Call Toronto City Councillor Doug Ford an optimist.
Ford says his brother Mayor Rob Ford’s crack cocaine scandal hasn’t impacted Toronto’s reputation for the worse — instead, he says the city is actually booming.
“Matter of fact, good or bad, it has put Toronto on the map,” Ford told SiriusXM radio host Arlene Bynon on Thursday, as quoted by the Toronto Star.
Ford, who also functions as his brother’s campaign manager, told the radio station that the city is expanding construction projects and experiencing record tourism.
“They say, ‘well, it’s embarrassing, it’s hurting the city’ — well, a lot of cities wish they were in the same shape as Toronto is,” he said, as quoted by the Star.
The newspaper pointed out that Ford was only correct on one of those points. Toronto is setting tourism records, but there’s not quite as much construction going on in the city as he claims.
Despite being stripped of many of his powers by the City Council for admitting to smoking crack cocaine in one of his “drunken stupors,” Rob Ford filed to run for re-election last month.
