Rob Ford officially kicked off his re-election campaign last night at the Toronto Congress Centre.

He portrayed himself as a man of the people.

Ford touched on his personal problems, describing them as rocky moments and repeating that nobody goes through life without making mistakes.

There was music, balloons, campaign memorabilia for sale and a fire truck with a banner reading ”saving the taxpayers from getting burned”.

That set off alarms with the Toronto Professional Fire Fighters Association.

The union issued a release calling the use of the truck as a prop was ”utterly tasteless” considering four fire trucks are being taken out of service Monday due to budget cuts.

Ford’s campaign manager, brother Doug says their other brother Randy bought the truck at an auction.