Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Toronto Mike'd #38

Episode Date: May 22, 2013

Mike and Monica chat about the latest Rob Ford scandal, what makes a Facebook friend and the Leafs collapse.

Welcome to the 38th episode of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. I'm Mike from TorontoMic.com. Joining me is Monica from the In Her Shoes podcast. And hosting this audio file are the good people at Core Fusion. And hosting this audio file are the good people at Core Fusion. Welcome babe to your first episode of Toronto Mic'd. Thank you, thank you for having me. Well you were conveniently nearby. So you had no other choice.

Well let me tell everybody what happened. So Rosie was supposed to come and record at 1.30pm, and I don't know what time it was, but 1.45pm, I noticed she was awfully late. So, I got my phone to see if there was a message from her, and there was no message from Rosie. So I phoned her, but the call would not complete. It would say dialing, but this call would not actually terminate. What's the terminology I'm looking for? You're smart. You're a technical writer. It would not... Resolve.

The call wouldn't go through. So I... Ran downstairs. I ran downstairs. Maybe Rosie's waiting for me down there. I ran. And meanwhile, while I'm running, I'm restarting my phone. When the phone comes back on, I'm able to make a call. I call Rosie.

Rosie, where are you? I thought you were leaving at one. And then she says something like, I have a 2.30 appointment. I'm almost home. And I said, what are you doing almost home? And she said, what are you talking about? And then we had this moment where she had left me text messages and phone messages

that she was here at the Toronto Mic Studios. And I did not know my phone had crashed. So I had no way to get these text messages or phone messages. Yeah, that's frustrating. I know. And I said, well, why didn't you come in and knock? And she says, well, she never does that. She always calls and I always answer. And then I and i said well why didn't you come in and knock and she says well she never does that she always calls and i always answer and then i said

well why don't you send me an email and she said well i sent you a text so it was like this it was too late by then perfect storm of technology errors so one device went down and it messed up her recording of episode 38 when the clock hit hit 1.30, I was thinking, well, you told me you told her to take a different route today. I told her to take the highway. And I thought, Rosie's never going to listen to your directions anymore because it's been half an hour, and she's not here yet. I just assumed she left late because she's a very busy woman.

Anyways, I looked around, and I realized we need to record. We didn't record last week. And with this Rob Ford situation, we needed a Toronto Mic'd episode. And you were just sitting at the table. And I said, well, Monica can talk. So should we tell everybody how we know each other? How do you know me? We're engaged.

Oh, my goodness. So you're going to be Mrs. boone in like a couple weeks are you excited i'm excited i'm a bit anxious because there's still a lot to do do you want to call it off it's not too late no we've come this far you've invested too much time and energy and money yeah so you're going through with it yeah i have to so you're originally from Edmonton. Right. Born and raised. And you moved to Toronto as an adult. Right.

Or GTA, we'll just say. Right. Mississauga. I really like Mississauga. And here you are stuck in Toronto with Toronto Mag. I'm sorry. So please tell me, as somebody who is not from Toronto, what do you think of this Rob Ford situation? I think the whole thing is ridiculous. I've been sort of in the dark about Toronto politics just because...

Because it's typically boring, right? Because I like hazel. Yeah, so you don't have a vote, you don't pay taxes so sure anything interesting i would my ears are perk up and i would pay attention for a little bit but i wouldn't care to to a certain extent but this story going on now it's it's ridiculous i can't believe well you could you could start the story if you want so i can't imagine anyone listening doesn't know, but in one sentence, I would just say three journalists from two different publications have watched a video that allegedly shows Rob Ford smoking crack and calling Justin Trudeau a fag and calling the students at Don Bosco just, pardon my French, just fucking minorities. And this video has been described in great detail, particularly by the two reporters, Robin Doolittle and Kevin Donovan at the Toronto Star. Right.

So from what I know, he has not made a statement. Well, I think he said it was ridiculous, but past that, he hasn't denied it. Yeah, I'm all over this, babe. I got it down. So, Thursday night, Gawker breaks this story. Right. And then just before midnight, the Toronto Star publishes their story. Friday, Rob Ford says,

it's ridiculous. Just another example of the Toronto Star out to get me. And that's all he said in six days. But how can he ignore the whole Gawker story? I mean, they introduced the story first. Two things. One is, every time he blames the Toronto Star, he thinks we're stupid,

that we don't know that another publication is claiming they saw the same video. Secondly, saying the Star is out to get him, it's now we're in some weird kind of psycho conspiracy shit where he thinks this Canada's largest newspaper with two reporters who I've been following for a while now,

and to be honest, Kevin Donovan particularly, but even Robin Doolittle, who's younger and has a shorter career, chock full of integrity. These people are just, quite simply, they are not lying. Have those two reporters written lots of stories about Rob Ford in the past? Not too many. They did write the one about him being drunk at that ball.

