A list of things that Rob Ford is not: (1) a mathematician

Municipal affairs reporter John Lorinc gives Rob Ford a math lesson today over at Spacing Toronto. In a recent speech, the mayor claimed that it takes 37 homeowners to pay for a single city employee (you may recall that Ford recently re-defined “gravy” to refer to city employees, rather than swollen expense budgets). Unfortunately for the mayor, his math simply doesn’t add up. After doing his own calculations, Lorinc concludes that “each civil servant costs homeowners just $29,000, and certainly not $90,000.” Of course, Ford is not exactly known for his math skills. We wonder whether the $90,000 figure will become the new $774 million—the product of faulty reasoning, but a powerful rhetorical tool nonetheless. Read the entire story [Spacing Toronto] »