For almost a year now, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been the centre of media frenzy after a report claimed he had been caught smoking crack cocaine on camera. Since then, he has dug himself into a deeper hole by running around in a drunken stupor, making highly inappropriate comments about his personal activities with his wife and acting racially insensitive on camera.
Unsurprisingly, his radical adventures have caused him to become the subject of many jokes and parodies. When I talk to my friends from America, one of the first things they ask is how that cracked mayor of mine is doing, and as expected, I deflect from answering, choosing instead to suffer the shame in silence.
Some Torontonians seem to be under the impression that he’s still a good mayor. They think it’s nobody’s business what he does in his spare time, but I don’t think those people grasp the idea that once someone steps into a position as important as Ford’s, everything goes under the public microscope.
Believe it or not, everything that the mayor does – personally or publically – affects the city in some way or another. Moreover, these activities that are presumably none of our business are not your average personal decision. They are decisions that rebuke the very integrity of the Mayoral position, and hence, the integrity of the city as a whole.
Furthermore, these so-called “private businesses” of Ford have the ability to hurt the city’s tourism industry. For example, what if events such as the Pan-Am Games were moved to another city because nobody, for understandable reasons, would want to be associated with the city whose mayor is cracked out.
In addition, Ford is not being held accountable for his actions. Unfortunately, Ontario’s Premier Kathleen Wynne can’t do anything about him until he is formally convicted and sentenced to a minimum of 3 weeks jail time – something that never happened despite the lengthy police report that was made known to the public at the end of the summer last year. It’s a tricky situation because, while she cannot do anything legally against him, it would be hard not to deal with the situation as he continues making messes for himself and for Toronto. .
Ultimately, we shall see where Mayor Ford takes us next on his next crazy, cracked odyssey . One thing is certain: it won’t be anywhere good.
