14 DAY TRIAL // Rob Ford, the mayor of Toronto, Canada, has been dubbed “Crack Mayor” after a series of very embarrassing and intensely mediated incidents that have brought disgrace to the office and, just this week, saw him stripped of all his Mayoral powers. He’s not backing down though.
Ford, whose most recent antics would best befit a rock star than a politician, has admitted to smoking crack cocaine, was filmed on a drunken and very foul-mouthed fit of rage, and has even managed to knock over a female councilor while getting into a verbal dispute at a recent Council Meeting.
Speaking with Matt Lauer for The Today Show, Ford and his brother Councilman Doug Ford insist that all the good he’s done for the city of Toronto far outweighs the scandal he’s also gotten himself involved in. This is why he’s determined to run for Mayor again and he’s even convinced that he’ll win.
As he puts it, his antics are nothing but the kind of shortcomings we all have: he just happens to be in the public eye, which means his are portrayed as more serious than ours.
“We've all made mistakes, Matt. I'm not perfect. Maybe you are. Maybe other people are. I've made mistakes – I admitted to my mistakes,” Ford tells Lauer.
He insists he doesn’t have a drug or alcohol problem, but he owns up to having a weight issue, for which he’s already sought help by hiring a personal trainer and a nutritionist. All that Ford wants from Matt is 5 months’ time to show him that he’s a good Mayor.
Pressed on the topic of his occasional “binges” (which his brother tries to play down as being not quite binges, but close) and how he’d react in the case of an emergency if he was under the influence, Ford gets defensive and tries to turn the tables on Lauer.
As you can see in the video, Matt arrived to the question after Ford admitted he didn’t even remember smoking crack cocaine because he was too “inebriated,” asking to see the video that proved it.
“That could happen with anybody at any time. Say you had gone out drinking and you were drunk and something happened to your family...,” he argues. However, Lauer is having none of that, replying that “the lives of a million people don't rest on my decisions.”
Still, Rob Ford thinks he’s a good Mayor and he wants the people to confirm it for him. So, he’s running again for office on October 27.