Oh, that was them? That was them. Oh, okay. Yeah, and prior to that, Kevin Donovan's got a pretty good resume of breaking quite big stories, like the Orange Scandal and other such stories. Honestly, and I have a friend who's good friends with him

and knows him personally. This man is chock full of integrity. He's an excellent reporter. He's quite simply not going to publish this story. And I've heard him on various radio stations, and I've seen him on CBC television being interviewed. He quite simply is being very honest about what he saw, and he believes it to be Rob Ford.

It looks like Rob Ford. It sounds like Rob Ford. He had seen a lot of footage of Rob Ford. So in his mind, in these three reporters' minds, this is definitely Rob Ford on this video. Yeah, well, they haven't made the claim that it is, but they're describing what they saw in the video and they believe it to be him.

What they can't do is they can't authenticate the video because, of course, they're only watching it three times each. The Gawker guy maybe once, but the Toronto Star reporter saw it three times each, took notes separately. He took good notes. Good notes, very good notes, and clarified a lot of things that Gawker had said.

Like Gawker, a lot of that was cleared up by the Toronto Star. I had this chat with Freddie P today. Essentially, the Ford Nation is holding on to this nugget that this is a fake video. I work in digital marketing. I'm in this digital realm every day, all day long. It's one thing to Photoshop a picture. I can do a pretty good job of putting myself

in the battle of Normandy. Like I can do a pretty good job of putting myself in a picture with Photoshop and you're pretty good at Photoshop too. It's a whole different story when it's a 90 second well-lit video trying to get that to look and sound like rob board and fool these three reporters in a 90 second well-lit video i'm telling you it's very hard for professional expensive organizations to pull

that off yeah it would be interesting to see the video but i think um what from what these reporters described that's enough evidence for me me too i don't feel a need to uh you should tell everybody i don't tell you what to think like your these are your thoughts and you are free to think what you want and we don't always agree on everything no not everything so we do agree on this that what baffles me is not so what baffles me the most is the six days since this story broke and the complete lack of a strong statement from rob ford mayor of toronto and he's i've seen a lot of video because he's going to work and he's being confronted and of course not just the toronto star i saw ctv's austin delaney on him and I saw Cam Woolley from CP24.

I mean, I've seen non-Toronto Star reporters asking the questions we're all asking. Mayor Ford, did you smoke crack? Did you do cavort with the drug dealers at Kipling and Dixon? Do you think this video's fake? Because there's no denying the video exists so your only sliver of hope and from ford nation is that this is a fake video which to be honest i

can't imagine i would be blown away if that's a fake video uh rob ford one way or the other has to say he has to stand up and say look and look into the camera and say i have a problem i'm going to get help and that's the move that would probably get him the most sympathy. Or he can say, I don't smoke crack. This is a conspiracy against me. This 90 second well-lit video is not me. So why do you think he's taking so long? I think he thinks in previous scandals,

because there's been many with this mayor, he has played the strategy of waiting it out until people get bored of it. It's really only been the star on him, because a lot of the other publications seem to give him a free pass that most politicians are not entitled to. And the Ford, people like Freddie P will say the Ford is out to get him, but I actually see it as the Ford is the only publication with balls to do their job. I'm always disappointed when I see other publications like The Globe or The Post or The Toronto Sun, which might as well be owned by the Ford brothers, basically failing to do proper reporting

on the 62 missed steps by our mayor. And I think his strategy here is to do what he's always done, which is wait it out until it sort of disappears. And thinks his base I don't think he'll disappear no and I think he thinks his base is bigger than it is he's probably got like a 30 base that will forgive him for murder and they're probably going to vote for him just because they're going to vote for Rob Ford and they hate anything lefty and pinko and all that nonsense but But, I mean, that's 30%. If there's a viable candidate, they should get more than 30%. I mean, Rob Ford won handedly with 48% in 2010. Downtown was overwhelmingly for George Smitherman,

and then the rest of the votes were split amongst a bunch of candidates. This time, Rob Ford will not do his 48%. He might get that 30%, but he's very beatable with his 30% base that will follow him to hell. Yeah. Well, we'll see what happens. Today we had a little statement from Doug,

his brother, who basically said, I believe my brother. Leave him alone. Is that what he said? I thought he said he supports his brother. He says, no, he says, I believe my brother. I'm pretty sure he said that. He said, my my brother says it's not him and I believe him. And he said, my brother's a good mayor? Yeah, he said his brother's a good mayor and works harder than any mayor.

