Rob Ford, Toronto’s possibly crack smoking mayor, went on his weekly radio show and offered up one of the stranger apologies I’ve ever heard from a politician.
The Danforth – that was pure stupidity. I shouldn’t have got hammered down at The Danforth. If you’re gonna have a couple drinks, you stay at home, and that’s it. You don’t make a public spectacle of yourself. Hopefully it doesn’t happen again…and..and..I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again. But to sit here and say I’m going to lose 100 pounds and be a brand new person in six months or a year, I’m not going to mislead people.
The picture above is Ford at the Taste of the Danforth festival where he got hammered this summer. He also says that the Toronto PD should release the alleged crack smoking video, though he denied being a crack addict. He’s also not going to resign.
In other news from the great white north, I think Harper’s politician hair might be a terminal condition.
rikyrah
this guy is off the chain. he needs help…that is obvious. dude needs rehab…and quick
Corner Stone
So he’s pulling a reverse-Cole?
The Dangerman
Speaking of hammered, was that the condition of the Oakland D today? Just turned on the TV to see them giving up 7 TD’s to Nick Foles? WTF?!
Cassidy
One of the members of Pussy Riot seems to have disappeared in the liberal paradise we know as Russia. But Snowden, Greenwald, and NSA.
raven
@rikyrah: no no no
aimai
Well, he could promise to be a brand new person and “not mislead people” regardless of his weight.
The Dangerman
And not to DogWin the thread, but what to fuck is going on in Seattle? Some bizarro football scores today.
ETA: Also bizzaro coaching decisions; 1st a goal from a foot and the Chargers choke it away. That must have gone over big at the Sports Books.
Cassidy
in moderation
raven
Another drunk. Who cares?
Napoleon
Don’t the Bare Naked Ladies make a reference to The Danforth in on of their songs (in a fade away/background part)?
Anya
He only actually said anything about “being hammered” when a caller asked him about what he was apologizing for and scolded his brother for enabling him. Also, too, you left out the best quote from Rob Ford’s radio craziness
Hal
A caller to the radio show asked him specifically about the video and Ford replied that he couldn’t comment because he hadn’t seen it. Why do you need to see a video of you smoking crack to comment on you smoking crack? It’s not like there’s a chance it’s someone else in the video. Resign already. He’s as idiotic as the San Diego Mayor who held on as long as he could.
God-Emperor Aardvark-Penguin IV Jr
thestar.com/news/crime/2013/11/01/what_will_the_second_video_reveal.html
Apparently there is a second, even more interesting Rob Ford video. The guy might as well quit mayoring and open his own reality TV channel.
Narcissus
I don’t do drugs but I was always under the impression crack was a drug of last resort
If you have money, you do real cocaine or heroin
Crack is something you do if you live in New Jack City
BGinCHI
If he really said “at the Danforth” then he is really off his tree. Unless he means “at the Danforth festival” or something.
As everyone in TO knows, it’s “on the Danforth.”
YellowJournalism
I’ve heard the urban legend that Tim Horton’s has crack in it. From that picture, maybe Ford just took the rumor a little too seriously.
raven
@Narcissus: Crack is real blow, it’s just crystalized.
“Crack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, work,[1] hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is said to be the most addictive form of cocaine,[2] a”
eta, yea cuz there is NO smack in NYC.Sheesh
CONGRATULATIONS!
I’m hoping that thing on Harper’s head is a toupee, or cancer, or some kind of weird Canadian animal, because human hair just flat-out shouldn’t look like that.
About Rob Ford: don’t give two shits if he pulls a load or two off the pipe. Really don’t. Also don’t care if he gets loud and plowed in public every now and then. I want to know if he’s liberal or conservative (just for giggles) and most importantly I want to know if he does a good job for his constituents. If he does, I think the media should go find someone else’s asshole to examine minutely.
John O
I personally think more politicians should go out and get hammered (legally) with their constituents.
Not on the crack, though.
Gravenstone
@Narcissus: Crack is “real” cocaine. It’s the free base version of the alkaloid, while the snorted form is the hydrochloride salt.
Corner Stone
@Narcissus:
“Damn…Crack.”
