Potential Ford win inspires emergency contingency plans, witty tweets

Potential Ford win inspires emergency contingency plans, witty tweets

Bright flight: Twitter users mull leaving a Ford-led Toronto (Image: Rémi Carreiro)

The news that Rob Ford—statesman, mayoral wannabe, Palinesque councillor—is now polling as well as lackadaisical front runner George Smitherman has some Torontonians reconsidering the livability of the city should Mr. Ford actually win. David Topping, editor-in-chief of Torontoist, has suggested a new Twitter hashtag to describe the phenomenon of people moving instead of living in a city run by the cost-cutter: #FordEscape.

We love that people are able to find humour in this situation. And we love the random tweets about actual Ford Escapes that are mingling with the complaints about Rob Ford. But isn’t there already a word for this beat-a-path-to-the-border phenomenon? The flight of human capital? Something to do with brains and drains?