.
Julia Fisher, in TNR:
Rob Ford—crack user, alleged domestic abuser, mayor of Canada’s largest city—is getting his own TV show. The Sun News Network will put Ford and his older brother, Doug, who serves on the city’s council, on air on Monday. The show, called “Ford Nation,” will be a second act to the brothers’ radio show, “The City,” which ended last week. Details about the show are yet to be announced, but it’s bound to be hilarious, and ratings will surely be high. If nothing else, it will allow Toronto’s weary press corps to put up their feet, take a break from pushing for the disgraced mayor to be ousted from office, and watch him continue to make a fool of himself on TV…
I’m just glad I could find a version of “White Trash Wedding” with the proper Canadian content.
wasabi gasp
I would watch Toronto if it was an HBO series.
piratedan
well this is America, we can never get enough of entitled asshats behaving badly, hell just look at who gets elected to Congress?
JordanRules
I swear this guy is trolling the world. Every new episode leaves my jaw dropped.
Arclite
Ratings will be high? Something tells me that’s not the only thing that will be high.
Omnes Omnibus
Completely unrelated and total win for me…. My parents have been on a multi-week visit to Hawaii and I just found out that I have been my Mom’s first phone call whenever she arrived at a new Island. Take that younger brother. Mom calls me first. So there.
sharl
I like to think that SCOTS “White Trash” could be a tribute to the Mayor of Toronto.
(Here’s the studio version, with a fan’s photo montage that willfully misses the point.)
wasabi gasp
Vinicio Capossela – Polpo d’Amor
wasabi gasp
Mima – Ojo Avizor
Bill E Pilgrim
He’s like a more pale and even trashier version of Silvio Berlusconi.
Bunga bunga… eh?
Alison
Can someone explain to me how this dude can publicly admit to breaking laws and yet has not been arrested? I mean…crack is illegal in Canada, right? He’s said he uses it, he’s bought it, etc. But as far as I’ve seen/read, nothing whatsoever is going to happen to him. The hell?
YellowJournalism
@Alison: Forget it, eh? It’s Toronto.
Alison
@YellowJournalism: But I’m serious. Like…could I go up there and run around town smoking rock and not get arrested? Do they just not care? Or is it because he’s mayor so it’s cool for him to break laws? What if he followed up on that crazy threat video and actually killed someone?
YellowJournalism
So my oldest kidlet had his hernia surgery this week. Everything went fine, and a few days later he’s already back to tearing apart the house with his brother, albeit a little more gently than usual. I have to say that I will take a Rob Ford in every major city as long as I don’t have to have the extra worry of the bills for my children’s medical care, thank Canada. In my research, I found out that some parents don’t do the less invasive route we did because it ends up being too expensive in the US. If Obamacare is the first step on the road to single-payer, I say it will be worth the web site hiccups and cancelled crap policies.
YellowJournalism
@Alison: I think there’s an investigation going on right now. I’m sure there’s some legal troubles comin down the line. From this story, it looks like he set up his own version of the conservative grift with Fox-lite, Sun Network.
Spaghetti Lee
@Alison:
I was wondering about that too, obvious as it seems. Maybe because he wasn’t arrested when he actually did the deed, he can’t be charged, or some legal thing like that? Or maybe he admitted to smoking it but never buying or selling it, and only the last two are illegal. Beats me.
I admit I’ve been amused by his antics, but I feel like I’m living in some dystopian Sci-Fi novel where democracy has degenerated to the point where mayors primp their public images through trashy TV.
Amir Khalid
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Flowers?
NotMax
Are ads for the show running touting that “There’s a Ford in your future?”
Yatsuno
@YellowJournalism: Remember: Tommy did it one province at a time. Vermont will get the ball rolling, but it will really take off once California gets it enacted again. After that a few more dominoes will fall (including WA, YAY!) and game over.
BTW it’s snowing like mad in Pullman right now. I miss it.
NotMax
Taking drugs off the streets of Toronto – one hit at a time.
Alison
@Spaghetti Lee: But he has admitted, in video taped testimony to the city council, to buying drugs! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/13/rob-ford-illegal-drugs-toronto_n_4267817.html
I just…I do not get it.
Spaghetti Lee
@Alison:
Well, there goes that theory. New theory: he’s a deep cover government agent trying to draw out the biggest drug kingpin in Canada. Put that on your damn TV show, Robbie.
