It's been an interesting day in the City some call the Centre of the Universe.
First documents and other evidence were released showing Ford meeting in clandestine places with a man who was his personal driver, the same man arrested for drug dealing. The police were actually following the drug dealer and guess who shows up! One of the meetings was especially interesting when Ford and his driver both showed up minutes apart at a convenience store, wandered the isles separately ....... but never showed any sign of recognizing each others presence in the store.........and then Ford disappeared in the store bathroom for a while. Did Ford pick up from the shelves more than a bag of Doritos?
Now, the police have uncovered the video.........that's the one Ford said did not exist.......the one showing Ford smoking what 'seems to be' crack cocaine.....in the company of known drug dealers. Police Chief Blair having seen the video said....."I am disappointed".
Tick Tock
Everyone makes mistakes,true, but Ford's not one of them. This has been his personality of getting away with **bleep** his whole life. I have no problem with MJ, but hard drugs is another situation all together. If I had the power, dealers in hard drugs would given an ultimatum.....give it up or we will deal with you with extreme prejudice.
I don't know if Ford is an addict (personally I think he's borderline) but he associated with dealers and I think when more comes out we will find there was a lot more going on behind the scenes than we know now. Ford manages the largest city in Canada and when you're hanging around with drug dealers you make yourself vulnerable to them.
But I totally agree with give him space and let him get his life in order.........but he can do it out of office and........... privately.
There is something wrong in this country when a man is given 30 days in jail for being drunk on an 'e-bike' but the mayor of Toronto gets to stay in office with this evidence against him and senators get off without criminal charges and police get to cover up unnecessary killings.
I was hoping he was going to do something positive but he hasn't. The problem is he's an addict and the first thing an addict does is ......deny he is one. Plus he has got away with things his whole life and he thinks he will get away with this as well. There's not much we can do at this point except watch. It's his family I really feel sorry for and the lessons he is passing on to his children.
I had a call about the 'new' video and I looked it up on the news. Ford just keeps digging himself a bigger hole. I can see someone getting angry and even to this degree, but he's the frikken mayor of the largest city in Canada and one would think by now he would know that everywhere around you has cameras and video phones! Ford may be a good talker and a master manipulator but he's also a fool.
Of course his reasoning is "he was drunk at the time". So lets have a look at the Ford timeline.......drunk in the USA when he was arrested, drunk at football games and hockey games, drunk at a street party, drunk when he when to the jail to look up an old friend who happened to be in lockup for drunk dealing, drunk when he smoked coke, now drunk during this tirade. Anyone see a pattern here?
But this new video it seems comes in two parts and if the part not yet shown shows who he is talking about during his kill rampage, then he could be in even deeper trouble.
Ford has some real, real problems from his personality (the hidden one) to his attitude and his addictions. I feel for his kids and he really needs help.....after he resigns. It also seems that one of his closest confidants has gone to the Provincial government to see what can be done to get Ford out of office for the sake of the city. A desperate move......but these are desperate times.
Should be interesting on the late night shows what the comedy writers come up with today.
"The mayor of New York was a crack addict "
Who was that?
I think he means Marion Barry who was mayor of Washington DC but had been in the New York legislature. He was caught smoking coke with a hooker under police surveillance. I think he served a few months in jail for it. But what does it matter about Barry, or Ford? The bottom line is leaders of our communities, people in authority, should be held to a higher standard and if they can't meet it..........then out they go.
"I think he means Marion Barry"
I figured that out but I was questioning the accuracy of the statement about being the "mayor of New York".
I wish folks from the extreme right would learn to check their facts. It is a constant problem
"The majority voters in Ontario do not worry about the quality of the politicians "
I think it would be fair to state
The majority voters in Canada do not worry about the quality of the politicians
Harper has done more damages in Canada in seven years than McGuinty in ten in Ontario.
Everything and everyone has to be taken on their own merit. Why is it when talking about an obvious 'conservative' politician that suddenly a 'liberal' is brought up? This happens all the time and I can never understand why! If you want to get into it then everyone knows that McGuinty ran, just like Mike Harris ran. Does that create some sort of balance? When it comes to Ford it has nothing to do with political party and all to do with a very troubled man who should not be in office for many, many reasons.
Do voters in Ontario care about the 'quality' of their politicians? I think the better question to be asked is 'do voters in Ontario (even Canada) have any faith in politicians anymore'......and the answer would be "no". Our whole political system needs changing to first of all make politicians accountable and secondly to give the voters more of a chance to participate in decisions from municipal to federal. People simply do not believe they have any real power anymore and they are very wrong about that. This might be the reason that our elections have such a low turnout. Then if you look at the turnout you can divide that up into those who will always vote a certain party and then those who have been taken in by promises and then those who feel they have to vote so they vote not for the politician they want but they vote to keep out another politician from office. Bottom line......we're in a real sad state of affairs when it comes to out political system and the politicians know that and they play on this weakness.
Back to Ford.......I watched a two part video of an interview with Ford's mother and sister (a recovering addict herself). They said the following…..
......”to err is human,to forgive is divine”…
......”the pressure put on him since he was first elected was not fair”
… ”he goes to work every single day”
…..”he was at every parade” (well not quite)
…..”he has the strength of character he came out and admitted it, do you know strength it took to say that” (they seem to forget the
countless weeks he denied the videos until he couldn’t anymore)
……”he couldn’t function if he was a drug addict” (how wrong she is)
….interviewer “is he an alcoholic”? Sister…”it depends what you want to consider an alcoholic”.
.... Ford's mother....“He does have a problem, he’s got a weight problem,” she said. “He’s got a huge weight problem, and I think that is the first thing he has to attack.”
Not one mention of the city, the people, or how all this has had a national and even world wide effect on both. It's all about their son and brother.
If anyone ever needed to understand Rob Ford, this video shows the foundations from which he came. It's all constant approval, minimizing whenever he's done something wrong and blaming others. It still continues to this day.
Is booze legal? Obviously yes, but as an alcoholic I have my views about the devastating effect of liquor on both individuals, families and society in general. But I would not want an alcoholic mayor of a city, or in any position of authority. Add hard addictive drugs to that equation, then being invested into the criminal world and the dealers themselves......... and you have a real problem.
Anyone who hasn't watch the Fifth Estate .... ''Rob Ford crack video hunt drew threats, offers of cash'' ..... should watch it. Do a simple Google search and the full TV report is there.
