicoke, the west Toronto community that raised Doug and Rob Ford and propelled them both to political prominence. Crisanti’s terrain was Ward 1, the northernmost part of Etobicoke; Ford’s was Ward 2, straight south. But in its push to slash Toronto’s allotment of councillors from 47 to 25, Doug Ford’s government melded the two districts into one, prompting the incumbents to run against each other in the Oct. 22 municipal election.
“It’s not a scenario that I think anybody really wanted,” Crisanti said. “I certainly did not expect that to happen.”
The redistribution of boundaries set up several face-offs between sitting councillors — and convinced others not to seek re-election when confronted with the prospect of opposing an incumbent with similar ideals — but no two opponents’ histories intertwine quite like those of Crisanti and the younger Ford.
A 65-year-old former advertising and real estate businessman, Crisanti earned his spot on Toronto council by surging to victory in 2010 against incumbent Suzan Hall, who fended him off in his first two runs in 2000 and 2003. By his own admission, Crisanti’s eventual win was keyed in part by the vocal backing he received during the campaign from Toronto’s soon-to-be mayor Rob Ford, councillor in the adjoining Ward 2 for the preceding 10 years.
Michael Ford, now 24, often accompanied Rob to council sessions when he was growing up, outings that laid the groundwork for a political future of his own. Less abrasive and more collegial than his uncles were during their respective stints on council, he became Etobicoke North’s public school trustee in 2014 and was elected councillor in the old Ward 2 in a 2016 byelection, staged to fill the seat after Rob’s death from cancer.
While representing neighbouring constituencies, Crisanti and Ford developed a close connection. Crisanti says the two of them have always worked well together. Ford calls Crisanti “an absolutely great guy.” One of the most recent posts on Crisanti’s personal Facebook page is a greeting Ford wrote on July 20, the day after Crisanti turned 65: “Wishing my good friend and colleague a very happy belated birthday! All the best Vince!”
Elections, though, don’t tend to foster warm relations between competing candidates. Speaking by phone to National Post earlier this month, Crisanti seemed to suggest that Ford shouldn’t have decided to pursue the same seat as him.
“I’ve got the maturity. I’ve got life experience. When you’re young and you don’t have that, I think you need to look at yourself and say, ‘Am I running for the right reasons?’” Crisanti said. “It’s a scenario that should not be on the table, as far as I’m concerned. It’s probably best to leave it at that.”
Asked to clarify what he meant, Crisanti replied, “I’m just surprised we’re actually running against each other — that that’s actually happening. I’ll leave that to your imagination.”
In a separate interview, Ford admitted that being pitted against Crisanti is “not the greatest thing,” but said the focal point of the campaign should be the voters who comprise the new Etobicoke North.
“We need to look beyond him and I to a community of over 100,000 people that we need to serve,” he said.
Indeed, the structural changes to council have made it so that Crisanti and Ford are each trying to appeal to a whole additional ward’s worth of residents. Broadly, their ideas overlap. Both voted in July to hire 100 new Toronto police officers as a means of combating crime and gun violence. Both think economic investment in north Etobicoke is essential.
They diverge in their perception of who is best equipped to get the job done. Crisanti told the Post that his experience — in politics and business and in living in the community for several decades — makes him the superior candidate. Ford said his youth gives him a unique standpoint on council: the impetus to build “the kind of city I want to live in.”
Weeks before the vote, the man whose motivation to downsize council set this showdown in motion has made clear his loyalty lies with his nephew. A spokesman for Doug Ford, whose provincial riding, Etobicoke North, mirrors the new Ward 1, said in an email that Michael Ford is the only municipal candidate the premier is “actively supporting.”
As recently as late August, Crisanti told Metroland Media Toronto that he and Doug “talk all the time … We’re always chatting and everything’s good.”
On a Saturday evening a few weeks ago, Michael Ford went to hear his uncle speak at this year’s edition of Ford Fest, which moved out of Doug’s mother’s back yard in Etobicoke to more expansive grounds at a community centre in Vaughan, Ont. Thousands of spectators ate burgers and cheered the premier as he railed against Kathleen Wynne’s record of managing Ontario’s finances. His mayoral ambitions seemed a product of the distant past.
Unlike in years past, Crisanti wasn’t in attendance. He was busy campaigning that night, he said.
SURPRISED WE’RE ACTUALLY RUNNING AGAINST EACH OTHER.