/Nino Brown
Josie
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Definitely a toupe. My late husband used to wear one, and I can spot them a mile away. The funny thing is that all toupe wearers convince themselves that nobody can tell.
John O
Both alcohol and cocaine make people lethally stupid, the difference is, just not the next day.
aimai
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Well, if he’s working with a legislature and a police force that are arresting people for being addicts or buying from drug dealers that actually is a teeny bit of a problem, moral authority wise.
Ruckus
At least that hair or what ever it is doesn’t look like a dead ferret that was blown up with an M80. Like one of our political “personalities”.
Ruckus
@aimai:
Agreed.
Politicians don’t have to be perfect but openly breaking the law or even just being a complete asshole about being an asshole does seem to be a bit over the top.
Linnaeus
Wonder if Tim Hortons is putting something a little extra in their coffee these days.
shelly
This guy got elected ….how? Is Toronto the Texas of Canada?
Hektor
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Well he’s a conservative by Canadian standards. Big supporter of Prime Minister Harper. Supports lower taxes and contracting out of some city services. He campaigned on ending the “gravy train” at Toronto city hall. He has attended some Toronto Pride events, though he voted against funding the Toronto Pride parade.
I’m no fan of his (I don’t live in Toronto, though I live close by) and frankly he is an embarrassment to the city. My issue with the crack video is that he denied it’s existence and his supporters even tried to get the Toronto Star (which I admit isn’t friendly at all to him) punished by a journalism ethics board for running the story in the first place. Now every rumour about Ford being drunk, stoned or worse is going to make headlines.
I mean, those of us who think he’s a boorish jerk feel in many ways vindicated, but really all he’s done is turn a world class city into a running gag which will continue (as far as I can tell) for a while since unless he is indicted (and the chief of police says Mr. Ford has not committed any crime).
Linnaeus
@shelly:
No, that’s Alberta.
Hektor
@shelly: Well, the mayor before Ford was David Miller who was a member of the New Democratic Party (which is traditionally thought as the left party in the country). As far as I know mayors and city councils in Ontario don’t have party affiliation, though informal associations do occur. Rob Ford was elected mainly because he promised to stop the “gravy train” at city hall, which was perceived as elitist and entitled especially by suburban voters at the edges of Toronto. Mr. Ford as a member of city council consistently voted against what he termed “wasteful” spending and was admired for his constituent work and setting record low office expenses.
However, even without this scandal, he was facing a tough re-election fight. Olivia Chow (a New Democratic Party MP for Toronto and widow of the extremely popular former leader of the NDP Jack Layton) has been polling extremely well against him. Ford is a very polarizing figure. His approval rating actually went up to about 44% after this scandal leaked. Six in ten Torontonians want him to resign though. (see cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/rob-ford-approval-goes-up-despite-video-scandal-1.2335743)
cmorenc
@mistermix:
We haven’t seen a hair-helmet like that since?? Newt Gingrich?? Trent Lott ?? Newt’s wife Callista ?? Donald Trump ?? (So ok, the Donald’s hair-helmet isn’t white, it’s been nicely orange-ified by duly licensed cosmetitians.)
Bitter and Deluded Lurker
@Hektor: I think he attended one or two Pride events last year, after going out of his way to avoid attending Pride events in previous years. I’m not impressed. Ford has made some pretty homophobic statements in the past.
Is he a good mayor? Hell no.
YellowJournalism
@Linnaeus: See, I just don’t get that comparison. I’ve lived here almost ten years, and to me this place isn’t even Idaho, let alone Texas. Sure, there’s oil and rodeos, as well as the occasional redneck, but I find them more like Eastern Washington-Lite.
Linnaeus
@YellowJournalism:
That’s probably a more accurate description. Alberta-as-Texas is more of a tongue-in-cheek comparison to the rest of Canada
Yatsuno
@YellowJournalism: Saskatchewan seemed headed down that path for awhile, but then the Cons got into some internecine fighting and it burned itself out. The only province that seems even close to out there now is Quebec, but that’s a totally different animal.
PurpleGirl
@cmorenc: The Donald’s hair is also a lot thinner, that’s why he does the weird comb-over. I think the others you mentioned are in the running as competitors. Of course, historically, helmet hair has been worn by John Kerry and the Kennedy brothers.
