comics

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Monday May 7, 2012

Rob Ford versus the Toronto Star

The great thing about Toronto is how sophisticated it is. A World Class, big league city, as it continually reminds itself, right up there with New York, London and Paris. Major league. So-o-o-o-o cosmopolitan. Hip and cool. Celebrities come here all the time.

So here’s what’s going on in the New Paris right now: The mayor and the city’s biggest newspaper are having a feud. It actually started well before the mayor, Rob Ford, won the last election, when The Toronto Star did everything it could to defeat him, based on their contention that he’s an ignoramus. Ford won anyway and The Star, sulking, has spent much of its time since then lampooning his weight. Yes, the newspaper that’s all about human dignity and respect for the individual can’t shut up about the fact the mayor weighs 300 pounds.

Ford, figuring The Star’s never going to give him a fair hearing anyway, refuses to talk to them. Everything gets very childish, with The Star constantly moaning about being shut out of the communications loop. It’s all about freedom of the press and the mayor’s responsibility to represent all voters, not just those he likes, or the ones who voted for him. They take every opportunity to belittle him, and he gives them lots of material to work with, making a big show of refusing to attend the annual gay pride parade, and treating council like a rubber stamp until its members get fed up and rebel against him, shooting down his cherished plan to expand the subway system.

The Star isn’t satisfied with attacking the mayor’s political record, though. They want to go at him personally. They send a reporter up to snoop around his cottage, because he said he’d prefer to be there rather than at the gay pride parade. When he applies to buy some park land near his house so he can build a security fence, they send a reporter to sniff around the neighbourhood and take pictures.(Source: National Post)