Toronto's Notoriety

Toronto The Good no longer. Choose a no-goodnik mayor and that's what happens. It hasn't been the first time that Torontonians have been zany enough to elect, and more than once, a mayor who was fairly wacko; there was Mel Lastman and in his time as mayor one could be forgiven for thinking that Toronto had hit rock-bottom. He garnered his very own share of gasping headlines between his antics and those of his wife.

But Mayor Rob Ford is in a class all of his very own. And just as Mayor Lastman was elected and re-elected, so too would Torontonians, despite the inglorious basterd that Mr. Ford turned out to be, re-elect him, given the opportunity, according to polls identifying the loyalty of "Ford Nation", heaven help us all. People who think of him as a ordinary person with a good heart and a canny political eye, but hindered by a few excusable faults similar to those that many others grapple with.

Mayor Rob Ford watches TV coverage after documents were released on Dec. 4, 2013. (Michael Peake/Toronto Sun)

It's questionable whether these people fully weigh the gravity of the absurdities committed by the man. They like the swaggering bully that they see, and they relate to him as a man who will not back down from his 'unfair' detractors who are just slavering at the opportunity to swing those left-wingers back into the mayor's office, so they can spend, spend, spend the poor taxpayer's money needlessly, flagrantly.

As though the pick-pocket mindlessness of the provincial Liberals isn't taxing enough.

One can recognize that with some sympathy. But consider the man; a lewd loud-mouth, a blustering fool of a man, spoiling for a juvenile show-down with those whose views of his actions and his character he resents, though his own mother must shrink in dismay at the very sight of his overwhelming stupidity. She has allegedly called upon him to seek medical help.

That might help with his drug and alcohol addictions, but won't do a thing for his incurable terminal stupidity, alas. And one can throw his brother in to make it a double-special. Consorting with known criminals and obvious low-lifes, including drug pushers and special-category prostitutes, all of whom prey on society and conduct themselves as entitled to their way of life, as predators living off city welfare.

The police investigation into the activities of members of the Dixon City Bloods where monitoring of the cellphones of 59 "principal known persons", revealed so many references to Mayor Ford it would have been impossible for investigators to bypass the obvious links and the less obvious but perceived criminal activities of the Toronto mayor.

Rob Ford's public displays of boorishness, his sexist behavior, and his errant public drunkenness has done much to put Toronto on the celebrity map. With every new revelation about his incredibly inane behaviour and his associations, gossip columns, Twitter comments, TV talk show hosts and comedians find more than ample material to feed the public hunger for conspicuous idiocy.