Rob Ford: Low-income supporters stand by their mayor
Mayor Rob Ford’s support among low-income people is a paradox to critics who say he has consistently voted against programs that would help the poor. But his supporters in Rexdale social housing complexes say they support him because he’s active in the community.
By: Laura Kane News reporter, Published on Fri Dec 06 2013
Standing in the courtyard of her Rexdale community housing complex, Lily Burke points to all the reasons she still supports Mayor Rob Ford.
Kids playing on a brand new red-and-yellow plastic jungle gym. The missing letter replaced on the sign outside her building. Blank walls, where there used to be graffiti.
These changes all happened because Ford returned her phone calls, she says.
“He works with the community,” Burke says, beaming. “If it wasn’t for him, we would not have what we have here.”
When the mayor recently stood up in council chambers and proclaimed that he “sides with the poor people,” many in the public gallery laughed. Ford is a wealthy man, and has voted against social programs for the poor.
But the reality remains that Ford’s supporters are predominantly lower-income. People who make less than $40,000 a year are twice as likely to support the mayor than those who make $100,000 or more, a recent Ipsos Reid poll found.
In his former council ward of Etobicoke North, many lower-income residents are fierce supporters of the mayor. The reasons for their loyalty have more to do with the mayor’s visibility than any of his policies.
“I haven’t seen no other politicians around here,” says Carlos Santokie, 39, who lives in the same Queen’s Plate Dr. complex as Burke. “He’s always here, I’m not going to lie. If he’s not here, his brother’s here. That’s the most important thing to me.”
The mayor and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, were at the complex on a recent weekend for a memorial for a 12-year-old boy. It was there that CNN caught up with Ford for an interview, and residents rallied around the embattled mayor.
“If he really didn’t give two squats about anyone, he wouldn’t be out here in a community where there is violence and there is stuff that’s not positive,” says Omar Omar, an 18-year-old wearing a “Rob Ford for Mayor” button.
The community is mixed-income, with social housing and market value units. Burke, a 65-year-old seniors’ home worker, pays market rent for her two-bedroom apartment, which is crammed with framed photos of her grandchildren.
Also on the wall is a framed Toronto Sun column featuring a big, smiling photo of the mayor, which was given to her by a friend. Her fridge, naturally, is plastered with Rob Ford magnets.
“I love the mayor,” she says. “I love him for who he is and what he’s done for this community.”
When she first moved into the building in 2002, she says she was shocked to find graffiti covering the walls and holes in the carpet. Burke says she called Ford — then councillor for the area — and he made sure everything was fixed.
“He said to me that it only takes one person to make a difference in the community, and when he looks at me, he can see I’m going to be that person,” she recalls proudly.
Burke also credits Ford with replacing a run-down playground outside the complex and renovating its community centre. The $1.3 million revitalization was funded by the Toronto Community Housing Corporation and Ascot Co-operative Homes in 2006.
Most of the community cleanup for which Burke praises Ford was completed when he was a councillor. But she says she still thinks he’s doing a great job as mayor — regardless of any recent controversy.
On nearby Dixon Rd., in a housing complex that police raided in June as part of a massive guns-and-gangs sweep dubbed Project Traveller, diehard supporters of the mayor are also not hard to find.
Ford has become inextricably linked to Dixon Rd. Police first became interested in the mayor when his name was mentioned in Project Traveller wiretaps, and sources say Ford blurted out two unit numbers at 320 Dixon Rd. as possible locations of the crack video the day the Star reported on its existence.
Still, to some residents of the buildings, the mayor is seen as a tough defender of their interests at city hall.
“He is the best mayor this country has ever seen,” says Nsa Archibong, a security company manager. “He talks about reducing taxes. He has done so many good things for the lives of Torontonians who work very hard.”
But critics point out that the mayor’s 2011 property tax freeze and subsequent small tax hikes are aimed at middle- and upper-class homeowners, not lower-income renters. His vow to drop the land transfer tax is also unlikely to benefit the poor.
Further, he has restricted funding for public transit and libraries, and hiked user fees for recreation programs — all municipal services that low-income people rely on.
“He’s made life harder for folks,” says Councillor Adam Vaughan. “He has done nothing for low-income people except answer their phone calls, show up, scream at a hole in the wall and leave. . . . He doesn’t fundamentally fix the problem.”
Councillor Ana Bailao, chair of the affordable housing committee, pointed out the mayor wanted to sell off 900 publicly owned homes in 2012 to tackle the repair backlog, while 90,000 people are waiting for social housing.
The mayor has also voted against funding social programs for at-risk youth — which he called “hug-a-thug” programs — despite his own devotion to his Rob Ford Football Foundation and former job as coach of the Don Bosco Eagles.
“He says he sides with (lower-income people), but when it comes to the voting, a lot of times he’s not voting for the things that really, really have an impact on them,” says Bailao. “That’s the reality.”
Ford did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
There’s also the matter of the mayor’s personal wealth. Despite portraying himself as just an “average guy” fighting against elites, he was raised in a privileged home and his family business, Deco Labels & Tags, has annual sales estimated at $100 million.
But his Rexdale supporters say his income is irrelevant — he doesn’t flash his wealth, or distance himself because of it, they say.
“Regardless of what’s in a person’s pocket, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change what’s in their character,” says Omar.
Asked about Ford’s history of racially insensitive comments, including reports that he called a cab driver a “Paki” and referred to his football team as “f---ing minorities” in the crack video, many say that it simply doesn’t match up with their image of the mayor.
“I never heard him say anything like that,” says Burke. “For me, the community here, we are all a mixture of people. If he tried to help us here, I can’t see how he could make racist comments.”
Ford’s ties to criminals and admitted drug use have not fazed his supporters here. While many say he should take a short leave of absence to deal with his health issues, none want him to step down. There is a pervading belief that the mayor is being held to an unfair standard by both the media and police.
“I feel like he’s being bullied, to be honest,” says Omar. “Everyone’s parading him around as this crackhead. . . . He was caught slipping, associating with those kinds of people, but I think that’s not his whole life.”
Even if the mayor were to be arrested, Burke says that wouldn’t change her opinion of him. Insisting that nobody’s perfect, she says she’d vote for him again.
“We vote for the people who look after us and who we see take care of the situation,” says Burke. “I would vote for him a million times.”
