Rob Ford Crack-o-Meter: more staffers quit and the mayor has a lookalike named Slurpy

Rob Ford Crack-o-Meter: more staffers quit and the mayor has a lookalike named Slurpy

Rob Ford has skated through some humiliating situations and emerged relatively unscathed. The crack-smoking scandal, though, has ratcheted the ridiculousity to new highs. Every day brings more bad news. So far, Ford has kept his cool (more or less), but we have to wonder if—or when—he’s going to crack. Here, our daily assessment of what’s going on with our infamous mayor.

 Two more Ford staffers quit (Pressure: )
Council relations advisor Brian Johnston and executive assistant Kia Nejatian are the two latest Ford employees to quit, dropping the mayor’s staff count by five in just seven days. The desperation within Team Ford is starting to show: an official statement about the pair’s departures ended with what sounded like a call for applications.

• Ford flubs another press conference (↑)
In a late-afternoon presser, Ford continued to pretend his staff are leaving because they’re all suddenly raring to seize new opportunities. He added that “things are doing great and we’re doing fine” and emphasized that he’s not stepping aside. He showed a small amount of progress by agreeing to take reporters’ questions—but then refused to answer any he didn’t like.

• Support among gang members is strong (↓)
The National Post visited the apartment where the crack video was rumoured to be stashed. There, reporters found out that Ford’s fans in the neighbourhood had hoped to descredit the real video by disseminating a fake starring a Rob Ford lookalike named “Slurpy.” We’re not making this up.

• Kathleen Wynne makes noise about getting involved (↑)
Premier Kathleen Wynne has been largely laissez-faire about Crackgate. Yesterday, though, her attitude seemed to shift. Now she’s “worried” about the situation at city hall and, “as appropriate, we will be involved” (though what exactly she can do isn’t clear). Meanwhile, councillor Josh Matlow was less cagy about what needs to be done.

• The demands for Ford’s resignation are getting louder (↑)
A concerned citizen has set up a Facebook event asking Torontonians to meet at Old City Hall at noon tomorrow to make a lot of noise, leave messages in chalk an urge people to sign a petition asking Ford to step down. The RSVP count is at 3,500 and rising.

• Ford gets smacked down, Shakespeare-style (↑)
New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik compares Ford to one of the bard’s most enduring characters—and it’s not a compliment.  

Crack Threat Level: HIGH—and getting higher

(Images: Rob Ford, Christopher Drost; meter, Scott Akermann)