A Legacy of Lies and Larceny: The Ford Family’s War on Toronto… F—- The Ford family

A Legacy of Lies and Larceny: The Ford Family’s War on Toronto

By Eddie Hardie 🍁 Social Integrity Activist

Let’s not mince words. The sentiment erupting from the streets of Toronto, so raw and visceral in this Reddit post, is not just anger—it’s a long-overdue reckoning. It’s the collective scream of a city betrayed, strangled, and set back decades by the avarice and staggering incompetence of one family: the Fords.

To read the raw, unfiltered fury in that post is to understand a fundamental truth: The Ford brothers, Rob and Doug, are not just bad politicians; they are architects of urban decay, propagandists of the highest order, and a f—ing plague on the future of the Greater Toronto Area.

Rob Ford: The “Man of the People” Who Despised the People

The post is right to drag Rob Ford’s corpse back into the light. The maudlin revisionism that followed his death does not erase the fact that he was a catastrophic mayor and a profoundly terrible human being. He wasn’t a charming rogue; he was a bigoted, substance-abusing bully who beat his wife and looked down on anyone who didn’t travel in a gas-guzzling SUV.

His most enduring crime? The wanton destruction of Transit City. This wasn’t a policy disagreement; it was an act of ideological vandalism. Transit City was a fully-funded, shovel-ready plan for a network of light-rail transit (LRTs) that would have connected the underserved suburbs—the very “little people” Ford claimed to champion. The Finch West LRT, now finally nearing completion after a decade-long delay, would already have been moving people for years. Lines on Jane, Don Mills, and Sheppard were all sacrificed at the altar of Ford’s car-centric dogma.

He didn’t just cancel a plan; he raged a war against the very idea of a modern, equitable city. He mocked cyclists, disparaged the homeless, and fostered a culture of contempt for public infrastructure. The video of him reading a document while driving on the highway, then swerving and nearly hitting a pedestrian, is a perfect metaphor for his tenure: reckless, self-absorbed, and a direct threat to public safety.

• The Scandalous & The Absurd: The list is a bottomless pit of depravity. From being caught on video smoking crack cocaine, to his drunken, profanity-laced public outbursts, to alleging that the international community wanted to assassinate him—his tenure was a non-stop circus of scandal that made Toronto a global laughingstock.

Doug Ford: The Fat Cat Who Ate Toronto’s Future

If Rob was the blunt instrument, Doug is the more calculating, and therefore more dangerous, successor. The post rightly identifies his meddling in municipal affairs as a grade-A POS move. As Premier, he used the brute force of the province to continue his family’s war on Toronto’s progress.

The most recent, and most infuriating, example is Bill 212, the “Get Off the Road” Act. After a pandemic that saw Torontonians reclaim their streets with vibrant, successful caféTO patios and new bike lanes, our city was finally breathing, moving towards a more livable, human-scale future.

Then “Fat F—” Ford, who wouldn’t be caught dead on a bicycle, crushed it.

Why? Not for fiscal responsibility. Not for traffic flow. But out of a pure, petty, and personal hatred for cyclists. He looked at a city trying to save itself and saw an inconvenience to cars. It’s a level of spite so profound it borders on the pathological.

But his sins run much deeper:

• The Greenbelt Grab: This is arguably the most scandalous and corrupt act of his premiership. He literally opened up protected Greenbelt land for his developer friends to pave over, a move so blatantly corrupt it sparked investigations and forced him into a humiliating reversal. He was caught with his hand in the cookie jar of Ontario’s most precious natural heritage. Source: CBC – Ontario’s Greenbelt scandal

• The “For the People” Lie: The Ford brand is built on a foundation of sand. They are master propagandists. Doug, the “everyman,” was born into a multi-million dollar family business, Doug Ford Sr.’s Deco Labels. He has never known a life without a silver spoon. His daughter’s stag-and-doe event, where developers and lobbyists flocked with envelopes of cash, is a perfect snapshot of the grift. Source: CBC – Ford family stag-and-doe. This is the “man of the people”? This is the working-class hero?

• Healthcare Hell: He is actively starving our public healthcare system, creating a crisis that he can use to justify further privatization. The people who suffer are the sick, the elderly, and the underpaid nurses he legislated a pathetic wage onto. The betrayal is breathtaking.

The Great Betrayal and the Rightful Rage

The feeling so powerfully expressed in that Reddit post—the detestation, the resentment—is the direct result of this Great Betrayal. The Fords have convinced a segment of the populace that they are their champions, all while systematically dismantling the services and infrastructure those very people rely on.

They have set our transit back decades, fueled an affordability crisis, endangered our environment, and degraded our public discourse. They have made our city and province meaner, dirtier, and more stagnant.

So, to the author of that Reddit post, and to every Torontonian who feels this rage in their bones: your anger is not crazy. It is the only sane response to a family that has waged a two-decade war on your city’s potential. The legacy of the Ford family is one of lies, larceny, and a profound contempt for the public good. They have earned every ounce of our collective fury.

F— the Ford family. And may we never, ever forget the damage they have done.