When Norm Kelly acquired Rob Ford’s non-statutory powers – and half of his staff – at the height of the crack scandal, he received those privileges almost by default. But earning the moral authority to wield them was his own subsequent achievement.
He saw the various constituencies the mayor had alienated – council colleagues, the public service, the media, entire segments of the population – and took active steps to reach out to them.
Approaching the end of his term as deputy mayor, Kelly invited reporters to his office to conduct exit interviews last week.
Seated next to a large portrait of William Lyon Mackenzie, the first rebel mayor of Toronto – and the man to whom Ford compared himself during his inaugural speech to council in 2010 – Kelly spoke to NOW on September 3.
You really like being deputy mayor.
I do. I’m gonna miss it!
You were appointed deputy mayor mid-summer of last year. And say the events of the fall hadn’t happened, you would have just been…
Ceremonial.
You probably wouldn’t have had as much fun, would you?
Well, I ran twice for the mayor’s office in the city of Scarborough in 85 and 88. I tend to believe that a split vote denied me the opportunity of being the mayor. But I’ve often wondered, in retrospect, just what kind of mayor would I have been – and, I think, not a bad one.
You’re sort of getting to do the thing you’ve always kind of wanted to do?
Yeah.
What was the highlight of the term for you?
As chair of the Parks Committee, the Occupy Toronto park situation. There were people on Ford’s team who just wanted to get rid of them. “Get ’em out now. Move ’em on.” I asked people to reserve judgment. I went down. Walked through it. Talked with ’em. Tried to get a sense of what was going on. And one thing I noticed was that once you got a block away, you wouldn’t know it was there. So my advice was, “Take it easy. Roll with it.” And that’s the advice the city chose to take.
Afterwards, the highlight was the reattachment of the gay and alternate-lifestyle communities to life here at City Hall. I think that either ignoring them or not cooperating with them wasn’t fair. You know, we had that struggle over the flying of the flag, and the mayor said no. I said yes. The mayor and I had different perspectives on it. Mine prevailed. We reached out and we met the leadership of the various communities. We made them welcome here at City Hall in the deputy mayor’s office.
Were you surprised when people began to relate to you as though you were the mayor?
The first step in all of this was to open the office to the media. Up until then, it was Rob bulling his way through a crowd of media. Or him running away and the media chasing him. The first thing I did was to engage the media. And the second step, right up front, was to engage my colleagues on council. [St. Paul’s councillor] Josh Matlow remembers coming into a committee meeting and me doing a fist-bump with him. I did that deliberately. I wanted people to know that I was there to work with them.
Do you think you’ll miss the spotlight?
It’s not the spotlight. The spotlight sometimes is a drag. My wife loves… you know the Groupons? She’ll say, “Oh, I found a Groupon for this little restaurant why don’t we go there? I’ve googled it and it looks terrific.” So you go out to a restaurant and when you walk in the heads come up. They follow you as you go in. And while you’re sitting there, people come over and chat with you.
It’s not the spotlight. It’s the sense of being at the centre of political life in an exciting city.
When did Mayor Ford first approach you about succeeding Doug Holyday as deputy mayor?
It was a couple of days before we made the announcement [at Ford Fest in early July 2013].
So the first part of the crack scandal had already happened. What did you think when he approached you, and how did you decide to take him up on that offer?
“He needs help.”
Were you worried at all that your accepting his appointment would be seen as condoning his behaviour?
I remember at the first scrum that I had, just outside his office, I said, “I’m not gonna comment on his personal life. I’m gonna focus on stuff that’s going on at City Hall.” I really felt that I had something to offer. And if not me, who?
You didn’t worry that it would be seen as tacit support for someone who had various unaddressed issues?
No, I just felt that I would be put in a position where I would hopefully have his ear.
Did you, you think?
Um, he’s very much his own guy. And I certainly gave him my best advice, politically and personally. Privately. Candidly and directly. On a number of occasions.
What do you think it says that after all he’s been through and all he’s put the city through in the last few years, he’s still polling respectably in the mayoral race?
The city’s changed. I think political scientists and historians are going to be mining this administration for a long time to come. The focus will not only be on Ford, but on his supporters, and that symbiotic relationship between the two that was just as unexpected as it was unprecedented.
What do you know now that you didn’t know four years ago?
That it’s important to understand the team aspect of politics. Even though in the municipal order there’s a more pronounced individualism, an independent voice and vote, you still have to create a sense of team: a certain set of common values, common goals.
How did you discover that you could just talk to someone here and have them light up City Hall in whatever colours to honour one cause or another?
By accident! I remember one day asking, “Who controls the lights?” And we phoned around, we found out. “Okay, if I ask for these lights to be on, would that be okay?” “Sure.” Ta-daa!
This interview was edited and condensed. With files from Ben Spurr
jonathang@nowtoronto.com | @goldsbie
