Rob Ford's New Year's Levee draws cheers and jeers for 2012.
Every day, Torontonians show up at City Hall to cheer or jeer the mayor and city councillors. Once a year, our leaders subject themselves to greeting this rabble.
On Monday, January 2, mayor Rob Ford and a half-dozen councillors stood, smiling, in the atrium of City Hall, for the annual Mayor’s New Year’s Levee. To their right, a queue of 100 Torontonians—supporters and detractors alike—waited in turn; to their left, coffee, tea and cookies for all.
Mostly they shook hands, though one lady insisted on hugging them all.
Torros Djerdjeian, his suit and hat emblazoned with the Canadian flag, face painted, had waited for three and a half hours “to meet our great mayor,” with no other message than to keep up the good work.
Young and old came from all over the city to offer non-partisan greetings.
“I think all of city council, whether they’re with or against the mayor, they all need a pat on the back,” said Peter Crawford, 72, of Leslieville.
It was the fifth year in a row for 18-year-old Hosna Ahmad, of North York, who came to wish the mayor a happy, peaceful New Year.
Roy Mitchell, 53, had other plans. “I think the Fords are doing a terrible job,” he said. “I just want to get this close to them and shake their hands and ask them if they’ve got any New Year’s resolutions to maybe be not be so homophobic.”
But when he reached the mayor, two people ran in front of the queue, in between the councillors and the cameras. “Stop the cuts!” they chanted, unfurling a banner.
Mary T. Hynes whirled, her allotted moment to chat with councillor Shelley Carroll, halfway down the line, interrupted. Hynes—whose sarcastic July deputation in front of Ford’s Executive Committee earned her the nickname “Yelly Granny”—joined in for a couple rounds of “Stop the cuts!” herself, before security ended the scene, escorting the gate-crashers away.
“I told the mayor that I wanted to thank him because he’s brought this city together like no other mayor,” she said, smiling, of her brief exchange with Ford. “He thanked me.”