YellowJournalism
@Yatsuno: Quebec? Oh, yeah, some of those guys are crazy and weirdly entitled for a group that wants to split from the Canadian government…
Geoduck
@The Dangerman:
The same thing they’ve been doing all season; bumble around ineptly for a large chunk of the game, but still somehow end up winning.
polyorchnid octopunch
@Hektor: To help the USians here with the terminology: Libs are Liberal party members, Cons are Conservative party members, and Dippers are NDP party members.
Ford’s a Con. He’s done a tremendous amount of race baiting and poor bashing. He’s a typical suburbanite entitlement troll who got his money the old fashioned way: by inheriting it from his dad who built a multi-million dollar printing business. Here’s hoping the Dipper Olivia Chow cleans his clock at the next Toronto municipal election.
Apparently there’s another video, and according to Rosie DiManno (a columnist at TorStar) it’s far more incendiary than the mayor sucking on a glass pipe and cracking wise about faggots and nears.
Denial appears to be a river in Ford Nation.
polyorchnid octopunch
@Linnaeus: There is one way in which it’s very much like Texas: oil companies get to do whatever the fuck they want: thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/10/28/2845411/alberta-tar-sands-pollution-cancer/
Dolly Llama
@Hektor:
No shit?
polyorchnid octopunch
@YellowJournalism: you should go visit Quebec sometime. I lived in Montreal for nearly a decade, and the lampoon of it that exists in pop culture out west is seriously wrong. What you’re really looking at is the last gasp of the Herouxvilleists and the pur laine exhibiting itself as a minority PQ government run by a tired old bigot. Even the majority of sovereigntists think Pauline Marois is off her rocker. Her term as premiere is going to leave the separatists badly divided.
This is a good thing.
Redshirt
Finally, we can bash Canada. Hey, Canada?! What’s with all the Neocons and crackheads? What’s with killing the environment? Why are you killing all the baby seals?
Worse than Trudeau.
StringOnAStick
@YellowJournalism: You can’t call Alberta the Texas of Canada when Calgary has a brown and likely gay mayor who is quite popular. Well, I guess you could call Calgary the Austin of TexaCanadia.
Dude in the second picture? Eyes are seriously too close together. Creepy.
Interrobang
Ford is an embarrassment to pretty much anybody living in southwestern Ontario. Toronto has had some pretty embarrassing mayors (furniture tyc/buffoon Mel Lastman springs to mind), but he’s worse.
Not only that, but he looks and sounds like what would happen if you smushed together Archie Bunker and Glenn Beck.
Svensker
@shelly:
Ultra-liberal Toronto got blended with the ‘burbs a few years ago and now we’re stuck with these wingnuts. (Not helped by the idiocy of the Liberals…) Ford Nation LOVES Mayor Rob because he claims he’s cutting the budget. Whether he is or not is kinda debatable. But unless he’s charged with a crime it seems unlikely he’ll be kicked out. He doesn’t give a shit and the more dirt that sticks to him, the harder the wingers believe it’s a smear job by the commie liberals.
Toronto is a great city to live in but it’s totally disfunctional politically. Nothing can or does get done. Amazing culture, though.
Yatsuno
@YellowJournalism: Oh yes, my people. Got kicked out of France but still insist they’re just as if not more French than the French. Plus they want all the perks of being part of Canada but none of the drawbacks, like that accursed bilingual status.
Lurking Canadian
@Napoleon: Yes. Towards the end of The Old Apartment,it is revealed that the singing character (and, presumably intended to be a surprise, the partner he lived with in the old apartment) now have a place on the Danforth, where they are happy.
polyorchnid octopunch
@Svensker: We actually have a similar problem in my town. Thank Mike Harris! You’re a peach!
Spike
If only.
Redshirt
@Yatsuno: I was somewhat surprised to recently learn France still owns land right off Newfoundland. Saint Pierre and Miquelon.
Ramalama
@polyorchnid octopunch: Marois is also a socialist feminist who like Nancy Pelosi has been in politics long enough to get some shit done. As such she offers something very antithetical to Albertans / Harper. Which is basically fuel to the flame to so many Quebecers. Quebeckers? I hang out mostly with Francophones and while I don’t speak much French, I’m at a loss about the English equation here in Quebecistan.