THUNDER BAY -- Keith Hobbs hopes Rob Ford leaving Toronto’s top job will bring a better relationship between that city and Thunder Bay.
Ford was ordered out of office Monday morning by a judicial ruling after he was found to have a conflict of interest earlier this year. He had been plagued by controversy since entering office, including his plan to scrap street cars in Canada’s largest city that would have effected production at Thunder Bay’s Bombardier plant.
The city's mayor led a local delegation to Toronto over that issue for a scheduled meeting with Ford.
“We sat in his outer office for about 45 minutes and never did get a meeting with him,” Hobbs said.
Hobbs sits on the board of directors for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative where he also saw Ford in action.
“He was trying to get on the board of directors however he’d never been to a meeting,” Hobbs said.
Even running a city as large as Toronto, Hobbs said a mayor has to reach out to other communities and work co-operatively.
“I didn’t get that sense from him. I’d like to see somebody who would at least enter into a dialogue with us when we have issues like the one we did with Bombardier,” he said.
“We never had that with him.”
But Hobbs does empathize with Ford saying it’s a tough job to be the mayor in any city, taking the brunt of complaints. Ford might even be a little relieved to not be under so much pressure Hobbs said.
“He might even enjoy his time off.”
In 2010, Toronto’s integrity commissioner told Ford that he shouldn’t have used city letterhead and resources to get donations for his football foundation. He was ordered to pay back more than $3,000 to donors but then voted with city council to cancel the order.
Ford is planning to appeal the decision.
