Football and Ford’s Folly

10 December 2011. Rob Ford in his cameo as a Cannon Doll at the debut of the National Ballet’s The Nutcracker. Photos Keith Beaty.

Football finals dominated Canadian news last weekend as the country’s two most important championship games were played indoors at Toronto’s Rogers Stadium.

The country’s top university teams played for the Vanier Cup… with Hamilton’s McMaster Marauders playing as defending champions and going into the game with an unbroken record of 21 consecutive wins. Their arch-enemy, the team they beat last year, the Rouge et Or from Laval University trounced them soundly.

Then Sunday, the winners of the CFL Eastern and Western conferences played the 100th Grey Cup championship. The Toronto Argonauts beat the Calgary Stampeders.

So it came as a real surprise when this morning’s top story in the local papers ignored football… old news gone stale… and featured screaming headlines about Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

So, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been given the boot from office because an opportunistic citizen hired a smart and politically savvy lawyer who found a club of an arcane statute with which to tie the hands of a judge who was willing to play ball.

That’s the short and dirty version of the bombshell that has dropped.

There was “absolutely no issue of corruption or pecuniary gain” on Ford’s part, Ontario Superior Court Judge Charles Hackland wrote in a decision released Monday.

from The Vancouver Sun

The very interesting thing is that the monetary amount of Ford’s indiscretion was small, and that he was undone by his arrogant assumption that he was untouchable, able to call his own shots, do as he pleased. There were so many scandals, but none of them huge. He will appeal of course. He has often shown his quick temper and contempt for others… so he won’t go down without a fight. It will be interesting.

From the Hamilton Spectator.

From The Globe and Mail.

From The Huffington Post.