Rob Ford invites the media to a Christmas party at his mom’s house, and the predictable happens
Don’t ask us how we got this impression, but it seems that Rob Ford sometimes says things without first thinking the consequences through. On Wednesday, for example, he told members of the city hall press gallery that they were "more than welcome" to attend his annual Christmas party. Did he understand that he had just turned his mom’s house into the scene of that night’s leading “news of the weird” story?
The party, a no-recording-devices-allowed event that took place in the basement of Diane Ford‘s massive Etobicoke home, was attended by a pack of journalists, as well as Ford’s friends and staffers. The Sun reports that Ford’s council colleagues mostly rejected the scandal-prone mayor’s invitation. Only three made the trip: Gary Crawford, Frank Di Giorgio and the mayor’s brother, Doug Ford.
Before the mayor’s staffers apparently kicked him out for asking too many questions, Now‘s Jonathan Goldsbie tweeted from the party that the mayor personally led reporters on a tour of the house. Points of interest included the mayor’s childhood bedroom (now an office); another bedroom belonging to his brother, one-time kidnapping suspect Randy Ford; and the home’s massive backyard, where Ford claimed The Tragically Hip had played a concert during their early days as a band.
Some reporters pointedly decided not to attend the party, including the Star‘s Robyn Doolittle, who spent her evening telling all of Twitter why:
She’s referring to this article, in which the Sun‘s Joe Warmington spends hours on a fishing boat with Ford—an opportunity most reporters will never have—and comes away with nothing much.
For a reporter, being a politician’s houseguest is very different than waiting outside his office door. But how else are you going to find out about all the weird decorations in his mom’s rumpus room?
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