The wayward mayor of Ontario’s largest city has become quite the media sensation of late, with story after story breaking concerning the mayors escapades. He has skyrocketed in public light internationally in the same way that most politicians tend to; by being a colossal fuck-up. Yet despite his political staff resigning, and the storm of legal proceedings, the constant media barrage seems to have only strengthened his hold on the public’s attention. We as a populace have given up all our political pretenses and have begun to watch him as we would any other media sensation in one of those terminal downward spirals (a,la Lindsay Lohan).
After admitting to smoking crack in a “drunken stupor”, drinking and driving, commenting on his wife’s ample genitalia, among many other inappropriate incidents, all of the attention on Ford has been focused on his status as a “celebrity” rather than a politician. Efforts have been made by the mayor, and his publicity team, to salvage his credibility and relationship with the city of Toronto (see Rob Ford bobble heads). However, these efforts could not overshadow the immense re-purposing of the mayor’s outrageous statements of actions.
Examples of this can be found through:
the media
as well as new media, just to name a few.
While these parodies are amusing, they are a detriment to Toronto’s image, and consequently the Canadian, political system. Rob Ford has diminished almost all of Toronto’s credibility as a reputable capitol city.
-Lily Maase, Cedar Leithead, Kira Anderson
ontariomediainteractive 