Did I tell you the one about the city logo?  The line drawing of city hall was a no-go logo for me after my printer put it on the election signs for my first campaign as a candidate for Toronto City Council.  

My sign printer was a sitting councillor, Howard Moscoe, and the company he represented, Adanac.  His idea to have a picture of city hall graphic instead of words 'Elect' and 'Councillor' was really quite brilliant.  He didn’t tell me he was lifting the design from the city’s Millennium logo.  This was in 1999.  It was a summer by-election in Scarborough wards 43 and 44.

Before I even received my sign order from the printer, I received a call from the city clerk’s office saying they had had a complaint about them.  No, they would not release the name of the complainant, but they wanted to see samples of my materials.  Soon after, I was told to scrap my signs and literature ($11,000) and cease and desist using the little logo.  I took time out of campaigning to go to City Hall to be served with a formal letter signed by Clerk Novina Wong and copied to six different senior staffers.

The letter said if I won the by-election, the city would attribute the outcome to my use of the logo and would be forced to hold a new by-election.  The letter left no guessing.  The city would come after me in court for the cost of a new by-election, the Clerk stated.

“For your information the cost of holding a by-election is between $165,000 and $200,000.” 

This was in reaction to a minor and totally innocent trademark infringement issue.   There was no law against putting the city hall logo on an election sign at that time.  The city’s sign by-law was changed later that year to add what I still dub “the Sheila Clause”, prohibiting the use of the city logo on candidates’ election materials.

Never understood until now why I kept that letter.  I can wave it around  and make the point that Rob Ford should pay for his own mayoral by-election, if the city must have one.  For his information, the cost of a new by-election is in the range of $7 million.

What's fair for the goose ... ?

In Toronto’s urban history I was the first person to take Rob Ford to the city’s integrity commissioner and win in 2005.  Ford had mailed out business samples and used his city business card to promote his printing services.  The ruling concluded that Ford had breached the city’s code of conduct, had used the city logo for private purposes.  It recommended council impose no penalty on him as his error was ruled to be “inadvertent.”

I laughed when I read Ford’s rebuttal to my complaint, although I was sorry that his sister was shot in the face on his deadline day for dealing with it.  Naturally that unfortunate incident of criminality created a delay in hearing Ford’s integrity case.  But his letter stated his belief that my complaint was part of a left wing conspiracy and that he had done nothing wrong.

Flash forward seven years.  Breaking the rules and being admonished by then-commissioner David Mullan hasn’t hurt Ford one bit.  As Mayor of Toronto now he has stumble bummed his way into a conflict situation, refusing early on to do what was required to resolve it.  I tell you, that man is hooked on rule breaking.  Some might call it disrespect.  Ford’s track record is there for all to see: brushes with integrity commissioners (not just one, but two) and the city ombudsman, trips to court on various matters, deposed senior city officials, insults hurled.

Rarely am I bewildered, but this whole scramble to save Ford’s bacon has me staring into space shaking my head. 

I proved him to be wrong in ’05. Here he’s still mucking about in 2012.   Only one conclusion can be drawn.  The code of penalties and enforcement governing the conduct of people elected to city council needs to be stronger.

The same rules that ensnared our hare of a mayor have entangled this writer in the past.   Little sympathy for Mayor Rob Ford’s plight do I feel, and this is from someone who has encountered legal challenges wrought from the unforgiving clauses of Ontario’s municipal election laws. 

My transgression?  I was one day late filing a second financial statement after losing as a candidate for council in a 1999 by-election.  Had I not penned my case, found a judge to hear me and made my presentation to the court within seven days, I would have been banned from running for municipal office for seven years.  

Diane Alexopoulous, who sought office in Toronto in November 2006 and came close to winning, didn’t do what I did.  Rather than go through the legal process, she didn’t respond to her letter from the elections branch of the city clerk’s office and forfeited her right to try for public office again for seven years.  How many others have similarly faced this law full tackle, like I did, or with a defensive fumble like Diane?  This was a woman who earned 46.1 per cent of the vote and came within 20 votes of toppling an incumbent titan.

Regular folks affected by election legislation don’t have politicians like Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak and his federal cousins demanding an urgent review of the law governing politicians, wannabes and try-hards.  Golly, I thought Conservatives were the Law & Order party.  What does it mean? That all candidates are treated equally under the law unless they're a big Tory named Ford?  Is the next Tory campaign slogan going to be, “Give the big guy a break. The law is an ass.”

The entire Ford Family will be thrilled that I’m not a court justice.  When I fought for my rights in court, the law was the law no matter who you were.  It was tough, but evenhanded. 

My penalty for Ford would be banishment for seven years.

I wouldn’t let that rabbit run away from what he’s done.