Recently, one of my Toronto friends called that city's mayor, Rob Ford, a train wreck. I politely disagreed. Ford is more like a tire fire. Train wrecks tend to be spectacular, but short lived, whereas tire fires tend to be long-lived, difficult to extinguish and produce a lot of smoke and toxic aftereffects.
Such it is with Toronto's Teflon top magistrate. It just keeps getting uglier to the point even many of his supporters are calling for him to step down. Even the notoriously right-wing Toronto Sun, which put its full clout behind Ford's run for mayor in 2010, published an editorial last week saying the mayor "needs to step down. The accompanying poll counted nearly 30,000 votes as of Monday, 66 per cent in favour of Ford resigning. The Globe and Mail's poll showed 80 per cent in favour with just of 26,000 votes.
Of course, website polls are far from scientific, but when you see those kinds of numbers, it seems likely they are probably a fairly reasonable representation of public sentiment.
A scientific Forum Research poll released Friday backed up the Sun's web results with 60 per cent answering that the mayor should resign.
In that same poll, however, Ford's job approval rating actually went up from 39 per cent to 44 per cent.
I find it very encouraging that so many people can still separate an elected official's job performance from his personal life. This has been one source of pride in Canadian politics that separates us from our American and British counterparts. We traditionally don't care much what our politicians do in private as long as it doesn't affect what they do in public.
The problem with Ford is, so much of what he is accused, or suspected, of doing has been a public spectacle. He has become an embarrassment to the great city and a liability to his own cause of fiscal conservatism.
And, judging from the polling numbers, as well as, the media coverage, this is a non-partisan opinion.
Still, the most common defence of Ford from those who still support him, is that he has not yet been convicted of, or even charged with any criminal activity and deserves due process.
It is true he has not been convicted or charged and that every Canadian is guaranteed, under the Constitution, right of due process. And the threshold for being convicted of criminal wrongdoing is "beyond a reasonable doubt."
The fact that he is not facing criminal charges is a pretty good indication the Crown does not believe it has enough evidence to convict him "beyond a reasonable doubt," at least not yet.
But that is in criminal court.
In the court of public opinion, the threshold for conviction is considerably less, even less than in civil court, where it is "on the balance of probabilities."
The long and short of it is that in the court of public opinion, perception is reality. I am not saying that is as it should be. Perhaps we sometimes rush to judgment a little too quickly, but I submit that is not the case with Toronto's mayor.
Let us not forget, that long before the latest substance abuse scandal-which dates to March-Ford has been embroiled in controversy. During the 2010 mayoral campaign, it came out that he had been charged with DUI and marijuana possession in Florida in 1999, the year before he first became a city councillor. When he was questioned about it he lied, then admitted to the DUI, but not the marijuana possession. Then he admitted to that too.
In 2006, he was booted out of a Maple Leafs game for being visibly intoxicated and abusing a couple seated behind him. When confronted, he lied, saying he wasn't even at the game and claimed it was a liberal media "hatchet job," something which has become a very familiar Ford refrain. He later recanted and apologized saying "I'm not perfect," another refrain that has become all too familiar.
Then there was St. Patrick's Day 2012 during which the mayor got hammered, abused a city hall staffer and made racist comments to a cab driver. This past Sunday, on his weekly radio show, he cited this as one of the "mistakes" for which he was sorry singing the same old "I'm not perfect" chorus.
There are other incidents as well, which suggest that far from being not perfect, the mayor is not well.
There have also been numerous complaints of an ethical nature, the most famous of which is his 2010 conflict of interest trial for improperly using city resources in fundraising for his football foundation. The original trial judge ruled against Ford, but that was later overturned in Ontario Superior Court.
Finally there is this latest fiasco, with its alleged crack video in which it is also reported he is heard making racist and homophobic slurs; the shooting death of a man in a picture allegedly related to the video; the furtive meetings with his friend and "occasional driver" who is now charged with drug trafficking; his suspected proximity to, if not involvement with, organized crime; and, of course, the repeated lies, accusations of conspiracy against the media, and the retractions, apologies and admissions of not being perfect.
Taken individually, some of these things may be forgivable, but taken as a whole, they represent a pattern of behaviour for which his remorse is shown to be disingenuous at best.
In a court of law, judges view these patterns as aggravating circumstances and the same should hold true for public opinion.
A leader must engender respect and credibility. In Ford's case, these have been damaged beyond repair whether he dodges criminal liability or not.
I don't live in Toronto so I won't comment on whether he is doing a good job when he's not battling scandal, but it seems Toronto voters still believe in his fiscal management. Unfortunately, if that's what they want, Ford is no longer the man for the job. Even the Sun agrees. For the good of the City, he must step down.
