Q&A with Coun. John Filion who penned a Rob Ford book

News on the Rob Ford front has been relatively quiet since the controversial former Toronto mayor returned to city council following his successful treatment for an abdominal tumour.

And with their late campaign rally last week for Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, Rob and his older brother made it clear that they don’t intend to stay in the political shadows forever.

A new book hitting shelves Oct. 27 by Coun. John Filion aims to examine just what drives Ford’s career in politics, and why it’s been quite successful so far, despite all the reasons why it should not have been.

“The Only Average Guy: Inside the Uncommon World of Rob Ford” gives readers an inside look at the former mayor from a man who for years sat two seats from him in Toronto’s council chambers. But it also looks more widely to Toronto’s political culture and the motivations of Ford Nation, the citizens who continue to support Rob fiercely — no matter what.

Filion, a journalist before he went into politics, spoke to Yahoo Canada News about the book, and his relationship with the former mayor.

Q: A lot has been written about Rob Ford already, whether it’s other books or articles. What is your book meant to bring to the conversation that is new or different for people?

What has been written so far has been mainly a chronicling of Rob Ford’s bad behaviour. The purpose of my book is to kind of explain Rob Ford and give the reasons for that bad behaviour.

There are several other things it looks into that haven’t been talked about before. It explains, I think, how Rob Ford got elected and why the complete lack of attributes that a leader would normally possess actually acted in his favour — which is a very unusual situation which we may see repeating itself in the United States [with Donald Trump].

The other big component of the book, I think, that nobody’s talked about before is that Rob Ford acted like an inkblot test for the city. How people reacted to him says more about them than it does about him.

Q: What do you think it is about the modern political culture in Toronto — or even internationally, because there was international fame — that made him so popular with so many people?

I don’t think the international stuff was popularity as much as documenting bad behaviour. But what made him popular was that a certain segment of the population saw him as just like them, in a way kind of average to an extreme — an average guy just like them but kind of uniquely average, average in a highly unusual way. So they saw somebody who sort of spoke like they did, thought like they did, in some cases acted like they did, and they thought, “That’s our guy.”

Q: He and his brother [Doug who served one term on Toronto council] tried to promote that everyman, populist image, but of course there are a lot of things about them that are not average. They come from a wealthy family; they have political power. Rob’s issues became extreme to the point of being beyond having a few beers with your friends. But they seem to have managed to find a balance between that reality and still looking like just regular guys. Why do you think that is?

People saw what they wanted to see. The type of people who supported the Fords — and I went to several Ford events and met them — it really is a certain type. There’s one chapter in the book called “Partisan Brains” that kind of explains them or describes them. But generally speaking, the true-blue Ford supporters are not at all analytical. They don’t look for contradictions in behaviour. They see things the way they want to see them and just look at Doug — or especially Rob — and say, “That’s my guy. I’m on his team. I support what he does.” And if he behaves badly they’ll just explain it away like “Well, doesn’t everybody have a drink?” They’ll just downplay drunken behaviour and turn it into having a drink or two.

Q: Rob didn’t speak to you for the book, is that correct?

He didn’t give me an interview. We speak a lot and some of that is in the book, and I had to figure out which of that was fair to put in and which wasn’t fair to put in.

Q: Have you discussed the book itself with him to any degree?

Yeah, to the extent that he wants to. In addition to trying to interview him I offered to read him parts of the book so he could understand what I was trying to write and give me his reaction. I offered to give him a copy of the book and he’s like “No, that’s okay buddy, I wouldn’t read it. That’s all right.”

Q: Do you think it’s affected your working relationship with him, because you are both on council?

No, not at all. Not at all. If fact Rob and I, if anything, are friendlier now, now that he’s sober and clean. We have better conversations and the book doesn’t seem to have affected anything at all. In fact he said, “Well, I hope you sell a million copies.”

Q: There is another new book by his former chief of staff Mark Towhey, and it paints him in a non-flattering picture based on the excerpts so far. Were any of the things in those excerpts a surprise to you, having just done your own research and knowing Rob personally?

There wasn’t anything I read that was a surprise. I chose to leave things out of the book unless they had a reason to be in there, unless they explained something about him. I especially considered off limits anything to do with his kids and, to some extent, his wife.

Q: Rob is still on city council. He appears to be doing well and seems to have recovered from his illness. He recently had some national attention this weekend, when Stephen Harper met with him and his brother and they had the [Conservative] rally. Should people write him off as someone who couldn’t return to the wider stage, whether as mayor or perhaps provincial or federal politics?

He certainly could return. In fact, he plans to return. And if Rob stays clean and sober, and he’s determined to, I think both he and Doug are still political forces in the city. One of them, I’m sure, will run for mayor in 2018. I’m sure one of both of them in the future will run for either provincial or federal office in Etobicoke — and with the Ford name in Etobicoke, would have a very good chance of getting elected.

Q: What do you think readers of your book would be most surprised to learn about Rob Ford?

That he’s not just some cartoon character. He’s a real person who has feelings, and feels hurt when people ridicule him and criticize him. He’s not just some make-believe character, which is how an awful lot of people treat him.

The interview has been edited and condensed.