Ontario Premier Doug Ford said that John Tory “will be remembered as a dedicated and hard-working mayor who served as a steady leader during the most difficult days of the pandemic.”
If only that were true, but it’s not. Ford was being too kind.
Instead Tory will always be remembered as the long-married 68-year-old Toronto mayor who squandered it all to have an intimate affair with a 31-year-old “beauty queen” who once worked in his office before landing at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.
That’s the bottom line. He was thinking with the wrong brain.
And he’s not getting an overwhelming amount of sympathy. An informal poll in the Toronto Sun which asked the question—”Do you agree with John Tory resigning as mayor over his affair with a now former staffer?”—had 57% voting yes, with a little over 10,000 votes in.
In other words, more than half.
Not that it matters. Tory appears to have broken a bunch of ethics rules which city council must adhere to, one of which was “members should act with integrity and avoid real and apparent conflicts of interest and the improper use of their influence.”
Bad enough to have an affair with a woman young enough to be his daughter, but to have that affair while she worked for him encircles the word “guilty.”
Happy Valentine’s Day? Hardly.
Another rule? “In serving the public, a member of Council is expected to meet the highest standards of conduct to maintain and foster the City of Toronto’s reputation and integrity.”
More to the point. “Members should perform their duties and arrange their private affairs in a manner that promotes public confidence and bears close public scrutiny.”
John Tory’s judgment quite literally stunk, and this comes from a man who knew him well enough and respected his role and dedication to the City of Toronto, and that’s regardless of the fact he followed the disastrous mayoralty of Rob Ford, his legacy saddled with cocaine and alcohol abuse before he succumbed to a relentless form of cancer.
Tory could seemingly have been mayor for as long as he wanted, but now he is forced to leave with his tail between his legs, not retiring from politics like his wife, Barb, wanted, with rumors now that she was dusting off the separation and divorce papers.
A sad end to a lifetime filled with plaudits.
Tory’s brand was that of a solid, family man, married for 44 years, and a father and grandfather with a successful career in both business and the public service.
A middle-aged Lothario was the last thing anyone expected before the Toronto Star broke the story and Tory resigned seemingly only minutes later, choosing not to ride it out and see where the chips fell.
We live in a world now that demands perfection. Unlike days of old, reporters are not going to turn their backs on a politician cheating on his wife.
They’re going to dig deep to bring him or her down. It’s now the nature of the beast.
I’ve known people in the industry who cheated on their wives with happy abandon and who today would still rush John Tory to judgment.
The difference is their infidelities were none of my business.
They didn’t hold public office.
