Rob Fordâs former chief of staff says Torontoâs most famous mayor had a âphenomenal abilityâ to tap into what the average Torontonian was thinking.
Speaking on CTVâs Canada AM on Wednesday, Mark Towhey remembered his former boss, who died Tuesday at 46 following a battle with cancer.
Towhey said that although he âexpected that this day would come,â news of Fordâs death was âstill a kick in the gut, because if ever there was one guy who could beat the odds or defy expectations, Rob Ford seemed to be that guy.â
Very few people had more knowledge of Ford behind closed doors than Towhey, who helped engineer the longtime city councillorâs wildly successful 2010 mayoral campaign and later became his chief of staff during his controversial term in the mayorâs office.
Though Towhey didnât count Ford as a âclose personal friend,â he was by his side during the âjoys of winning and in the depths of absolute chaos.â
Ford had a tumultuous four years as mayor of Toronto. He struggled to keep his agenda on track following some early victories on council. Later, scandals, including admissions of drug and alcohol abuse, overshadowed his work as mayor and put Ford in international headlines.
Acknowledging that Ford was a man of contradictions, Towhey said Ford was very much the same person behind closed doors as he was in public.
âVery plain spoken with staff, he was focused on how things impacted the average taxpayer, at least the average taxpayer as he saw them,â Towhey said. âHe literally did return tens of thousands of phone calls a year.â
Towhey said Ford had a âphenomenal ability to tap into what people were actually thinking in the city, in a way that no other politician Iâve seen, has ever been able to do.â
When he spoke, Towhey said, it was from the votersâ perspective. âHe didnât always articulate why people wanted subways, for example,â Towhey said. âBut he knew they did because they told him that in droves.â
How Torontonians â and the world â will remember Rob Ford will depend on when people âtuned in,â Towhey said.
Some only knew him as he gained notoriety as Torontoâs âcrack mayor,â Towhey said. âBut many others who knew him as a âclean and soberâ public servant have a different perspective.
âFor the people that he returned those calls to, heâll always be a friend,â Towhey said. âHeâll always be almost a member of their extended family.â
As for a Fordâs legacy, only time will tell.
âI hope, and I think, that history will treat him a little better than life did, in that 20 years from now, weâll look at some of the stuff that he got done and the way he approached politics and maybe saw a change in the way other politicians follow him,â Towhey said.