Allegations of Toronto mayor Rob Ford being filmed smoking crack cocaine have apparently had little impact on his popularity—Ford is just as unpopular now as he was before the scandal broke. Even though Ford originally won election in a landslide and made strides as an effective populist, Torontonians haven’t been too keen on their mayor for some time.
According to a poll released Sunday, Toronto residents favor Olivia Chow, a member of the Canadian House of Commons, over Ford in a match-up, 56-36 percent. The good news for Ford is, they disliked him just as much in a poll conducted by the same outfit on May 10, before news of the nefarious video was published.
But more news in the saga has been cropping up since Sunday: Police interviewed one of Ford’s senior staffers about a potential connection between the video and a local homicide; the Globe and Mail detailed Ford’s family’s ties to drug dealing after an 18-month investigation; Ford’s press secretary and his assistant resigned on Monday; and Gawker surpassed its $200,000 “Crackstarter” campaign goal to buy the video, but hasn’t been able to contact the video’s owner. So we’ll see if Ford can maintain his Teflon Don status as we follow Canadian news outlets further down the rabbit hole.
