Four lies Rob Ford told within minutes of officially launching his mayoral campaign

Four lies Rob Ford told within minutes of officially launching his mayoral campaign

(Image: Christopher Drost)

Rob Ford’s 2014 mayoral campaign got off to an official start this morning, and things seem to be progressing quickly. It took the mayor just a few minutes to make good on his campaign promise to “continue doing what I’ve been doing”—he uttered some of his first falsehoods of 2014. Here they are, as reported by the Star, the Globe, the Post and the Sun.

1. He declared himself “the best mayor that this city has ever had.”
This isn’t a lie, exactly. It has more in common with lazy marketing—sort of like when a run-down restaurant has a sun-stained “best pizza in town” sign propped up in one of its windows.

2. He claimed that he has saved the city “a billion dollars.”
Rob Ford and his brother love repeating this, but, as the Star‘s Daniel Dale and others have pointed out, it just isn’t true. The billion-dollar claim is based on all kinds of creative math and flawed assumptions. The Ford administration’s actual savings over the past three years amount to hundreds of millions of dollars less.

3. He said he has the best attendance record on council.
In fact, his attendance record is merely so-so.

4. He claimed to have delivered “a lower tax increase than 2 per cent over four years.”
Last year’s property-tax increase was 2.5 per cent. Details!