11.06.2013 10:20 AM

Toronto needs a mayor: …and John Tory isn’t it (updated)

In this fairly extraordinary clip, John seems to be counselling Rob Ford – his theoretical “client” – to not promise to clean up his act.  “Don’t ever say those words.”

That’s bad, bad advice.

UPDATE: The equivocation is winning few admirers, here.

13 Comments

  1. Steven says:

    That would probably go along with the likely legal advice probably given to Rob in May, i.e.:

    RF’s close-to-the scalp haircut immediately after the crack story came out in May. He’s never cut his hair that short since.

  2. sezme says:

    Tory’s dubious council notwithstanding, the golden rule of Ford’s apologies goes like this: He will only apologize for something if he believes it will serve as a cover for something much worse. He denied his drunken benders until the police announced that he’d been recorded smoking crack. Now that he’s associated with an accused extorter, he admits smoking crack. I think I can see where this rabbit hole leads.

  3. dave says:

    Is this whole story making cocaine use a little more acceptable?

  4. Matt says:

    Hair samples for drug testing are taken from the eyebrow, not the head

  5. Matt says:

    Any doctors/addiction specialists here? Just wondering something:

    Ford says he only did it about a year ago, never before and not since saying he not an addict. What little I have heard about crack is that it is pretty addictive stuff.

    Given he claims to have been gooned on alcohol, would that fact he was already intoxicated have hindered or accelerated the absorbtion of the effects of the crack?

    Not trying to make a point, just my own curiosity.

    • sezme says:

      Actually, I don’t think he ever specifically said that he only did crack just that one time. He implied it, but he didn’t say it. Remember how he weaselled out of admitting in May when he claimed he “doesn’t” smoke crack cocaine, and then yesterday claimed that wasn’t a lie because he used the present tense. Moral of that story: never take his implications at face value, let alone his actual words.

  6. Gerry says:

    I just find it a little bit hypocritical that the same folks who are wanting to hang Rob Ford out to dry for smoking crack, had no problem with MP Justin Trudeau admitting to smoking pot while a member of parliament. I don’t live in Rob Ford’s city, so his future means nothing to me….stay or go, no opinion either way. But can someone explain why we have such an unbalanced view of what should happen to politicians who break the law? I’m truly confused. Is there a “this-is-worse-than-that” kind of benchmark that I’m not aware of?

    • W the K - No, not Warren says:

      At about the same time Rob Ford was asked if he smoked pot. His reply was, “Oh yeah, I won’t deny that. I’ve smoked a lot of it.” It was reported but nobody much cared.

      Nice try though.

      • Jen S says:

        There’s also the whole matter of what he did to people who had the audacity to tell the truth. He attempted to steal credibility from extremely able, credible reporters. He and his brother made personal attacks on anyone who publicly stated facts. People – many people – in his office lost jobs and potentially, this will all have long term career repercussions for them. Justin Trudeau’s drag off a joint seems to have impacted no one but Justin Trudeau. Rob Ford has made every effort to take many people down with him.

        This goes far beyond simple use of illicit substances, IMO.

    • Scotian says:

      Let’s not forget the fact that JT was honest and upfront when first questioned about it, whereas Mayor Ford was clearly not. Indeed, for myself I found Ford’s comment regarding he was so drunk he can’t remember when he smoked the crack and implied he only smoked the crack because he was so drunk in the first place to be the more disturbing aspect. I’ve got nothing against a public official having a drink or three and getting mildly to even moderately buzzed, even in public, but they have to keep it to no more than that except in the privacy of their own home, and Ford massively fails that standard on multiple occasions I understand. The idea that any public official should risk the honour of his office with such out of control irresponsible behaviour should trouble everyone regardless of partisanship in my view, it is one thing to get a mild buzz while in public, it is quite another to lose all semblance of control and get totally bombed, that shows a level of irresponsibility that should be unacceptable period, not out of some sort of puritan ideal but out of basic common sense and judgment.

      One of the prices of public office and the power(s) that come with it is the need to retain the ability to judge when to use such power and to not put oneself in a position where one’s actions could leave one open to having that power manipulated by others because you are compromised because of actions taken while so impaired by things including alcohol. That is what makes Ford’s behaviour so egregious and different form JT’s smoking a joint I would argue, especially since while still de jure against the law in reality marijuana has been de facto legalized for some time given the refusal of the courts to prosecute basic possession and private use anymore, while no such situation holds with crack or cocaine more generally. Adding that the Libs now have a formal policy of making marijuana a legal use drug but have no such for cocaine let alone crack cocaine is icing on that cake. I would suggest that is why there is such a fundamental difference in how the two are being treated, and that leaves aside that Ford was a chief executive aka Mayor when he did his wrong while as I understand it JT was still a basic MP, but that is a secondary and not primary consideration in my view.

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