My head hurts. This guy could be right. Yet he too hopes he's wrong. I sure do.
Fordland is a place where you can't win with logic, because logic doesn't work there. Think Alice in Wonderland, but harsher. Think crack, not grass. Think, and feel frustrated.
Soks is the anti-Ford, in that he has ideas, policy, and granular fiddly things. Even if you gloss over the details with a yawn, there's some kind of refreshing appeal for a city hall leader who knows and cares about that kind of stuff.
But that appeal is only a tidbit or a garnish. For the main course, we want somebody with character. You can't get down and feel tingly about a guy who brings a calculator to a knife fight. Can we vote Soks for Deputy Mayor?
I agree that the main contender has to get down there and get visceral. You can't wrestle in the mud with Ford, for the same reasons you wouldn't mud-wrestle with a pig.
The main contender needs to hit voters in the guts with the message that Ford More Years is toxic, as in radioactively bad for you *and* your bowels. Seriously double-plus-ungood.
No more pranks on city hall. He doesn't have $60 to give you for gas money. Late night TV may laugh at Ford, but they think Torontonians are milquetoast with weaksauce for tolerating him. Low self-esteem is in Toronto's DNA, but this amounts to cutting yourself with a rusty blade.
The main contender needs a main message, maybe something like:
Rob Ford pushes your hate buttons. The things you think you hate. The people you think you hate.
As your mayor, what he does hurts you where you live. Don't shit where you sleep.
Don't do it again. Don't vote Ford. Vote for somebody who won't wreck your home.