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New city councils are being sworn in across the province this week and in many municipalities that means a new mayor. While Hamilton will swear in Fred Eisenberger tomorrow, perhaps the most high profile mayor is the one who left office in Toronto.
The first day in office doesn’t come with any significant policy changes for any mayor, but it does come with a great opportunity. That is the chance to set the tone for the next four years. Tuesday in Toronto, new mayor John Tory welcomed the opportunity to set himself apart from the previous four years under Rob Ford, but he did it in a way that may surprise you.
Former Hamilton mayor Larry Di Ianni: “A mayor needs to be like a conductor in an orchestra, leading a harmonious council to get things done for citizens.”
For John Tory, it became about healing a battered council. And his first step was to make peace with his predecessor: “I want to go sort of totally out of order and ask everybody in this room to put forward a motion Thanking Rob Ford for his continued public service and wishing him a complete and speedy recovery and a return to this place as soon as possible. All in favour say I. Carried unanimously.”
Tory then walked to Ford, his once heated rival who is now councillor for ward 2 and currently battling cancer, giving him a fist bump.
Di Ianni: “He absolutely hit all the right tones.”
Di Ianni says that Tory showed leadership in victory, and may have won over some critics on the left.
It was a far cry from the start that Ford had four years ago when he had Don Cherry deliver the chain of office, and then speak to council.
Don Cherry from December 2010: “Put that in your pipe you left wing kooks.”
Larry Di Ianni: “That was awful, just very bad.”
Di Ianni says that Ford’s first day is a prime example of starting on the wrong foot: “It certainly wasn’t appropriate in setting out the tone for a united council. But in fact, as history has proven, former mayor Ford wasn’t interested in a united council.”
And so locally the focus shifts here to Hamilton where Fred Eisenberger will once again have a chance to set the tone for council. And if what Di Ianni says is true, we will be able to tell a lot from what happens in the next 24 hours.
