Eric Wickham
Without an upcoming municipal election or having to deal with questions about his admissions to smoking crack-cocaine, Rob Ford’s annual Ford Fest in Etobicoke Friday evening was subdued compared to 2014.
However, Ford excited his supporters when he hinted that he wants to get back in the mayor’s chair in 2018.
“In a couple years I’ll be making an announcement, and I think everyone knows what that announcement is going to be,” Ford said, adding he wants to “straighten out the city” again.
Ford also updated the crowd on his ongoing battle with cancer.
“The doctors cleared me, there’s no tumours and I’m getting better every day,” he said.
It was that cancer diagnosis that ultimately forced him out of the mayor’s race in 2014. Ford’s brother Doug took his place, but Doug ultimately lost to John Tory.
Rob Ford took his nephew Michael’s place on the Ward 2 ballot and was elected as councillor with 57 per cent of the vote.
The chilly weather didn’t stop several hundred people from making the trip to Islington Avenue and Rexdale Boulevard, the site of this year’s event, to meet the former mayor and hear him speak.
Humber alumnus and Ford supporter John Maiorano said he believed Rob Ford was the most fiscally-responsible mayor Toronto had ever seen.
“Setting his personal life aside, I think he would have made a great candidate again,” he added.
After a mayoral term riddled with controversy and punctuated by Rob Ford’s admission to smoking crack-cocaine, this year’s Ford Fest was a fairly straightforward affair.
Ford Fest organizers handed out t-shirts, hamburgers and popsicles to visitors. There were also rides and a band to entertain the crowd.
Ford was not the only conservative politician at Ford Fest. Federal election candidates Toyin Dada (Etobicoke North) and Chuck Konkel (Scarborough-Guildwood) were also present.
Dada and Guildwood handed out campaign flyers and spoke to Ford supporters.