Mayor/Coach Rob Ford makes time in his day for football-related meetings.
RENE JOHNSTON/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO
Mayor Rob Ford quipped in February that “it’s pretty hard to hide 300 pounds of fun.” Which may be true, but Ford does a pretty good job of it.
Because he has treated his schedule as a “closely held secret,” to use the words of the Ford-friendly Toronto Sun, reporters have been frequently left to guess at his whereabouts even when he is making a public appearance.
Through a freedom of information request, the Star obtained Ford’s daily itineraries for his first 10 weeks in office. Though they are not comprehensive — for example, they omit any mention of the hours Ford famously spends returning residents’ phone calls — and though they do not say whether Ford actually attended events he listed, they offer the fullest glimpse yet available into the mayor’s activities after his Dec. 7 inauguration.
Ford’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Among the itineraries’ revelations:
• Ford is busy. He has maintained a hectic campaign-style schedule of public appearances, listing more than 110 events in his first 69 days.
Listed events ran the gamut from the Spelling Bee of Canada’s “Championship Ring Ceremony,” to a workshop on youth violence, to a Christmas event at the tony Albany Club, to a fundraiser for the Abilities Church, to a charitable event at Ernestine’s Women’s Shelter — though “it was Doug Ford who came, actually,” shelter co-director Jill Cunningham said.
• Ford has reached out to ethnic and religious groups, scheduling 30 appearances at their gatherings, 14 related to Chinese or Taiwanese communities alone — including two Chinese New Year events held by practitioners of Chinese medicine and acupuncture. He also listed the Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference, a play by Russian Canadian youth, and Italian, Polish, Greek, Portuguese, Jewish, black and South Asian gatherings.
Ford skipped one of the Chinese medicine events. Jia Li, an organizer of the other, said the mayor spent about an hour there before rushing off to two more functions. “We wondered if he had any food that night,” Li said. “He was so busy, trying to shake hands, speaking with people.”
• A meeting was slated for Dec. 20 with “Harris, D. Ford, Reisman.” An assistant to developer Norman Reisman, who donated the maximum $2,500 to Ford’s campaign, confirmed via email that Reisman “did have a meeting arranged with Cassels Brock (lawyers) and Doug Ford.” Former premier Mike Harris is the only Harris listed in Cassels Brock’s online personnel directory.
• Ford made an abbreviated appearance at a conference of the industrial supplies giant Acklands-Grainger hours after police Sgt. Ryan Russell was killed on Jan. 12. The conference, listed with the annotation “requested by Mr. Sutton,” was held at the Toronto Congress Centre, a convention facility in Ford’s old ward where he held his victory party. It is owned by Alain Sutton, who also donated $2,500.
Sutton said Ford made a rushed visit of “only 10 or 15 minutes” around noon. Police union president Mike McCormack said he had no problem with that; Ford, he said, had offered his full support earlier in the day. “There was nothing he could’ve done,” McCormack said.
• Ford twice made time during the workday for meetings of both his family’s business, Deco Labels and Tags, and the high school football team he coaches in Etobicoke. The Feb. 3 itinerary listed three football meetings, including a 10 a.m. “locker room meeting.”
• In his itinerary, at least, Ford has not neglected the arts community. He scheduled 16 appearances at arts-related events — the same number as for events held by industry associations and businesses large (such as ScotiaMcLeod) and small (the Aida Café on Danforth).
It is unclear, however, how many arts events he attended: Though his itinerary listed performances of the 1976 play Saint Carmen of the Main and the Diotima Quartet, a French string ensemble, show representatives said he received invitations but did not attend. (David Olds, general manager of New Music Concerts, which put on the Diotima show, said Ford is, to his continued surprise, a regular donor.)
• Of 17 meetings or events Ford scheduled with councillors who are not his brother Doug, only one, a Feb. 9 meeting with left-leaning Kristyn Wong-Tam, was with a councillor who has not regularly voted with him. But Councillor Adam Vaughan, a vocal Ford critic, said he has met frequently with Ford’s staff and that he met with David Miller only about three times during the last council term. “As long as the staff is willing to meet with you, it’s fine,” Vaughan said.
• Ford scheduled five other meetings with businesspeople: Louis Audet, chief executive of Cogeco Cable, on whom he had to cancel because of his kidney stone; Blake Cordish, an executive with the Maryland company behind the Woodbine Live development project; Jim Pattison Jr., president of Ripley Entertainment, which is planning to open a Toronto aquarium; developer Mario Cortellucci; and bar and entertainment impresario Johnathan Vrozos.
• Ford scheduled meetings with mayors from only two other GTA municipalities: Mississauga’s Hazel McCallion and Oshawa’s John Henry. He also slated meetings with federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Transport Minister Chuck Strahl.