Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

As long as McCarthy is Speaker, the House will never be in order.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Bark louder, little dog.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / The Dark Canuck

The Dark Canuck

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Here’s Rob Ford, doing his best Chris Farley, knocking over a female councillor as he runs around the floor of the Toronto city council. Then he and his brother Doug got in a shouting match with spectators, after which he went on his new TV show, Ford Nation, and said this:

“I know in my heart everyone has personal problems,” Ford told listeners. “I urinated in a parking lot . . . what does that have to do with anything?”

Whatever else you might want to say about Rob, he is living each day to the fullest.

Reader Interactions

53Comments

  2. 2.

    Ash Can

    If whizzing in a parking lot is living a day to its fullest, I don’t want to know what your idea of a wasted day is.

  3. 3.

    JPL

    Shouldn’t you be writing on how many people died because of Obamacare? The media sure likes the Ford story which means less time bitching about the President.

  4. 4.

    jonas

    I was just thinking the other day that this would have been the absolute pinnacle of Chris Farley’s career were he still with us and on SNL, up there with Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin.

  8. 8.

    aimai

    So why haven’t they called for a new mayoral election? The article seems to imply that the council is waiting for the CAnadian government to do something like declare the Mayoralty vacant while the Mayor charges that they could call a new election right away. Do they not think they’d win? Do they think that Torontonians will vote for this guy again? Do they not have a good candidate to run against him?

  9. 9.

    Dead Ernest

    @Ash Can:
    Simple pleasures Ash, simple pleasures.

    Guess I started with reactions to Mr. Ford that were like most other people’s.
    But as time goes by, gotta admit there is something about his Anti-authoritarian style I appreciate.
    I just hope he doesn’t taint the brand.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    Speaking of second chances.

    After two bids for the Oval Office, a sex scandal and a fraud trial, John Edwards is back where he started from.

    The former senator will be practicing personal injury law in his home state of North Carolina, CNN affiliate WRAL reported Monday.

  12. 12.

    Dead Ernest

    @NotMax:

    Ah, NotMax, we can only dream.
    What a wonderful world this could have been if only the Dulles had been more like Bob & Doug.

  13. 13.

    Suffern ACE

    @aimai: uncertain. But this episode does kind of undermine some assumptions about Canadian voters. A lot of Canadians might not be too bright and will vote for candidate Thatllshowem and Screwyousnobs if given the chance.

  14. 14.

    Jim Linzer

    @jonas:

    If Chris Farley were still on SNL, this would be his 23rd year on the show, indicating a career in a very serious rut rather than one reaching its absolute pinnacle.

  15. 15.

    daveNYC

    @aimai: The definition of Torontonian has been expanded a fair bit to include the ‘burbs, which is where his support is. So it’d be the usual urban vs. suburban tribalism thing. Ford’s ability to find additional uses for a parking lot might not make that big a difference.

  16. 16.

    Hawes

    Mark Halperin writes that taking out an elderly council woman will be a game change and that this will solidify his standing among suburban wife beaters AND urban hipsters who like irony and farce.

  17. 17.

    JasonF

    Mark my words — by the time all is said and done, Rob Ford is going to be living in a van down by the river.

  18. 18.

    Suffern ACE

    @Hawes: Going to Detroit to photograph the decay will be replaced by going to Toronto to photograph the mayor as the hip thing to do.

  20. 20.

    aimai

    @daveNYC: Suburban people really love their parking lots, so there is that. But I definitely saw him shaking hands with supporters in the crowd during the melee. So I presume he does have a floor below which he won’t fall.

  21. 21.

    C.V. Danes

    “I urinated in a parking lot . . . what does that have to do with anything?”

    Ummmm…perhaps because people oddly expect better behavior from their elected representatives?

  22. 22.

    magurakurin

    @JasonF: except that really wasn’t Farely’s fate, was it? As funny as he and that skit was, he died a tragic, wasteful death at a young age from substance abuse. Ford is going to end up like Farely alright, stone cold dead before his time. The body can only take so much abuse and this dude is off the charts. Can you imagine how hammered and stoned he is late at night if this is how he is midday.

