Toronto’s next deputy mayor says he is not worried about being drawn in to the ongoing drug allegations surrounding Rob Ford.
At his debut press scrum as incoming deputy Friday afternoon, Councillor Norm Kelly told reporters that he plans to focus on the day-to-day operations of the city, despite fresh reports earlier in the day about a video allegedly showing Mayor Ford smoking crack cocaine.
“My concern right now is the government of the city of Toronto, that’s my focus,” said Kelly. “And that will be my contribution. Anything else in any other field would be restricted to a private conversation [with the mayor].”
Kelly is taking over the deputy position from Doug Holyday, who is leaving City Hall after winning the provincial by-election in Etobicoke-Lakeshore on Thursday. Ford tapped him for the job early in July shortly after Holyday announced he was taking a run at Queen’s Park.
In replacing him, Kelly has some big shoes to fill. Holyday proved to be invaluable to the Ford administration, not only taking on a key role in major initiatives like negotiating new contracts with the city’s labour unions, but also serving as a steady spokesperson for Ford while the mayor himself ducked questions about the drug allegations in May and June.
For a few weeks last year Holyday even appeared poised to take over for Ford, after a judge ordered the mayor out of office over a conflict of interest charge. (The decision was later reversed on appeal.)
Kelly was asked on Friday if he was prepared to take the top job at City Hall if Ford was forced to vacate it for some reason, but the councillor said that wasn’t on his mind.
“I’m looking at the here and now, what’s immediately before me, and that’s what has my focus right now,” he said.
Kelly is a veteran councillor representing Scarborough-Agincourt, and has served on the executive committees of three successive mayors of varying political stripes. Although he has sided consistently with Ford throughout this term, he doesn’t think the mayor tapped him for the deputy role because of his voting record.
“I think in working together over the last two and a half years we’ve gotten to know each other, and he’s gotten to rely on the advice I’ve given him publicly and privately,” he said.
“Either that or he owes me football debts,” he quipped.
Kelly said he “strongly support[s] Mayor Ford and many of his initiatives,” including bringing jets to the island airport, but predicted he won’t always vote with the mayor in his new role.
Kelly has kept a relatively low profile this term, serving as chair of the Parks and Environment Committee until June, when he was shuffled into the Government Management chair. He gained some unwelcome notoriety in February when he was widely ridiculed for making remarks at a parks committee meeting that many interpreted as denying climate change.
According to his biography posted to the city website, Kelly is a trained historian and was the first scholar “to detail the contribution of Chinese workers toward the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway.” He was appointed head of the history department at Upper Canada College in 1973, a position he left to run successfully for Pierre Trudeau’s Liberals in 1980. He returned to municipal politics in 1994 when he won a seat on Metro Council.
Kelly will turn 72 on August 11. When at City Hall, he can often be seen exercising by walking brisk laps around the rotunda on the second floor.
He told reporters he will officially take over the deputy mayor role either when Holyday submits a resignation letter, or when the latter’s election to Queen’s Park is published in the official Ontario Gazette in roughly two weeks.
