Are the Fords again benefiting from "lowered standards" in making them look good. An incumbent (which Ford was) getting 34% is a record low (I went back to the 70s to look) Everybody was giving such a low bar for the Fords predicting low 20s even though polls showed they were going to be around 30% and now the spin is saying "wow look how impressive Doug is" Incumbents have a HUGE advantage (look at council), especially first year mayors for him ending up in the mid 30s is not impressive. It reminds me of when Ford approval was 40% and the spin was "He's holding steady" yeah he's steady bad or Rob able to get through a press conference without making a total fool of himself. The bar is so low.
Let's put Doug 34% in perspective. That number is LOWER than recent one-and-done Barbara Hall losing to Lastman in the new amalgamated city and even lower than the totally forgettable June Rowlands (36%) Most have mocked George Smitherman in the previous election (also 36%) which was still a higher percentage than Thug. None of these names are considered great political hope or got the positive spin as Doug has. Let's not even begin to mention Ford with the likes of Miller, Lastman and Eggleton who all went into easy victories in the second term.
So because Doug got 34% he's the great conservative hope? Did everybody forget that Tory got 38% in 2003 and it didn't translate to any more conservative votes. The Ford's have always been populist who scam antics will not really play province wide. How will they bash the LRT when cities like Ottawa, Hamilton, Kitchener would love to have one, would he call all those towns "second class" because of it? Another thing is that he's horrible at playing with others, which is huge in party politics. Look how quickly he threw his budget chief Del Grande and deputy mayor Kelly under the bus to save his ass and make himself look good.
Which of course brings me to Wormington bizarre claim of wanting Tory to have Ford as "a" deputy Mayor. Riiiiigh after what Ford did to people in his administration when things get rough, nobody trusts him.