Strong advocate of cross- community approach to politics
ALLIANCE LEADER David Ford never tires of insisting on a cross-community approach to politics and generally shuns terms such as unionist and nationalist.
However, it was he, along with two colleagues, who in 2001 opted to change Assembly designation from “other” to “unionist” in order to save the institutions.
Some 22 minutes later he opted back, proving that pragmatism has a place in his political armoury, alongside principle.
He won the party leadership that year from Seán Neeson, who had quit following a run of disappointing results for the party.
The leadership change seemed to work, with Alliance holding its six Assembly seats at the 2003 election and producing encouraging results in subsequent polls.
The member for South Antrim finds himself in the newly-created office of the Minister for Justice because the leading unionist and nationalist parties agreed neither could live with the prospect of their opponent’s success in winning the post.
With Assembly rules necessitating majorities among both nationalists and unionists, Mr Ford emerged through the centre to take the justice job.
The 59-year-old father of four was born and educated in England, but used to spend school holidays with relatives in Gortin, Co Tyrone. He was accepted to study economics at Queen’s University, Belfast in 1969, as the Troubles began, joining the fledgling Alliance party a year later.
He later worked for a time at the Corrymeela cross-community centre near Ballycastle, Co Antrim, before beginning a career as a social worker.
He won a seat to the Assembly in 1998 in the immediate aftermath of the Belfast Agreement, which he strongly supported.
He leads the fifth-largest political party at Stormont and becomes the first Alliance member of the Executive.
Under his leadership Alliance has developed a distinctive voice at Stormont, persistently raising the costs of division in Northern
Ireland and pushing hard for a community integration strategy right across all government departments and not just justice.
Originally hostile to the idea of an Alliance nominee for the post, Ford insisted that a cross-community strategy be agreed among the Executive parties before he would consider allowing his name to go forward for the post.
Ford knows the sensitive nature of Northern politics, especially in relation to the Troubles.
He was forced to travel to meet and apologise to relatives of those killed on Bloody Sunday in February, having written in a leaked e-mail that the Saville inquiry into the controversy was “pointless”.
His appointment means that Alliance must now step aside from its self-appointed role as unofficial opposition at Stormont. But that could be short-lived.
The next Assembly election is scheduled for May 2011, giving Ford just 12 months before going to the polls again.