And the one thing I'll say about the mayor is no one in the history of Toronto politics has ever been so accessible via his personal phone number. That is one thing. Today, he was at the funeral for Worthington from the Toronto Sun handing out his phone number on magnets. I think that makes him a good counselor, I think. It makes him a good something. It makes him a lousy mayor.

He's a rep of some sort. Yeah. He'd be a good advocate. He's in the wrong job, is what I think. I think so. Absolutely. But I don't know enough to make a conclusion. And I want to say't know enough to make a conclusion. And I want to say two more things on the Rob Ford. One I want to say is that if you took away his circus antics,

like if you took away all the stupid things he says and does that are like outside of council, and you just looked at his leadership in council and his work as a mayor, he's doing a piss poor job. He is completely ineffective and refuses to lead the city so i almost think his circus antics distract from what a lousy job he's doing what do you think about that um just just agree with me on that one i don't i guess what i'm saying is even if you took away

all these circus antics are covered by one publication well that's not true i mean no no no no like i mean cbc and stuff will definitely cover uh some of these a lot of these will get covered by other publications they're just uh you're thinking of things like when daniel dale went to his house to see the part of the city's land that he wanted to so basically when the mayor of the city wants to buy public land that's in an adjacent public park i believe a good reporter should go and see what we're talking about here what is the mayor because the mayor can sign it rob for, but he's still the mayor. It's still a conflict of interest. David Miller would never even make that request

while mayor because of how the optics would be. It clearly looks like a conflict of interest. So I always hear Freddie P and the gang telling me, they send reporters to look in his backyard. So that was a Toronto Star reporter? Yeah, and I mean, he's a pretty good reporter himself. I don't know him personally. I've never had dinner with him. But I follow him

on Twitter and I've been reading his stuff for years. He's a pretty solid reporter too. And I think he does a good job, Daniel Dale. He's not out to get the Fords and peer in their backyard. If all these stories are true, then fine. But if it's from one publication, then it just, to me, I feel like I'm an outsider still

because I'm not involved in Toronto politics, but to me, it seems like it's more tabloid-ish. And all of it's ridiculous. I don't want a mayor in the tabloids. I don't know. You also don't want your mayor smoking crack with drug dealers. Right, if that's true.

Of course I don't want a mayor like that. So from all the stories I've heard and all the bad publicity he's had, I just don't feel like he's a good mayor. Well, he wanted the casinos because he said the casino would pay for subways. And then people did the math and they realized a few things right away. The casino doesn't fit where they want to put it. It will pay for 60 meters of subway uh which like you know like that's a lot of uh stress you're putting on a city for 60 meters of subways

it's not paying for subways in other words and rob ford adamantly said we need this casino it's going to pay for subways and he had never had numbers to back that up and whenever anyone showed the real numbers we saw how out to lunch the mayor was really i'd like to see those numbers i haven't looked i'll show you There's a great write-up. Because Edmonton has a lot of casinos. How's that working out for Edmonton? I don't know. I don't look at the numbers, but they've been around for a long

time, so they must generate some revenue. But I don't know how it would be, how the city would be without them. It'd be interesting to look at the numbers. So Rob Ford never had numbers that were real. And this vote that they had yesterday in council basically killed the casino once and for all. It was 40 to 4. So I always knew the numbers would kill this

casino. I had no idea it was going to be such a landslide. So no casino for Toronto. That is more than I expected. Yeah, that's a a look and just before we move on from rob ford but you have to admit this is an international story you and i just saw the daily show with john stewart doing it and i mean it's everywhere it's actually i get friends i work with people in europe and in america and it's just like how's your crackhead mayor doing we're the laughing stock of the entire world and now that they've been introduced to crackhead Rob Ford, they're now seeing everything that preceded that, that we lived through. And they're wondering how we put up with it and why we put up with it. So this has made international news, yet he's just hoping it'll go away. Yeah. The New York Times is writing about

this and he's hoping that this is day six and he's hoping it'll go away. Anyway, that's Rob Ford. Should I read this comment from Rince, or is it... Maybe I will really quickly. So back in March, well before this story broke from Gawker and the Toronto Star, I had a comment from a guy or a girl, I don't know, named Rince. And I'll read it and then just say a couple of things about it. Here's the thing. Rob Ford does use crack cocaine.

