Rob Ford served as mayor of Toronto from December 1, 2010, until November 30, 2014, being elected in 2010.
Overview
Rob Ford was elected mayor with 383,501 votes (47%) over George Smitherman's 289,832 (35.6%) and Joe Pantalone with 95,482 (11.7%). The voter turnout was around 52% of registered voters, the highest in Toronto's post-amalgamation history. Ward-by-ward electoral results showed that Ford had won all of the former pre-amalgamation suburbs, while Smitherman topped districts in the pre-amalgamation Toronto districts. Ford also received 80,000 votes from the "Downtown 13" wards, or 20% of his total votes.
After the election, Ford had outgoing councillor Case Ootes, a former City of Toronto budget chief, head the "transition team." From his campaign team, Ford named Nick Kouvalis as his chief of staff; Mark Towhey, who had drafted his campaign platform, as his policy advisor; and Adrienne Batra, his communications advisor, as press secretary. Councillor Doug Holyday, who had helped elect Doug Ford Sr., was named deputy mayor. For the executive committee of City Council, Ford named councillors who had endorsed him in his campaign. For the inauguration ceremony at the first meeting of the new council, Ford had television commentator Don Cherry introduce him and put the chain of office on him. Cherry garnered some controversy with his remarks. Cherry described how Ford had reversed a mistake of city staff cutting down a tree of a Toronto property owner for no good reason and then billing the property owner, who suffered from Alzheimer's. Cherry added "Put that in your pipe you left-wing kooks" and, in regards to the pink suit he was wearing, "I'm wearing pinko for all the pinkos out there that ride bicycles and everything, I thought I'd get it in."
During his term as mayor, Ford was involved in several publicized incidents while driving, including reading while driving on the Gardiner Expressway, and talking on his cell phone while driving. In another driving incident, Ford passed the rear door of a streetcar, while the front door was open, leading to "an exchange of words with the streetcar operator." After the August 2012 incident of reading while driving, Ford was criticized by the media, other mayors and safety advocates. The Toronto Police and Rob's brother Doug Ford both urged him to hire a driver. As mayor, Ford was entitled to a personal driver and car paid for by the city, but Ford repeatedly turned down the benefit on the grounds that he did not want taxpayers to pay for the extra cost. Similarly, while a councillor, Ford had disagreed with the city giving councillors free TTC passes and fought for the eventual repeal of the perk on the same basis.
Mayor Ford was the focus of further controversy when, according to a report in the Toronto Star, he personally asked city officials to approve drainage and road repairs outside the Deco Labels and Tags headquarters building before its 50th anniversary party in August 2012. Critics such as Councillor Adam Vaughan stated "This is a clear-cut example of using one's office to gain preferential treatment for private interests." Ford stated that he had made thousands of such requests on behalf of homeowners and other businesses. "Someone has a pothole in front of their house, in front of their business, I go out and fix it. Just like I did for our company."
The Ombudsman for the City of Toronto, Fiona Crean, published a report in September 2012 suggesting that Mayor Ford's office had "compromised" the civic appointments process for city boards and agencies. Crean and her report was questioned by Council while Rob Ford remained silent, instead choosing to respond later on a radio talk show by stating: "When people are just going to make up stories about you, why are you even going to try to defend yourself when you know it's just a bunch of malarkey." The Ombudsman and the existence of the position itself were later criticized by Ford and became the subject of further debate. In October, Mayor Ford said he wanted to eliminate three watchdog positions: that of the Ombudsman, the Integrity Commissioner and the lobbyist registrar. "You don't need a lobbyist registry, an ombudsman and an integrity commissioner. They have 20 people; they're tripping over themselves. They're trying to make themselves look busy." All three positions are required under Ontario law and were established after the MFP computer leasing scandal inquiry.
His brother Doug has stated that Rob wrote "numerous" reference letters for criminals, including tow-truck driver and convicted murderer Douglas Sedgewick, and his occasional driver Alexander "Sandro" Lisi, accused of threatening to kill a woman.