THIS POLITICIAN WILL BE SCHEDULED AT OUR DISCRETION

Seems I'm writing more about politics these days than is my wont but let's face it, these are some pretty crazy days

My knowledge about politics is, at best, average but I do have a little background in media and that's the theme that really seems to be snarling and spitting and demanding attention. It's right over there, in the corner. Please don't feed it. And avoid eye contact at all times

Yesterday saw the passing of Rob Ford, former city and councillor and former mayor of Toronto. Although his time as our mayor was brief, he became one of the most famous people in Canada. The Crack Mayor. Yeh, that guy

Ford died of cancer at the age of 46. That is way way way too young. He leaves behind too young kids. It sucks beyond comprehension. And it sucks that we all have these stories in our own personal lives. Cancer is the truly great Evil of our times

There are parallels being drawn between Ford and Donald Trump. Both are the sons of rich men, self made men, who gave their sons a start in the world. In Ford's case it is even more true, his father was not only a businessman, he was a politician, a Provincial Member of Parliament for a while. Seems to me Ford Senior was trying to build himself a political dynasty as several members of his family have been or still all involved in politics

Trump is an elitist. He is always happy to let everyone know how rich he is, how much money he makes, how many deals he's gotten the upper hand in. The fact that his followers consider him to be "non establishment" is rather mind boggling. Ford was the opposite. He sold the "common man" persona. He loved football, he cursed, he was rude and blunt. But people loved him. I think he was a good city councillor, there are hundreds of stories of him giving out his home phone number, of returning calls, of getting things done for people even if they were not his constituents. I hardly doubt Mr Elite Combover Boy would ever do that

As a mayor, Ford was a different animal. Here he becomes more Trump like, a privileged rich boy who just expected everything to fall in place for him. He could not handle opposition. He could not handle critisism. He became rude, mocking, ignorant and combative. People say they love politicians without filters; fair enough, but when that non filtering leads them to say something stupid and disrespectful they should have the the grace to at least be chagrined and use a sense of humour. Like former Toronto mayor Mel Lastman. I don't think Ford had a sense of humour. He would just become more truculent and mean spirited

I don't know if Ford ever really wanted to be mayor. He was in his element and as a councillor but he never seemed comfortable as a mayor. In his riding of Etobicoke he knew every street, he knew the people, it was a finite landscape. But Toronto is a huge, multicultural, complex city and and I don't think Ford ever really got a handle on it

So, why did he become mayor. Well, here comes the media part and it ties him even closer to Trump and to one other politician

The media. In many ways, Mayor Rob Ford was a media creation.

Ford became the darling of a local radio station here, a talk radio station that overall has a pretty conservative philosophy. He and his brother Doug had their own weekend talk show and Rob was a regular guest on several shows. One of these shows, hosted by a guy named Oakley (a failed stand up comedian who overnight, as soon as he got a radio show, somehow became an expert on international politics) actively and vocally encouraged the counsellor to run for mayor. And he did

Trump of course is a media whore. Here he is on the campaign trail calling the Media "terrible people you have no idea" but of course he is famous due to the media. From his TV show The Apprentice and many many appearances, many of which he orchestrated. Yeh, Trump loved the media when he was able to tailor it to his own end. This media that actually reports on things he says and does, well that media is just awful

Ford was very much the same way. He had his connections to talk radio to and to the Toronto Sun and it was all jolly there, but when other media outlets began to examine his behaviour and actually asked him to take responsibility, well that media was evil. It was The Toronto Star that broke the whole crack scandal; before they finally did Ford bragged about how he had instructed his staff at City Hall to never return the Star's inquires. That worked for him. To this day, editors from the Sun just blame everything that Ford did on the Star.

So we seem to have a publicly elected politician who really seems controlled by the media. Ain't that interesting

Wait, we're not done yet. There is more mediameetspolitics to consider. As in John Tory, Toronto's current mayor. Tory sits on the board of Bell Media. For a brief time he tried to be head of the provincial conservative party (considering an old nickname in Canada for that party is the Tories, well that just seemed too obvious) When that venture fell apart, what did Tory do ... he became a radio talk show host After that, he became mayor

Yeh, can we see a pattern here

Presence of mind is important when selling a brand. And politicians are brands. I would wager that the vast majority of Trump's followers really know much about him, but they know him, they know his name, know his brand

Rob Ford was known to a lot of people, he had many real interactions with the people in his riding. But he wasn't known as much to the rest of Toronto. But he was on the radio, and people on the radio talked about him a lot. And John Tory, well you could always talk to him .. if you phoned in to his radio show

Presence of mind.

Now here in Toronto, shortly after Ford's death, his media buddies are so ardently revisiting his past that their fingers are bleeding. While his media critics are showing some compassion by not addressing the man's failures as mayor, his supporters have no such respect. Joe Wormington, editor at the Sun, the many henceforth to be known as the Weasel, was on the radio the day of Ford's death, promoting himself as the only ethical reporter in all the world and that every other word written about the man was just to make money for those other media outlets. Pretty disgusting actually

Ford never seemed comfortable in his expanded public role as the mayor. And it seems to me that the people who may have put him there don't really care. That puppet is done. Let's put the strings on a new one