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Hope in Ford country

This is about as close as I’m going to get to Rob Ford’s older brother and self-declared heir apparent to Ward 2 in Etobicoke North.

After Doug Ford’s office manager, Sandra (no last name given), hangs up on me twice, and my request for an interview with the candidate languishes for weeks, I head north by TTC on Islington early in the morning to an almost deserted Elmhurst Plaza.

There, I’m confronted with a spacious campaign office filled with “Doug Ford Councillor” signs.

While Rob is busy running for mayor, his bro is already doing constituency work even before the October 25 election.

“[Doug] was in here last night,” Sandra tells me in a brief phone conversation. “He dropped in at about 8 o’clock, and there were five or six people in to see him. They chat and then go on.”

Doug’s leaflet is available, but it doesn’t say much beyond his brother’s familiar, incongruous mantra of “reduced taxes” and “increased service levels.” Welcome to where Rob Fordism has taken root, flourished with large majorities over a 10-year period and now seeks to take the entire city by storm.

So go figure. Why is Etobicoke North fertile territory for politicos with an anti-government and immigrant-baiting bent? This is a complex area ranging from the affluent neighbourhoods of Rexdale and southern Thistletown to the public housing enclaves of Dixon, Weston-Mount Dennis and Tandridge Crescent.

Here are three facts about Ward 2: unemployment is as high as 8.3 per cent, almost a point higher than the city average, 55 per cent of the population is made up of visible minorities including blacks and South Asians, and English is the mother tongue of 45 per cent of the ward, compared to the city average of 49.6.

With an expertise in health promotion, Cadigia Ali has worked with the Rexdale Community Health Centre, chaired the Etobicoke Conflict Mediation Team and participated in various volunteer orgs .

Now the Somali-born Ali is trying for the second time to dislodge the Ford juggernaut, having come second to Rob Ford in 2006 with 2,010 to his 8,421 votes.

Early one morning I meet up with her at her campaign office inside a small Rexdale Boulevard plaza, next to an African food/music store and an Islamic women’s fashion shop.

Wearing a stylish orange Muslim head covering, Ali recounts how her credentials as an Italian-trained physician were not recognized by local medical authorities, an experience faced by many immigrant professionals. “I decided to use my degrees in another way I reimagined myself,” she tells me.

Her program – general in nature – emphasizes reducing enviro toxins, making the city multiculturally friendly, increasing arts funding, affordable housing, community-based policing and bike lanes, and implementing the Transit City plan.

Going against the current mood for restraint, her campaign is a bit of a political risk, but Ali says she’s willing to chance it because she’s experienced a more extreme situation – a national government reduced to zero. She’s nervous about the prospect of a Mayor Rob Ford slicing away existing municipal services.

“I come from Africa. I know what that means. I want everybody to be served in their community, and the only people who can provide that are government,” says Ali, who’s endorsed by the Labour Council.

With no all-candidates meetings on the horizon, Ali won’t get much of a chance to challenge the front-runner. In particular, she’s got a major quarrel with plans for a gigantic entertainment/hotel/retail/housing complex on Woodbine Racetrack, a project championed by Rob Ford.

Ali and her colleagues in Community Organizing for Responsible Development (CORD) have complained that the project won’t ensure the new housing units will be affordable or that the 10,000 jobs on offer will be good-paying, and not part-time or dead-end.

The project in an area of high unemployment was embraced by the city, which rewarded the developers, Woodbine Entertainment Group and the Cordish Group, with a $120 million property tax break. This was in exchange for a new local hiring and training program. “We did get the support at city council for local hiring, but we didn’t get approval for the targets that we asked for,” Ali says.

Despite her considerable community cred, the health care worker will doubtless have a problem, says campaign worker and CORD member Nigel Barriffe – unless her natural low-income constituency comes out to mark their ballots. Ford’s support, he points out, comes from the affluent neighbourhoods in the area, particularly Thistletown.

Ryerson urban studies prof Sandeep Kumar Agrawal, however, cautions that there are many small business people in immigrant areas receptive to the anti-tax, cost-cutting message. They see the Fords “putting money in their pocket,” he says.

Also, issues of concern to immigrant voters like unemployment and housing can only be solved at the federal and provincial level, he adds. Ali may be greeted with skepticism at the door because municipal politicians are seen as unable to accomplish much.

Ali is taking all of her challenges in stride, and has about 50 young people out there canvassing on her behalf.

“The majority [of Ward 2 voters] know me because I have been there for them down at City Hall,” she says.

news@nowtoronto.com

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