Ford got elected because his populist, anti-tax message arrived at just the right moment to capture the attention of the electorate and win over many non-politically engaged people and even some populist leftists.
Back in 2010, I was talking with a lower-class middle-aged woman living in the old city of Toronto, who considers herself to be a poverty activist. She said she was going to vote for Ford because she was disgusted at what she perceived to be the rich ripping off the public. She cited specifically AGO director Matthew Teitelbaum's million dollar salary in 2009 as evidence. I'm not sure if she realized that this money didn't come from the city, but she blamed both Miller and the provincial Liberals for creating an atmosphere in which cultural elites were giving themselves big paydays, and spending money on opera houses and art galleries instead of investing the money in social programs. So, she plugged her nose and voted for Ford in order to send a message.
I also spoke with many, many people who are not usually politically engaged, but who decided to vote for Ford because they were angry about the HST and decided that this was the best way to express that anger. Again, some of them realized that this was not a city issue, and others didn't. But what they shared in common was that they were going to vote for Ford to send a message to Miller and the provincial Liberals (and by extension, George Smitherman).