Tory has no ‘imminent’ plans to revive defeated plan to rename stadium after Ford

Toronto: Mayor John Tory says he has no “imminent” plans to push for an Etobicoke stadium to be renamed after Rob Ford after council voted against the proposal on Wednesday night.
Tory had pushed for the stadium in Centennial Park to be renamed Rob Ford Memorial Stadium in honour of the late mayor but council ultimately voted 24-11 against the idea after some expressed opposition to memorializing a politician who admitted to smoking crack cocaine while in office.
“I think you have to take time to reflect on why things happened the way they did,” Tory told reporters on Thursday morning. “I feel badly for Dianne Ford (Ford’s mother). When I phoned to tell her to bring this forward she was quite emotional in her reaction. It meant something to her. I would certainly want to make sure that if this comes up again sometime it comes up in an environment where people have perhaps gone beyond some of the concerns they have today.”

In arguing to rename the stadium at Centennial Park after Ford, Tory highlighted the former mayor’s passion for the game of football and his longtime support for youth football, both as a coach and a volunteer.
Tory, however, told reporters on Thursday that the public opposition to the proposal was “stronger” than he expected.
He said that backing the proposal he was attempting to “end an era of divisive politics” but nonetheless understand why some councillors objected.
“I erred as I always try to do on the side of generosity but council decided otherwise,” he said. “I think they had a fair bit of feedback from people who felt that they were not able to look beyond some of the things that went on (during Ford’s mayoralty) that were inconsistent with what they saw as the values represented by this office. I respect their decision.”
Numerous councillors who served on Ford’s executive committee voted against the stadium naming proposal, including his deputy mayor Norm Kelly.
Speaking with CP24 on Thursday, Ford’s brother Doug said the result was “absolutely disgusting” and “hurtful.”
“They wanted to give Rob one more shot when he is dead,” Ford said.
Though council voted against renaming the stadium after Ford, they did vote 33-2 in favour of looking into ways to honour deputy mayor Pam McConnell and Ron Moeser, who were the two other members of council to die during this term.
That vote came after council decided to hold a separate vote on that motion, which was initially lumped in with the proposed stadium name change.