Yes, I’ve done crack but T.O.’s in the black — why should I go, go, go?
The press thinks I should resign, but brother Dougie thinks I’m fine
They’re trying to make me go to rehab but I won’t go, go, go
(With apologies to Amy Winehouse)
As far back as July, journalists were referring to Toronto Mayor Rob Ford as the Amy Winehouse of Canadian politics. Ottawa Citizen columnist Andrew Potter drew the following parallel with the late singer, whose life became one long battle against substance abuse: “The worse things get, the more you spiral down, the more your so-called supporters cheer you on and tell you that is exactly how you are supposed to behave.”
Potter argued that Ford’s supporters, like Winehouse’s fans, are enablers — loving their idols because of their bad behaviour, not in spite of it, leaving them with little incentive to change.
Fast-forward to the insanity of the past week, culminating in the release of a video showing Ford ranting and screaming and threatening to kill someone. Despite all of Ford’s bad behaviour, the citizens of Ford Nation stand by their man — and would even re-elect him in 2014.
With regard to this latest video, some people — including Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly — are defending Ford by drawing a line between public and private. Everyone behaves differently behind closed doors, they say, and it’s not fair to judge people by moments when they may have let their guard down.
This is true — but those are also the moments when a person’s true character is revealed. Strip away the public mask — and in Ford’s case, the self-pitying contrition — and what you see is ugliness and rage.
Politicians are far from perfect. They, like anyone else, can have tempers. They can yell and swear and say outrageous things, particularly to their subordinates. I have seen this firsthand, working at Queen’s Park, where a minister crumpled up a note he didn’t like and threw it at my head. In too many offices, terrorizing staff went with the territory.
Politicians can go on drunken benders and still govern well. This is nothing new. Think of Prime Minister John A. MacDonald, who would disappear for days at a time. And British Prime Minister Winston Churchill — who, when MP Bessie Braddock upbraided him for being drunk, famously retorted, “Madam you are ugly. In the morning I shall be sober.” No one suggested that either of them take a leave and go to AA.
But with all due respect to Rob Ford, he ain’t MacDonald or Churchill. He certainly isn’t the law-abiding taxpayer he pretends to represent. In this video, and increasingly in public, he comes across as a sneering bully, throwing his weight around, totally above the law, daring people to take him on. The media, the commies, the guy he wants to kill till he is f***ing dead — there is no shortage of enemies Ford likes to fight.
That’s because Ford needs enemies. They give him purpose. They also energize his followers. The right-leaning members of Ford Nation defend him because they’d rather have a drunk, lying, crack-smoking conservative as their mayor than a teetotalling lefty who would raise their taxes and proclaim an annual Car Free Day.
For a second, I can agree with them. Then I realize what I just said, and take it back. For if that’s the standard to which conservatives hold themselves, it is pathetic. It implies that there are so few capable standard-bearers for the right that one has to stoop to someone who consumes illegal substances, consorts with criminals and spends his workday exchanging envelopes in parking lots.
It’s also a double-standard. If Ford were on the other side of the political fence, the right would be all over him demanding his resignation. (Bill Clinton’s bimbo eruptions, anyone?)
At this point,
there is no point in telling Ford to resign or take a leave and go to
rehab. He is not listening to anyone offering this advice. His mother
and sister took to the airwaves to say that he should lose weight and
see a psychologist – but deny that he has an addiction problem. Diane
Ford said that “If he was really, really in dire straits…I would be the
first one, I’d put him in my car and I would be taking him…He isn’t
there.”
Really? Next week, Toronto City Council will hear a motion asking the
province to pass a law to strip Ford of his office. The police will
continue their investigation. And at some point in the future, this sad
circus, and Ford’s roller coaster of a political career, will mercifully
end.
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