Rob Ford is still the main event!
Poor Rob Ford has me thinking of obituaries and memorial tributes.  One year and a bit ago, if I had died I think Rob Fords life would have flashed before my eyes. I seemed to be explaining Rob & addiction on every channel and its fun for a guy from News Talk 1010 to hear himself as the expert on 680 News, CP24, CBC, Global, CITY TV and CTV believe me.

I’m an old radio hound apart from being the guy who explains addicts to the public and Rob Ford has been the BIGGEST TOPIC IN THE ROOM when discussing city politics since 2001. I loved being able to get him as a guest for my talk show.  You could call at 11:10 pm and he’d answer the phone!
I’m sorry he didn’t adopt a more sophisticated image when he was elected mayor of Toronto, but that’s who he is.
the BIGGEST TOPIC IN THE ROOM
http://www.newstalk1010.com/news/2015/10/28/listen-rob-ford-has-new-tumour-on-his-bladderLISTEN: Rob Ford has new tumour on his bladderLISTEN: Rob Ford has new tumour on his bladderLISTEN: Rob Ford has new tumour on his bladderLISTEN: Rob Ford has new tumour on his bladder

I heard Doug complaining about the books by Mark Towhey and John Filionin an interview today and I have to wonder that Doug doesn’t get it yet: Rob Ford is still the main event!
When I was a kid reporter on the York City beat at the old “Weston Times & Guide” (Whatever happened to that paper?) my editor would have loved to have had the story of corruption, gravy and graft in city government. Problem then was the perpetrators were too slick to get caught.  Until they got caught, and Francis Nunziata was responsible for rooting them out. Right wingers have crusading heroes too.

Rob Ford, like it or not represents a lot of “little guys” who think the city is corrupt and taxation is wicked! They are not to be counted out or looked down upon.

There is a Toronto “Intelligentsia” and they want you to know they can be wicked too!

For instance, I dare not speak his name in any praiseworthy context when visiting the home of my older sister Sandra of Scarlett Heights. *(She is variously known in our family as "The Wicked Witch of Weston" or "The Frump of Freemont Ave.". but we love her dearly)

I’ve always thought of my sister as the “Republican” of my Canadian family, but she will hear no fair word about R. Ford.

This is that same R. Ford who represents her little slice of upscale Etobicoke and adds it to his Ward 1 in Rexdale. We grew up on the bad side of Weston,("We were Johansons of Trethewey."  You know, over there in the “wartime houses”) but my sister, she moved on up to the other side of Scarlett Heights that she constantly reminds me  “Is not part of the Toronto Housing Project!”as she will emphatically explain.  We should all have such problems.

Speak NO Ill of Scarlett Heights!
I’m an addict in recovery and I’ve become a big fan of Rob Fords.  In addiction recovery we don’t have a whole lot of guys who’d come out of the closet about being an addict. (Rob won’t like the gay comparison, but it fits and he’s not writing this column)
A couple of years back CBC’s "The National" wanted to do a profile of some recovering alcoholic or addicted politicians.  (Sorry to burst your bubble but: There are such things) and CBC News wanted my help to locate some, and I laughed.
“We have no alcoholic politicians in Canada…Don’t you know that?” I asked incredulously. “Certainly no recovering drug addicts” and that’s the line of bullshit we are fed by our leaders in government. They don’t talk about it but there are “secret meetings” of alcoholics, if not drug addicts on Parliament Hill, at Queens Park, and even Toronto City Hall.  It’s just you never hear about it. You have to be “on the inside” or “the down low” (There’s that “gay” expression again, sorry Rob)
I wished the CBC guys well but told them they’d never get anywhere because no one will come out of the closet. They got stonewalled everywhere as expected. (It amazes me because I grew up as a York South New Democrat under David Lewis and Donald MacDonald and if you kept drinking at the rate we regularly drank then and you’re still alive…YOU ARE IN RECOVERY!” No one could drink as much as a Young NDPer.  I don’t know if it’s still true as I haven’t been an NDPer in years, but I don’t think it’s changed, has it?.)
Remember: Scarlett Heights is NOT in Rexdale!
No one takes the leadership role that’s open for a responsible politician to assume leadership on an area that needs a focus like “Drug Recovery.” 
If you haven’t noticed, people are dying all around us from perfectly preventable problems because of a lack of guts to tackle the issue of addiction in this city, this province, or this country. The only person who has spoken up as a totally human character in all of this conundrum is amazingly, Rob Ford.

I don’t get to make up heroes for the recovery movement.
We take what we can get because we’re the marginalized people on the sidelines who don’t hit the mainstream.  We aren’t the “celebrity style” folk of E-Talk or anywhere, but we are their market.
People in recovery get pissed off by asshole politicians who haven’t (they think) lived their hardships.

Intellectuals bog them down with statistics and outcome studies that never seem to be completed, only to plead for more funding for more studies. Meantime people die on our streets from lack of resources and few families are unaffected. (Even “The Amish” have problems with Crystal Meth)

I run a recovery group called “People Helping People” every Thursday that’s open to the public at no charge.  We teach about addictions with family members and addicts.

Recently I lost two facilitators who left to form another group. Sadly this happened because of the need for a group to help families who have lost someone to addiction. GRASP (Grief Recovery After A Substance Passing) is aimed at parents, friends and families of someone who has died from addiction.  It’s a growing problem.

Rob Ford hasn’t died from addiction and he’s struggling like hell today with painful illness.  An addict in recovery can take painkillers prescribed during illness and still be soberand I pray that Rob Ford gets through his illness.  I don’t agree with all of his politics, and I’m sure he’d never agree to mine. That doesn’t mean that I can’t praise him for being upfront about being in recovery.

Rob Ford has created a dialogue about the issue of addiction worldwide and I hope that he is remembered as a person who recovered from addiction very publicly.

Thank you Rob!

My sister may never speak to me again for saying it out loud, but:
Rob Ford is still the main event!
 
 

Last edited by Mark Elliot (October 29, 2015 4:13 am)