The Antisocial Socialist

The story here is that I'm friends with Michael Laxer (long-time Toronto politico, currently running for city councillor in Ward 6 in the heart of Ford Nation), who owns Community Roots, the only independent bookstore in Etobicoke. He occasionally gets strange books coming into the shop, one of which was Firebrand by Rosemary Aubert, a—cue giggling from all the long-time Toronto politicos—Harlequin romance about Toronto municipal politics. A bidding war for the bookstore's sole copy quickly ensued, and thus I had to settle for buying it off Amazon. Sorry!

I bought this book with the intention of writing a blog post about how ridiculous it was, loaded, of course, with references to our own famous mayor, only to...

...I'm sorry, dear readers, I absolutely loved it.

THE SHAME, I KNOW. I mean, it is not well-written. It is absolutely terrible. It has lines like, "Before her, all six-foot-four of him glowing in the soft window light, stood Mike, fully and gloriously a man. Hungry for her with a hunger that was obvious in every part of his huge body. She dropped her eyes, suddenly shy." It is not a good book at all.

Plus, like all Harlequins, it's completely unrealistic. I mean, who would believe that Toronto would elect a competent left-winger with a history of community activism and sensible policies?

(Some historical context: This book was published in 1986, before the amalgamation, so "City of Toronto" refers to the old, traditionally leftish city, excluding the right-leaning burbs. It was also only a few years since John Sewell, almost certainly the inspiration for the book's hero, was mayor.)

This said, I couldn't put it down and I need to write this review quickly, as I promised a co-worker I'd loan it to her.
( Spoilers! )

Reading it now, as millionaire Doug Ford and millionaire John Tory go head-to-head in a contest of who can take the larger shit all over the city that I love, fills me with an almost painful nostalgia. Can you imagine someone elected to run the city who actually liked the city? I can't. Chow's in third place and Soknacki, the only person willing to raise the issue of the bloated police budget, was upstaged by Mike Tyson's drooling endorsement of Rob Ford. Toronto municipal politics is a hopeless cesspool, and the real romantic narrative of this book is about a time when, at least briefly, it was something better.