And so starts the Year of our Ford

With apologies to the Globe and Mail's Marcus Gee from whose article on Mayor Rob Ford's first day as helmsman of the City of Toronto I'm borrowing the title of this blog post.

And so it has begun ... with gag gifts of gravy packets left behind by outgoing mayor, David Miller, and his team the Ford era unfolds before us.

Let's review the five most important factors that led Rob Ford to City Hall:

1. Stop the gravy train, indeed! That was the mantra of Team Ford. No more wasteful spending! Words that resonated with the citizens of Toronto and which they took to battle leaving Ford's rivals in the dust. Belt-tightening is going to be the order of the day.

2. More subways and buses instead of Transit City. Ford considers marathons and charity runs as events that snarl traffic in Toronto.

3. The barbs aimed at Ford questioning his character, his weight helped boost his campaign instead of being detrimental to it. Ford's handlers like to point out that a Stephen Marche column in the Globe and Mail using the word 'fat' 17 times added to the campaign's coffers. And who likes to be called names? Perhaps voters looked at it as bullying and voted for him.

4. The Oxycontin episode was handled well. Read the inside story here.

5. Ford's campaign bypassed traditional media outlets. Text messages were used instead of IPhone apps. Rob Ford was exposed to town hall-style telephone calls talking to respondents a la talk radio. And most telling of all his rivals' campaigns started to stumble. All that noise about a supposed photofinish between Smitherman and Ford never materialized. Ford was swept into City Hall with an overwhelming 47 per cent of the vote.

For a sampling of how voters felt about Rob Ford, read it here.

Rob Ford's handlers never put him in an Armani suit. The electorate wanted someone down-to-earth and not a politician with airs who wouldn't give them the time of day. Ford was probably the only councillor who answered his phone. Who does that?

Note to government leaders: you might want to learn from Toronto's new mayor. He's all for substance over style.