Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story Read Online Free PDF Page B

would follow them out the door.
    The pair spent a year planning their exit. First up: what would they call themselves?
    Mohawk had a nice ring to it. Boomerang also made the shortlist. But then one of them, Ted can’t remember who, suggested Deco. Short for Decorative. But also because spelled out, Deco was D for Doug, E for Edwin—Ted’s first name—and Co. for company. They liked it.
    By this time, Diane Ford’s dad, Clarence Campbell, had started his own construction business. Clarence had an office at 3077 Bathurst Street, which was just a little north of midtown. He offered his son-in-law use of the basement level. They hired Diane’s sister to do some administrative work. Both the wives helped out in the office too. Ted Herriott was the president and Doug Sr. was the secretary-treasurer. Clarence helped out with accounting. At first, Deco Adhesive Products didn’t have its own printing equipment. They were forced to rent. But once the business started to take off, they bought their own plant a few blocks west.
    The families became as close as two families can get, even though they no longer lived next door to each other. Each had moved to Etobicoke and were only a ten-minute drive apart. Ted and Doug Sr. would work together all day, head home, and then sometimes the foursome would turn around and go to adinner party. Occasionally, their kids played together. In the evenings and weekends, Doug Sr. played football with the East York Argos. Ted would go and watch every now and then.
    The Fords and Herriotts joined up with two other couples and began taking ballroom dancing lessons. It started out at the local YMCA, and then, once they got better, the teacher would come to their houses. The host rotated each week. The instructor would show up with the record player and they would push all the furniture to one side of the room and cha-cha.
    “We thought Doug had two left feet,” Pat Herriott laughed. “He couldn’t dance worth a hat.”
    Afterwards, they’d sit and have coffee and sandwiches. Occasionally, they would have a drink, although Ted says none of them were big on booze.
    Doug Sr. got his first taste of politics in 1963. Deco’s lawyer, Alan Eagleson—after taking a run at a federal seat and losing— decided to run provincially as a Progressive Conservative in the southern Etobicoke riding of Lakeshore. Both Ted and Doug Sr. volunteered on Eagleson’s campaign. And he won. Looking back, Eagleson doesn’t remember Doug Sr. expressing any interest in being a politician himself. “He was too busy working to get Deco off the ground.” After serving four years at Queen’s Park, Eagleson went on to become one of the most powerful men in hockey. He spent twenty-five years as head of the National Hockey League Players’ Association, but he never lost touch with his friends at Deco, even after they parted ways. (In a spectacular fall from grace that shook the Canadian hockey establishment, Eagleson was arrested on fraud charges in both Canada and the United States, spent time in jail, and lost his licence to practise law.)
    By 1965, Deco was doing well, but not spectacularly. This time it was Doug Sr. who was growing restless. He wanted to take the company in a new direction, expanding into tags. Ted wanted to stay the course. There was a bit of a “personality clash,” Ted conceded.
    “We weren’t mad. It was just time to move on,” he explained. “The friendship had run its course.”
    The pair had built a shotgun clause into the original business agreement. Accordingly, each made an offer on the company, and Doug Sr.’s was higher. So they shook hands and Ted Herriott walked away to start his own advertising agency. At Deco, Doug Sr. became president, Clarence Campbell became vice-president, and Diane took over as secretary-treasurer. They moved to an office on Martin Grove Road and by 1971 had again upgraded to a space on Greensboro Drive in Etobicoke, where Deco remains today.
    Business was