Alison
@Spaghetti Lee: LOL
Bill E Pilgrim
@Amir Khalid:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12325796
Too much horticultural knowledge and not enough gossip, is my diagnosis;)
It might be more well-known on the Euro side of the pond (though as I seem to remember you’re not in the US but on another side of another pond entirely).
Bill E Pilgrim
@NotMax: There’s a joke in there somewhere about Fords coming off the line, but I can’t find it.
aangus
Kathleen Wynne: Rob Ford Needs To Listen To Toronto City Council Now.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/11/15/kathleen-wynne-rob-ford_n_4283405.html
Love the photo! : )
Keith G
@Alison: I am not sure how drug laws in Canada are written, but it seems to me that among the necessary proofs for violating drug laws is physical evidence of the drug itself.
Dolly Llama
@Keith G: Yeah. Obama admitted smoking pot and snorting coke in his book. Impeach! (I know this isn’t the same thing, but I’m not surprised they didn’t just swoop down and arrest the guy.)
Suffern ACE
I think he should be placed in charge of Canada. I think he would be an excellent successor to Harper, and would probably win.
Ferdzy
@Suffern ACE:
Well, there’s a question: is it better for the citizens if a ruler is evil and incompetent, or evil and competent? Given how truly damaging to Canada Harper has been, I’m leaning towards evil and incompetent. Yet, somehow, the idea of Ford at the helm is still pretty horrifying.
Cheap Jim
These guys are the real Bob and Doug from Canada?
Svensker
@Alison:
Seems crazy, right? But because it’s all vague. Just like Pres. Obama can’t be arrested for admitting that he did drugs in the past, same thing here, Ford can’t be arrested for his admissions of past wrong-doing. I’ve gotta think, though, that the cops are working on something that could lead to his arrest — but I wonder whether releasing all this stuff was their way of trying to get the mayor to resign first so they wouldn’t have to arrest a sitting mayor. Canadians hate doing dramatic stuff.
Bitter and Deluded Lurker
@Alison: Here in Toronto we’re still hopeful that he’ll get charged with something larger than simple drug possession. Remember that one of the guys who was in the picture with Ford from the alleged crack video was murdered, possibly as part of efforts to retrieve the video.
Although if you want to get a little more confused, it also appears that the police have pulled him over for drunk driving more than once and let him go.
morfydd
@Svensker:
whoa, I’m pretty sure Obama wouldn’t be prosecuted because his admissions were way outside the statutes of limitation. Ford is admitting to crimes happening this year. It makes no sense that he isn’t being prosecuted.
Also, I don’t understand how Ford can do a TV show. If he’s being paid for it, isn’t that bribery? Even if he’s not, it’s a huge disruption of the work he’s supposed to be doing.
muricafukyea
Sun news is a wannabe Fox news clone in Canada. They are failing badly so this is just desperation on their part. Also proves that Fox and their clones exist for one reason only and that is to piss off as many people as possible while pandering to the rubes. If people would just ignore them they would go away.
Woodrow/asim Jarvis Hill
@morfydd:
Given it was the Police Chief who OK’ed the video release that started this latest round, and who went on TV to talk about it, I’d not jump tot the conclusion there’s no charges coming down the pike.
The case is likely weak, yes. And in these situations, law enforcement tends to go very slow, because it’s their reps on the line — a pissed-off Mayor is not exactly a great thing to deal with for your budget, so you need to build an open-and-shut case to avoid a mess, and that can take time. That they released the video that made Ford confess is likely part of a strategy to buttress them for upcoming charges against him, and not an isolated act.
Or the Toronto cops are really that incompetent.
I think it’s already established he’s not doing the damn work, and no one seems to have stopped him before now, have they?
Petorado
@Cheap Jim: It’ll be The Great White North with Chris Farley instead of Rick Moranis.
BerkeleyMom
I’m actually worried about his wife and kids. This dude is unhinged. If I were her I’d find a safe house.
pseudonymous in nc
@YellowJournalism:
No, it’s the other way round. The extent to which Ford is a creature of the Toronto Sun — the populist wingnut / Canuckistan teabagger tabloid — really needs emphasis. They’re all “voice of the oppressed white suburban blowhard”.