This week’s Eye Weekly featured a photo of Toronto city councillor Rob Ford on the cover, and followed up the cover with a scathing story about the Ward 2 councillor inside. It’s no surprise that a lot of people in Toronto, particularly the other city councillors, don’t like Mr. Ford. After all, he does have a tendency to put his foot in his mouth, and his one of the most vehemently right-wing councillors on a left-leaning city council. That being said, there is a reason that Rob Ford continues to get elected (and by a huge margin) in Ward 2, and why he will keep winning: he gets things done.

Now, as a resident of Rob Ford’s ward, I will admit that I do not agree with many — in fact most — of his viewpoints on city issues, and I was particularly appalled by his recent remarks about AIDS, so this post is in no way a defense of Ford’s actions and political stance. Instead, it is perhaps a look at why a man like Rob Ford works for Ward 2, and why Ward 2 needs a councillor like Rob Ford.

A few personal stories: a friend of mine who lives in the ward recently had a tiff with her landlord over a malfunctioning toilet. Frustrated, she wrote to the Ford’s office, asking that the renters’ rights get enforced. Three days after she dropped her letter off in the mailbox, Rob Ford — not one of his office workers or anyone from housing — knocked on her door and acted as a mediator between her and her landlord, eventually getting the plumbing fixed and keeping everyone happy.

Vince Carter built a basketball court in the park near my building during his short stint in Toronto, which he then left in the care of the city. Last summer, for some odd reason, the lights on the court would shut off by 8pm, causing a lot of neighborhood youth to be really upset. One afternoon, Rob Ford came down to the park, heard the concerns of the local youth, the area residents and businesses, and a few days later, the problem was fixed.

Those are only two examples where I know that Rob Ford has personally helped fix situations in the ward. To be honest, most people in Ward 2 don’t care too much about the Island Airport or the Gardiner Expressway or the waterfront expansion; instead, they worry about absentee landlords, misplaced immigration papers, late TTC buses, and keeping neighborhood kids out of trouble. Those are the kinds of things that Rob Ford does well — not his office workers or representatives, but Ford himself. That, and the fact that he spends his own money rather than the city budget he is given, makes him quite the popular person in our ward.

So sure, it’s easy to criticize the man for being a bit of a nutcase, but this nutcase makes things happen for the people he represents, which is much more than most politicians can claim.