Sometimes you have to eat your words. We said the other day that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford would not accept the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. He did—on his terms. With not so much as addressing the cause he was supposedly supporting, Ford pulled a number on the Toronto news media.
As someone who has supplied the Toronto media with background, articles and news releases over many years, you are sometimes amazed at how gullible the media can be. Rob Ford could pass wind and the Toronto media would want to report it. Mind you the Toronto Star would complain that it was the cause of air pollution while the Sun would comment on the smell.
While we refuse to waste time on whatever social media is hot this week, no doubt you can see Rob Ford there getting some water poured over him. Big deal. It is nothing but another cheap advertisement for Ford’s re-election campaign. It stars Tie Domi of former Toronto hockey fame, Doug Ford of former Toronto council fame and Toronto’s soon to be former mayor.
Instead of his usual suit and tie and ill-fitting dress shirt, the mayor is decked out in a warm-up suit. The event is outdoors somewhere and on the wall behind is a large sign promoting the fiction of Ford Nation. The mayor’s brother Doug and friend Tie lift what looks like a plastic cask with some water in it and covered with signs suggesting viewers re-elect Mayor Ford. We did not see any ice cubes. He does not appear to be very wet or particularly cold afterwards.
It seems the mayor missed the point. This bucket business is not about him. It is about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Rob Ford probably cannot even pronounce that. Maybe he can say ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Solving the mystery of that disease is far more important than Mr. Ford’s hopeless attempt at re-election.
We do hope though that he remembered to send in $100 or more to the Canadian ALS Society. The campaign to solve ALS is very important. Some day, there will be a solution. Re-electing Rob Ford as mayor of Toronto is much less likely.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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