Municipal Politics
How We Knew Toronto was Ready for Rob Ford
By Richard Ciano
only that, but he won the election with an overwhelming victory that left the political classes shaking their heads in disbelief wondering – how did this happen? The story behind the Rob Ford campaign is a simple one – the right candidate, with the right message, at the right time.
A
Our company, Campaign Research, approached the campaign like we would any other market research proj- ect. In early April, we embarked on an extensive quan- titative and qualitative study of the perceptions, attitudes, and opinions of Torontonians.
On the qualitative side we
did depth interviews and focus groups. For quantitative research we did a large 800 sample baseline telephone poll. The results told us that Rob Ford was exactly the person Toronto was waiting for. In Rob Ford’s ten years on city council, he focussed
on two key things: the waste of tax dollars on inefficien- cies and perks, and on customer service. His dedication and consistency on these issues is remarkable. He made it his personal mission to ensure that the citizens of Toronto
This exposure to the everyday concerns of Toronto- nians led Councillor Ford to an important conclusion: the people of Toronto felt that the political elites of the city did not care about their concerns. They might wait weeks for city staff to return their call, while city coun- cillors blew their office budgets on lavish parties and French lessons. While they sat stuck in traffic, council- lors got free transit, free parking, and passes to the zoo. How was that fair?
year ago people would have laughed if you told them that today Rob Ford, the pugnacious councillor from the Etobicoke suburbs, would be the mayor-elect of Canada’s largest city. And not
were treated respectfully and promptly by city staff. If you called Councillor Ford about a problem, not only would he return your call, he would come to your home. And it is no exaggeration to say that he made and returned tens of thousands of phone calls a year.
The people of Toronto felt that the political elites of the city did not care about their concerns.
22 Campaigns & Elections | Canadian Edition
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