His annual barbecue attracted a who’s who of the right wing in Canada. Longtime family friend and federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty attends every year. Provincial Tory leader Tim Hudak has made an appearance and even Prime Minister Stephen Harper showed up, musing publicly about completing a conservative hat trick in municipal, provincial and federal governments.
But conservatives of all stripes have been keeping their distance since the Star first reported that Ford appeared in a video recorded on a smartphone, seemingly smoking crack, calling federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau a “fag” and saying the football players he coached at Don Bosco were “just f---ing minorities.”
Former provincial finance minister Dwight Duncan, a Liberal who stepped down in February, seemed to take delight in the situation, tweeting Wednesday, “So do you think Harper and Hudak will be doing a summer BBQ with the Fords again this year?”
On a trade tour in South America, Harper — who has been occupied with a scandal of his own involving Senate expenses in Ottawa — refused to comment on the video through his spokesperson Carl Vallee.
The same goes for Hudak, who, when asked if his party was being tainted by the Ford debacle, said, “There is a controversy that I know has consumed media, with the mayor and the allegations . . . I have nothing to add to this debate.”
Flaherty, who served in the provincial government under Mike Harris with Ford’s father and enthusiastically endorsed the younger Ford during his mayoral campaign, has also steered clear.
“We have no comment on this situation,” wrote his press secretary, Kathleen Perchaluk, in an email Wednesday.
Despite the cold shoulders, political analysts don’t see the scandal contaminating the entire Tory brand.
“It if was true that Rob Ford smokes crack . . . I think this is a lot more likely to play out as a personal tragedy with political consequences to the mayor than some sort of broader contagion,” said pollster and political strategist Greg Lyle.
“It’s not political. It truly is Shakespearean, if it’s true. It’s really on the scale of Hamlet or Macbeth or any of these people who explored the deep, dark recesses of their soul,” said Lyle, who has worked with both the Liberal and Conservative parties.
“What is it that drives someone who is at the top of the political ladder . . . to at that point of success hang out in the back of a car with a couple of drug dealers and smoke crack? It’s just beyond comprehension.”
Lyle compares the situation to the personal behaviour scandals that pushed BC MP Svend Robinson and New York Governor Eliot Spitzer out of office. “It’s actually exactly the same thing. We’re talking literally about personal sin: smoking drugs, dealing with prostitutes. It’s about behaviour that is personally unethical and personally damaging, but not misusing public office,” he said.
Conservative strategists agree. “What Ford may or may not have done in his own time is only relevant to others if they knew about it — and there’s absolutely no suggestion they did,” said Chris Eby, a senior consultant with the Toronto communications firm Navigator.
“Understandably, they have all taken pains not to comment about it, because the situation and the way Ford has handled it is toxic and they don’t want it to rub off,” said the former Conservative party staffer.
The one exception, Eby says, is Ford’s brother Doug, who mounted an enthusiastic defense of his brother’s political record Wednesday.
Because of his close relationship to Rob Ford, he is at greater risk of being tainted by the scandal, which could upset his plans to seek a seat in the next provincial election.
Standing up for his brother, however, “will likely play well,” Eby said.
Nevertheless, the provincial Conservatives haven’t ruled him out. Hudak confirmed Doug Ford remains a potential candidate for the Progressive Conservatives for Etobicoke North in the next election.
“The door is still open,” he said.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Marco Chown Oved
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