Back in August, Toronto Mayor Rob "Laughable Bumblefuck" Ford was caught smoking crack. Now he's been caught lying about smoking crack — and smearing his critics with still more lies, and his fixer/drug dealer has been charged with extortion in the attempt to suppress the evidence.
So, naturally, his approval rating is up.
The old city of Toronto — a political boundary that was abolished by Conservative premier Mike Harris in 1998 — still hates Ford; he barely registers there. But the city's surrounding suburban sprawl is has a large cohort of foolish people who are only too delighted to cram their lying, drunken, stoned, incompetent top choice down the city's throat.
Toronto doesn't have the government it deserves: it has the government its worst neighbours deserve.
The poll found that 44 per cent of voters approve of the job Rob Ford is doing as mayor, while an Oct. 28 poll found that just 39 per cent approved.
"That may sound counterintuitive. It could be a sampling, margin-of-error thing, or it could be just some sympathy," said Lorne Bozinoff, president of Forum Research. "If you saw him during that media scrum yesterday, it might have generated some sympathy."
Ford has been bolstered by a seemingly unshakeable core group of supporters known colloquially as the Ford Nation. Ford's high approval rating comes despite an "unbelievable" awareness of the video scandal, with 98 per cent of respondents saying they were aware of the news.
Mayor Rob Ford's approval rating ticks upward with news of crack video [Tim Alamenciak/Toronto Star]
(Image: Robbo Mills)
