Toronto Life – December 2018

photograph by

getty images

December 2018 toronto life 57

daughters, Krista, Kayla, Kara and Kyla; and their four cats. It

also means, perhaps more importantly, the extended Ford

family. The late patriarch, Doug Sr., of course, was a bootstrap-

ping businessman who made millions with the company he

co-founded, Deco Labels. His wife, Diane, was doting and

demanding. Ford likes to refer to his father, whom he reveres,

as a “straight shooter.” Doug Sr.’s children, to varying degrees,

were not. From the beginning, Doug Jr. was the survivor. Rob

might have built Ford Nation, pothole by pothole, phone call

by phone call, but Doug knew how to exploit it. “Doug somehow

emerged out of that family and became a successful business-

man,” says John Filion, a city councillor and the author of The

Only Average Guy, a biography of the Fords. “I think you can

plunk him down anywhere in the world, and he would figure

out not only how to survive, but how to thrive.”

If you ask Doug, he never wanted to be a politician. It’s a

paradox that lies at the heart of the Ford family—which is an

undeniable political dynasty. Doug Sr., who served as a back-

bencher in Mike Harris’s government between 1995 and 1999,

had to be strong-armed into running for office. (Doug did the

strong-arming after listening to his dad complain about Bob Rae.)

Rob only ever equated politics with waste and mismanagement.

Doug felt the same, and his single term as a councillor only inten-

sified his contempt for the profession. “I can’t stand politicians,”

he once said. “It’s crazy. We’re anti-politician. But that’s just the

way it is. It’s weird. I can’t figure it out.”

To make politics palatable, then, the Fords compulsively

cast the job in the business terms they understand best: cus-

tomer service and competition. Doug Sr. set the tone. He was

During his leadership campaign, Ford borrowed Rob’s former

theme song, “Eye of the Tiger,” to use at rallies. After he won, he

had an original song composed, something more explicitly on-

message: “For the People.” And yet it was clear, even in victory,

even with a strong majority and a party united behind him, that

he still loved the thrill of the fight.

F

ord has always been a big guy, never shy

about physically intimidating people, be they

council colleagues, staffers or journalists. At

54, he is both bigger and softer than he used

to be, his physique more offensive coordina-

tor than offensive linebacker. Like Tony

Soprano, he leads with his belly. His golden

hair, which he wore in a feathered mullet in high school, is now

a couple of shades closer to platinum. His face is lined, and when

he smiles, which he does with great frequency, deep grooves

etch his jowls, making it appear as if he’s wearing a Doug Ford

mask over a Rob Ford mask. During Question Period and pub-

lic announcements, he employs an evangelical oratorical style

that doesn’t so much hide his characteristic verbal fumbling as

turn it into a soporific drone. His favoured form of address

during the campaign—“Folks”—has been replaced by the more

familiar, if equally cloying, “Friends.”

“Family” is another of Ford’s favourite f-words. Family means

Doug and his own family—Karla, his wife of 30 years, an animal

lover, fitness buff and former cheerleader; their four blond

When Doug Ford won the PC leadership, he brought his family up on stage with him, including, from left,

his mother, Diane; his wife, Karla; and his four daughters, Kayla, Krista, Kyla and Kara

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