Lots of swearing, association with villains, threats....

Rob Ford is Tony Soprano

That's a desperate stab at glamourisation. Rob Ford is more like Don Cherry or Rod Steiger in In The Heat of the Night; a blowhard who's missed his calling as a small town cop.

Or, according to Martin Short, the lovechild of Chris Farley and Chaz Bono.

A few waspish comments at the start about Canadian politics. The Guardian is interested in Ford........

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...=ILCNETTXT3487

Not a dickie bird about the Canadian PM............

Yes, seeing the story all over now. As DBD said in No.79, the press are more interested in the human interest angle than another country's normal politics.

Just a heads up if you haven't already heard. It'll be worthwhile tuning in to CBC Newsworld's Fifth Estate at 9 pm eastern this evening.

Thanks. CBC app doesn't seem to play in Britain.

Such is the global dominance of things Canadian.

I thought you lived in Canada?

Not at present, as many of my posts would reveal.

That rather explains the cheery disposition.

Ford is mildly entertaining, if the Mayor of Tulsa was on crack he'd be in the paper, when the Mayor of Washington was on crack he was in the paper. The contrast between the pomposity and bombast inherent in being a Mayor and the squalid conduct of the crack smoker makes crack smoking Mayors easy figures of fun.

Harper isn't very interesting, slightly corrupt leaders of minor countries are ten-a-penny. Harper's religiosity and his startling hair catch our attention because he's local but, seen from a distance, he's just another Jimmy Swaggart; there's always another of them.

I suppose the key point here is that no one really notices what happens in Canada unless it has a comedic edge. Ford seems a stereotypical cradle to us because we live here but to an audience who think of Pierre Trudeau as being the embodiment of all things Canadian; cultured, francophone, libidinous. A fat druggy redneck guy comes over as a novelty act.

I do like Ford for poking his finger in the eye of the idea that Canadians are somehow different from the worst Americans.

I hope to god it's not a sex tape.

The previously redacted police evidence is being released this afternoon. Early reports are that it contains police interviews with city staffers alluding to Oxycontin abuse in his office in City Hall, sending staffers out to buy vodka to bring into the office, incidents of sexual harassment of staff, etc etc.

Surely he's got to go if that lot is true. So far he's always managed to maintain he was doing this stuff on his own time. Unsurprisingly, that appears to be some distance from reality...

I think the acts described just cause Ford's constituency to identify more closely with him. Those who are not, at this moment, fat, drunk and leering, wish they were. I note that Ford was on the front page of the Sun this week posing with Don Cherry. I think they sell into the same market. Cherry's a fat man who owns a chain of bars who's made a living from encouraging brawls.

This is what cradle Canada's about, not the wishy-washy liberalism of immigrants and francos.