Toronto council votes to rename Etobicoke stadium after Rob Ford

Toronto City Council voted on a motion Friday afternoon, to rename Centennial Stadium in Etobicoke after former mayor Rob Ford, reversing course over a similar vote in 2017.

Several councillor’s questioned whether it was appropriate to name a municipal asset after Ford, citing his many scandals while in office and the manner in which he portrayed civil servants.

Etobicoke Lakeshore Councillor Amber Morley attempted to slow the process down, urging fellow members to support her motion seeking more public consultation in order to follow the city’s standards for naming city assets.

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But Councillor Paul Ainslie, who put the member’s motion forward on Centennial Stadium, argued the city often eschewed with protocol in naming areas around the city. On Thursday, Council did just that, when it skipped wider public consultation in a decision to rename Dundas Square to Sankofa Square, in an effort to remove the name of Henry Dundas from city assets. Dundas was an 18th century British politician endorsed a slow approach to ending the slave trade.

Morley’s motion to pump the breaks ultimately failed, with Council voting 17-6 in favour of giving Rob Ford, who died from cancer in 2016, a namesake location. Councillor’s Paula Fletcher, Chris Moise, and Jaye Robinson were absent during the vote, and both Moise and Fletcher had previously told reporters they were uncomfortable supporting it.

This was the second time city council voted on the matter, which failed to pass in 2017. Several councillors who voted against the move then supported it this time, including Paul Ainslie, Jon Burnside, Shelley Carroll, Gord Perks, and Michael Thompson.