Rob Ford set to return to work
Posted Jun 30, 2014 06:00:41 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Many eyes will be on Toronto city hall on Monday as Mayor Rob Ford is set to make his return to political life after a stint in rehab.
And for Ford it will be a return to the intense public glare from which he has largely avoided for the past two months since he said he would seek help for alcohol abuse.
Ford plans to resume his mayoral duties on Monday afternoon, according to a letter he sent to the city clerk’s office.
His role has been largely symbolic since city council stripped him of most of his power last fall after his admissions of alcohol and drug use and some stunning verbal gaffes.
With less than four months left in his term, Ford will likely devote much of his time to getting re-elected in this fall’s mayoral race.
His brother and campaign manager Doug Ford has said the mayor will make a statement upon his return, but won’t field any questions.
But with less than four months left in the term, the bulk of the renewed Ford attention will likely be focused on his bid to win another four years in office. His city councillor brother-turned campaign manager Doug Ford has indicated that the mayor will also return to fighting for re-election in the Oct. 27 municipal vote.
The embattled mayor’s rehab stint likely won’t have entirely pressed the reset button on the controversies he left in his wake.
In addition to an ongoing police investigation and lingering questions about the circumstances of his admitted drug use, Ford will also return to a new ethics complaint. The group Democracy Watch filed a request Friday with the city’s integrity commissioner, asking her to investigate media reports that both Ford brothers allegedly lobbied on behalf of two companies with ties to their family’s label business.
Just days after he left for rehab, Ford himself gave an interview to the Toronto Sun in which he pronounced it “amazing” and said he was making calls to constituents — something addiction experts have said would be highly unusual in a treatment program.
Ford’s hasty exit sparked widespread speculation about where he was enrolled in rehab, then when Ford himself turned up in the cottage country town of Bracebridge, Ont., a nearby facility confirmed he was being treated there. But his ventures into town — as documented by social media users who posed for photos with Ford — prompted questions about whether he truly was a rehab in-patient.