  23. 23.

    handsmile

    @aimai:

    Evidently, the Toronto City Council must submit a request to the Ontario provincial government to amend the Municipal Elections Act. With the next mayoral election scheduled for October 2014, it is deemed unlikely that such legislative actions, on the part of both the municipal and provincial governing bodies, would take place.

    This, and so much more, on “snap elections” here:

    http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2013/11/18/toronto_snap_election_demanded_by_doug_ford_would_require_action_by_ontario.html

  24. 24.

    fidelio

    @aimai: Toronto has no mechanism for removing a mayor, short of an arrest, trial, and conviction for something more serious than a couple of moving violations. The city council has already voted to take as much power away from him as they possibly can, and now all they can do is wait for enough evidence to show up for something they can be sure of getting a conviction with serious jail time for, or the election in about eleven months.

    It’s possible the provincial government will dig up something, but right now the largest city is Canada is stuck with this idiot.

    He does have strong support in the suburbs, but I suspect a lot of that may be less robust than he might imagine, especially once a suburban voter finds themself alone in the polling booth with a ballot listing less-appalling alternatives.

  26. 26.

    the Conster

    OMG, between Pope Francis causing heads to explode and this fucking guy, it’s not a bad way to wean myself from baseball.

  27. 27.

    Felonius Monk

    @MattF:

    . . . Ford will soon move south and renounce his Canadian citizenship.

    And then run for wing-nut senator in Texas.

  29. 29.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    He doesn’t seem to have a shame gene. A person with a healthy, functioning id would have hung himself in his basement by now.

  34. 34.

    danielx

    Ford is sort of out of place as mayor of Toronto. If he was mayor of New Orleans, say, he’d be considered gubernatorial material.

  35. 35.

    srv

    Clearly, Ford needed a bathroom break and that woman tried to body block him.

    I had no idea Canadians were so vicious.

  38. 38.

    Yatsuno

    @srv:

    I had no idea Canadians were so vicious

    “We went to a fight in Toronto, and a hockey game broke out.”

    RedKitteh is rather happy she’s safely ensconced in Nova Scotia.

  39. 39.

    Ash Can

    @Dead Ernest:

    I just hope he doesn’t taint the brand.

    Ford’s brand of anti-authoritarianism was tainted long ago by street-gang taggers, kids who smart off to their parents, and people who stick wads of chewed gum to the undersides of library tables.

  41. 41.

    PurpleGirl

    Canada does have wing-nuts and they are much like us. They also want lower taxes and, I believe, that was one of Ford’s promises to the suburban residents. I have an acquaintance in Western Canada (BC) who thinks American-style medical care would be nice to change to. (Don’t ask, I can’t explain it. She is also a glibertarian.)

  42. 42.

    Sad_Dem

    This is just to say
    I peed in your parking lot.
    Forgive me–
    I was really hammered
    and I really had to pee.

  43. 43.

    Splitting Image

    The main thing that was proven by Ford’s election as mayor is that the dotted line between the US and Canada isn’t as heavy as people sometimes think. Have a look at Ontario on a map, and you’ll notice that the states it borders include Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, all of which elected governors on a platform very similar to Ford’s in 2010.

    Basically the same political trends that put Rick Snyder in charge of Detroit put Rob Ford in charge of Toronto. People who have been calling him the Canadian equivalent of a teabagger are quite correct. John Tory (who would be an Eisenhower Republican if he were an American) ran for mayor in the previous election and was defeated by a more liberal candidate, but a good chunk of the voting public in the suburbs has become much more aggrieved since then.

  46. 46.

    LanceThruster

    “I urinated in a parking lot . . . what does that have to do with anything?”

    Try telling that to the parking lot’s family.

  49. 49.

    Captain C

    Wait a minute…the mayor and his brother are named Rob and Doug? As in, Bob and Doug? It all makes sense; the McKenzie Brothers have taken under Toronto under an alias!

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