Toronto’s new mayor isn’t shy. In fact, Rob Ford exudes the aura of the ardent individualist and self-reliant everyman: hard-working, hard-nosed, no guff. He also knows how to send a message: his landslide election victory this past October was driven by his now famous, if simplistic, slogan: “end the gravy train.”

He came out swinging from his first day in office, on issues big and small, announcing the end of the vehicle registration tax ($60 a year) to the end of Transit City, the $8-billion provincially funded program to connect Toronto’s decaying inner suburbs with both the city centre and a revitalized regional transit system in the Greater Toronto Area. Ford wants to scrap the guts of the plan — a cross-city web of state-of the-art, high-speed street cars confined to dedicated lanes down the centre of main streets — with a single chunk of subway and renovation of an existing LRT line.

It’s becoming increasingly clear, however, that Ford may be the sort to step out onto the ice without having tied up his skates. Take his swearing-in ceremony. The guy who knows the power of icons asked Don Cherry to introduce him: prior to the ceremony, Ford’s brother Doug, newly elected as a city councillor, told reporters that “Rob and him get along” adding that Cherry and Ford, “are cut from the same cloth.” Cherry, who arrived in a satiny pink jacket, managed to do what he gets paid to do: ignite controversy. After Cherry’s three-minute speech, in which he said he was wearing the jacket for “all the pinkos out there who ride bicycles” he suggested no one should have been surprised. “If you want a pit bull, you get a pit bull.”

Indeed. Ford’s bulldog approach to the Transit City issue, including his suggestion that he has the right to bypass city council on the matter because of the size of his win, is provoking an outcry. After several years of wide-ranging consultations, at least 13 votes by city council on various aspects of the ambitious and complex plan and an unprecedented agreement from Ontario to fund the project, Ford now says the issue should be completely reopened.

In what amounts to a bizarre — if not willfully misleading — assertion, he stated that city council “never voted on Transit City.” And while Ford likes to hammer the importance of using public funds wisely, he has so far failed to address the stupendous cost of cancelling Transit City, which is already underway: more than $1 billion.

He has stocked the board of the Toronto Transit Commission with his own strong supporters, which is what most mayors do. But what most mayors would not do is assert, as Ford has done, that the TTC board has the authority to axe Transit City.

Provincial officials have been muted, but clear, in their response. While emphasizing that the province wants to work with the city, they pointed out the decision is not the city’s alone. The transportation minister, Kathleen Wynne, reminded everyone that Transit City is part of a regional transit plan funded by Ontario taxpayers. They, and the other city councils around Toronto, will be part of any final decision, she said.

A big win at the polls is one thing. But in Toronto’s “weak mayor” system, the big guy only gets one vote. There are 44 other votes on city council and a big chunk of them went to Transit City. It will be interesting to see whether Ford’s vaunted respect for taxpayers — and voters — will hold when it comes to choices that he opposes. IE