What the mayor’s been up to.
Wednesday, June 13, morning. Classen House, Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario.
Pays a brief social call to the Laurier Football Club. According to the Club’s website, Mayor Ford “stopped into Waterloo to visit the Golden Hawks and to thank the coaches for their efforts in recruiting so many high schoolers based in [Toronto]—and helping them reach their full potential.” Of the visit, recruiting coordinator Carl Zender tells us, “He’s a football coach. We’re football people. So it was just a pleasant experience.”
Thursday, June 14, 1:30 p.m. Knob Hill Public School, east of Brimley Road, between Eglinton and Lawrence.
Presents an award to the kindergarten students who came out on top in Live Green Toronto’s Kids Can Clean Toronto Together – Photo & Video Contest. Among the prizes is a Pizza Pizza–sponsored pizza party. “Mayor [thanks] a long-standing partner, Pizza Pizza. Rubs his tummy and expresses his love for pizza,” tweets Globe City Hall bureau chief Kelly Grant. He also poses with Dough Dude, the chain’s costumed mascot.
Thursday, June 14, 6:30 p.m. The Home of Lynn and Brent Belzberg, near St. Clair and Avenue Road.
Serves as the guest speaker at the annual general meeting of Leadership Sinai, the Mount Sinai Hospital Foundation’s “young philanthropist” group. (For their purposes, “young” means 25–50.) You can view the meeting’s agenda as a PDF.
Friday, June 15, 10:30 a.m. Future site of the Love Condominiums, near Kennedy and Sheppard.
Takes part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Love condos in northwest Scarborough. Afterward, he chats with Maxwell Schwartz of BuzzBuzzHome, an online directory of under-construction residential projects. Schwartz—based on everything he had previously seen and heard—went into the conversation with an unfavourable opinion of the mayor, but came away impressed by his congeniality. “The first thing that took me by surprise was the way he spoke,” Schwartz says. “He had a very quiet and not entirely un-soothing voice. He sounded nothing like the screaming man I had seen in the press. It also seemed to me that he was genuinely interested in what I had to say. He asked me what I did for work and about my interests. I told him all about my recent job-landing at BuzzBuzzHome and a little bit about how the company works. We discussed the insane amount of new developments opening up in the GTA and commiserated together about the insane heat that day—although we were both happy about being out of our air-conditioned offices. Me, because it was my first groundbreaking representing BuzzBuzzHome, and Rob because ‘I would rather be out here than downtown with those monkeys in City Hall.’ We had a chuckle at that.” Schwartz found himself questioning the image of Rob Ford that he says he typically encounters in the media. “I am not proclaiming to know the man well after a little schmooze,” he says. “But talking to him made me realize there is more to him than meets the eye…”
Friday, June 15, noon. Moss Park Apartments, northwest of Queen and Parliament.
Participacts in the Moss Park Community Build Day, “the culmination of a unique collaboration between Coca-Cola, PartcipACTION, Parks Canada, Toronto Community Housing, and Bienenstock Natural Playgrounds.” He also poses with Parka the Beaver, Parks Canada’s costumed mascot.
Friday, June 15, 5 p.m. Apollo Health and Beauty Care, southeast of Keele and Steeles.
Presents a scroll at the grand opening of the new North York offices of a large beauty-care products company. The building is located at 1 Apollo Place, a special name that Council had granted to the private-access road two years earlier, in contravention of its own street-naming policies. (At the time, then-Councillor Rob Ford supported a motion to send the matter back to community council, to learn more about emergency services’ possible confusion between the new road and North York’s existing Apollo Drive.)
Friday, June 15, 7 p.m. St. Fidelis Catholic School, southwest of Keele and the 401.
Cuts the cake at the school’s 40th anniversary celebration. He also poses with some teenaged girls.
Saturday, June 16, 2 p.m. Mac’s, Elmvale, Ontario.
Spotted by Vanessa Bower at a combination convenience store/gas station, situated midway between Wasaga Beach and the Township of Tiny, about 90 minutes north of Toronto. “He bought a Sprite and a Coke, neither of which were diet, and he had his ‘Mayor Rob Ford’ business cards in his front breast pocket,” she tells The Grid. “No one in the gas station seemed to know who he was, but I sure did!”
