The Vulgar Art Of Selling Out

I don’t even know where to begin here.

So, how about this.

We are all compromised to varying degrees. Few of us lead lives free of hypocrisy. I’ll venture even further to say that the better off we are, the more well placed we find ourselves in the world, the more compromised and hypocritical we are in the lives we lead.

Nobody’s hands are clean.

Let he without sin be the first to cast a stone, John 8:7, or thereabouts.

Those who live in glass houses blah, blah, blah.

That said.

There comes a point when a person moves beyond merely accepting compromise as a part of life to brazenly embracing their hypocrisy.

Ladies and gentlemen,

allow me to present to you, Adam Vaughan 2.0.

Way back when, at the very beginnings of this enterprise here at All Fired/Fried Up in the Big Smoke, as an impressionable late-40-year-old, I was nothing short of an Adam Vaughan fanboy. Along with the likes of Gord Perks and Shelley Carroll, he represented the most public, vociferous anti-Ford voice at City Hall during those tumultuous years. I wrote panegyrics to him like this. “Councillor Vaughan is my favourite councillor to watch in action as he battles Team Ford,” I gushed. “He is everything they aren’t. Smart and articulate with a positive vision how to build the city equitably.” I bemoaned his exit from city council to make a run for a federal seat. “Over the past 3 years or so,” I wrote, “I was fortunate enough to have some conversations with the councillor outside of the political arena, beyond the political melodrama, to talk about building a city. He knew his shit, and his enthusiasm for transforming streets, neighbourhoods and communities was infectious. It challenged me to try and better understand the nature of what makes cities successfully tick.”

We weren’t friends but we did socialize occasionally, mostly in group settings, but one-on-one a few times. I like the guy and, was always prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt in my belief that, ultimately, in the decisions he had to make as an elected official, he had the city and its residents’ best interests in mind.

Maybe he did at one time.

But that circle is hard to square with Monday’s news of Vaughan joining Therme, the company building a private spa on the former Ontario Place waterfront lands, as a senior advisor in his capacity of “speaking to the public about what an incredible project this is.”

It isn’t.

It’s a boondoggle.

The very type of project the politician formerly known as Adam Vaughan railed against. As recently as 2019, in fact, in his role as the local M.P. for the area, standing up on the floor of Parliament, he said the following:

Mr. Speaker, one of the best things the Conservatives ever did for Toronto was build Ontario Place. From the magic of IMAX and the wonder of Cinesphere to the riot we all had playing as kids in the Children’s Village, or all the first dates on the lawn watching The Tragically Hip, Molly Johnson, Parachute Club and the long list of artists who circled the stage as we watched, Ontario Place is a cherished part of Toronto’s waterfront.

However, the new provincial government at Queen’s Park has put a for sale sign on the site and told the 1.5 million visitors who visited the site last year to scram. Clearly, Doug Ford is no Bill Davis. The Tories at Queen’s Park are talking about a mall or, worse, a casino on the waterfront. What a waste. What a terrible deficit of imagination.

The people of Ontario, the folks of our city, and the Toronto Liberal caucus want to keep Ontario Place a public place. Hear our call: Ontario Place is a place for all. Ontario Place for all.

Talk about putting up a For Sale sign, amirite?

There were indications along the way that such a sordid outcome was possible. Not long after rejoining the private sector, Vaughan signed on to the ranks of Navigator, ‘Canada’s leading high-stakes strategic advisory and communications firm’. His name’s attached to this bit of the firm’s ‘crisis management’ for Hockey Canada – yeah, that Hockey Canada – back in 2022. (h/t to Shawn Micallef for shining the light back on that story earlier this week.)

And before my time watching and writing about Toronto city council, Vaughan, then sitting on the TPS board, came under fire for disappearing on a vote that praised police conduct during the June 2010 G20 meeting in the city. Yeah, that G20 meeting. The kettling. The violent arrests. Adam Vaughan? Meet Adam Nobody.

Like I said, nobody lives their lives, especially anyone elected to public office, free of compromise.

But this one, this career move, has nothing other than dollar signs attached to it. There’s no public interest involved. It’s all about putting a recognizable, once-respected, urbanist face to purely private interests. Private, shady interests.

I’ve never possessed the power and influence that brings about offers of big payments for my services. I’m sure the temptation must be mighty compelling. Potential benefits too alluring to ignore. You do the rationalization math and conclude that they outweigh the costs.

The costs here for Adam Vaughan?

A soiled reputation and tainted legacy as a public servant.

Everything positive he may have contributed during his time at Toronto City Hall and in Ottawa will be dwarfed, overshadowed and cheapened by what will be seen as nothing more than a mercenary act. Adam Vaughan makes a bargain. Becomes Adam Faust. His legacy. Linking his name both to a white elephant and to the disreputable, shifty politician, champion of waterfront malls and ferris wheels, he once stood in unequivocal opposition to.

And if you ask, How do you sleep at night, man?

He’ll be able to answer, On a bed of money. On a big bed, stuffed with money.