TORONTO (AP) – Toronto elected a moderate conservative as mayor on Monday night, ending the Rob Ford era marked by scandals over his illegal drug use and public drunkenness.
John Tory, a former chief executive of major cable company Rogers Communications, had 40 percent of the vote, compared to 34 percent for Doug Ford, brother of outgoing Mayor Rob Ford. Left-leaning Olivia Chow was third with nearly 23 percent. The results were announced with more than 90 percent of polling stations reporting.
Rob Ford’s four-year tenure as mayor of Canada’s largest city was marred by his drinking and crack cocaine use. He announced last month that he wouldn’t seek re-election as he battles a rare form of cancer. His brother, a city councilor, ran in his place.
Despite the cancer, Ford opted to seek the City Council seat from the Etobicoke district where he launched his political career. He won his old seat in a landslide.
After months of denials, Rob Ford in 2013 acknowledged he had smoked crack cocaine in one of his “drunken stupors,” but he refused to resign. The City Council stripped Ford of most of his powers but lacked the authority to force him out of office because he wasn’t convicted of a crime.
Ford announced he was entering rehab for drugs and alcohol in April 2014 after newspaper reports detailed three nights in which he was extremely intoxicated. One report was about a video that appeared to show him smoking a crack pipe again – nearly a year after reports of a similar video first brought international attention.
Rob Ford’s antics made him the target of late-night television comedians in the U.S. Last March, he appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” after months of wooing by the talk-show host, who introduced his guest by saying he “has tripped, bumped, danced, argued and smoked his way into our national consciousness.”
When Ford was elected mayor in 2010, his drug and alcohol use weren’t known – but his bluster was. A plurality of voters backed him, eager to shake things up at a City Hall they viewed as elitist and wasteful. Ford’s voter base resided mainly in those outer suburbs like Etobicoke. He appealed to those residents with his populist, common man touch and with promises to slash spending, cut taxes and end what he called “the war on the car.”
He first won as mayor by promising to “stop the gravy train” of government spending. But Toronto got more turmoil than expected.
Tory, 60, a longtime moderate conservative politician and adviser, has also served as commissioner of the Canadian Football League and more recently hosted a radio talk show. He ran for mayor in 2003 and lost.