Mayor Rob Ford goes to Chicago - and does his job again

A funny thing happened on the way to Chicago — after a summer of flubs, Mayor Rob Ford started doing the job he was elected to do again.

Stepping away from the allegations and legal issues that have been dogging him, Ford seemed confident and focused in leading the Team Toronto delegation last week. Sure, there was a brief moment of geographic confusion — Ford told an American couple that the Canadian city across the river from Detroit was Winnipeg — but mostly the mayor looked good.

Even his meeting with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel seemed to go well. They talked about garbage.

Afterwards, Ford drew unanimous praise from the business leaders who tagged along, while other councillors and staff spoke positively about the perspective gained from visiting Toronto’s sister city.

Which was good to hear, because the Big Smoke could stand to take a few more cues from Chicago when it comes to waterfront development, building architecture and the expansiveness of their transit system.

If the trip was marred by anything, it was Ford’s repetitive claim that taxpayers wouldn’t be on the hook for “one red cent” of the costs. Not only did this turn out to be untrue, it’s an irrelevant point. All signs point to the Chicago trip being of value to Toronto.

No one should take issue with an elected official using city funds for things that benefit the city. That’s the job.

And Ford should be doing more of it. Instead of crowing about cutting his office budget by an arbitrary amount or railing against retirement parties from three years ago, I’d rather see this mayor do more like he did in Chicago: He should get out there and represent Toronto.

Start with forging connections with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which meets for conferences and has played a critical role in making the case for fairer funding arrangements for cities. Their Big City Mayors’ Caucus met this summer to discuss, amongst other things, the need for better transit funding. Ford skipped that meeting. He shouldn’t make that mistake again.

Not only is having a seat at the table for these conversations good for Toronto, a renewed focus on leadership and representing this city can only help Ford’s political fortunes. These days, he’s mired in allegations that he’s used office resources to help run his high school football team and exercised improper influence to get roadwork done near his family’s label company. He’s also got a long history of personal foibles. To preserve his mayoralty, Ford desperately needs to change the plot.

As a legitimate use of city resources and far removed from his scandals back home, blowing into the Windy City was a good start.