Americans, of course, have a template for the model crack-smoking mayor -- Marion Shepilov Barry, who served as the mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991, and then again from 1995 to 1999. But Rob Ford seriously breaks the scale in terms of pure personal degeneracy. Americans, who tend to think of Canada as a land of very gentle and positive people, probably have to wonder, "How did this walking receptacle of pure, unholy debasement happen to Canada, the place that gave the world Sarah McLachlan?"
Well, when we have questions about Canada, we turn to the lovely people at Huff Post Canada for answers. Here to explain how Rob Ford happened, and what's likely to happen next, is Michael Bolen, news editor of Huffington Post Canada.
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Eat The Press: Most Americans tend to regard Canada as our very mild-mannered and affable neighbor to the North -- the calm raisonneur of North America. And from a tourist's perspective, anyway, Toronto presents itself as an upbeat, modern, cosmopolitan city. I mean, you guys have chip-and-PIN, which is so civilized! So how does a loud, loutish, boor like Rob Ford come to be the city's mayor?
Michael Bolen: Torontonians often ask themselves the same thing. The short answer is: the suburbs. The provincial government (our equivalent of a state government) merged the administration of many of Toronto’s more populous suburbs with the downtown core in the late 1990s. As a result, Toronto now is composed of a red state and a blue state. In 2010, the suburbs voted overwhelmingly for Ford while the core voted overwhelmingly for his rival. Ford is from the 'burbs himself and styled himself as a blue-collar populist who would be lots of fun at your backyard BBQ.