A friend of mine, her mother is a serious drug addict. Rob Ford regularly goes over to her house to smoke crack. The problem is this. The daughter wants to expose Rob Ford's drug abuse, but her old school Italian grandmother won't allow her to bring shame upon the family. Long story short. So basically, the daughter has become complicit with the entire thing instead of doing the right thing. Shame on you, Jasmine. Now, I disregard that completely as an anonymous commenter back in March. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, it does seem interesting in retrospect.

Yeah, for sure. As does Sarah Thompson's allegations that he had the persona of a man on cocaine, she said. Maybe she wasn't so out to lunch herself. So we'll see how this goes. This thing is developing, and next week, Rosie will hopefully be back for episode 39, and we can discuss what's transpired since.

But I think he's either got to stand up and say, I never smoked crack. That can't be me because I never did it. And he should be far more strong in his denial or he should admit he has a problem and get help. Pick a card,

Mayor Ford, and play it. Agreed. Okay. Now, babe, I was going to ask you a question, and I'll ask Rosie this next week, because I'm curious, because she's got a public blog where you don't publicly blog, but you do have a podcast called In Her Shoes.

Right, and I'm not very consistent with it. How many episodes do you have in the can? Five episodes. I can syndicate that on SiriusXM. I'm going to sell it. I uh sirius will take almost anything so let me see if i can get them to bite i've been taking a break because of my allergies okay that's a good excuse so you get hit hard by allergies at this time never this hard my my nose is stopped i have headaches i'm cranky i'm not getting enough sleep. Have you heard from other allergy sufferers

that this is a particularly bad allergy season? I have, but I look at them and they're completely fine, functioning properly. I'm not. I actually slept in for a conference call this morning and I just feel totally drained and I'm on a double dose of react

and that's not even working for me. Anyway. As someone who lives with you, if I can just say, I'm not just concerned with our mayor, I'm actually concerned about you because you might have a coke habit the way I hear you sniffing. No, I don't. Where would I hide it? The coke? Yeah. I mean the flour. I don't do that baking. It could be in the kitchen. That's a great idea. Thank you. So my question for you is, when can someone become your friend on Facebook? Like, do you have to be their friend in the real world or know them in the real world? Tell me, can they be a friend of a friend? Like, what is your own rule set for when somebody can be your friend on Facebook?

Most of my friends, I would say 99% of them, I know them in the real world and I like them. I don't add people that I don't like. So you have to like them. I have to like them. Me too. And there's been some exceptions where I've added siblings of very close friends. That you don't like? No. An exception to the rule that I've met them. We want names. There's some siblings I haven't met,

but I'm very good friends. So if you're friends with someone, you'll accept their sibling. That's interesting because I was just thinking like, would I,

okay, so I have a sister-in-law named Vanessa and you know Vanessa and Vanessa's got a brother who I see like at Nate's birthday parties and stuff and he seems like a a brother who I see like at uh Nate's birthday parties and stuff and he seems like a nice guy and I see him once or twice a year but uh but I

wouldn't accept him as a Facebook friend because I don't know him but would you consider Vanessa a really good friend no I don't even like her okay so you would add people that's a bad example that's a bad example so okay I don, I don't know, but I mean, Elvis has a brother who looks like Jerry Seinfeld. He's going to be here in a minute to record the very first episode of Your Blog Sucks. That's a promo. And then if I were faster, I would have already played.

Oh, I can't. Oh, no. No, but Your Blog Sucks. But regardless, I don't know if i'd invite if i'd have jerry seinfeld as a facebook friend because i'm friends with his brother well i wouldn't go out and submit that friend request if they requested i would accept it okay now you what about twitter what can anybody who will you follow on twitter just somebody interesting or would you follow somebody because you know them?

Both. Somebody interesting, somebody I want to know more about. You can always unfollow them, right? It's different than Facebook. People I know in the real world. Yeah. And if you hated the person on Twitter,

but they were interesting, you'd still follow them, right? Yes. If they were interesting. Excellent. How many friends do you have on Facebook? I have about 45 maybe. Is that a reasonable number?

I know a lot of people have hundreds. I have very reasonable small numbers. They're all people I like. Okay. And they're good friends of yours and family? They are. Do you have anyone outside of that, those two groups, friends, good friends and family members? Nope. I think they groups, good friends and family members? Nope.

I think they're all good friends or family members. I'm thinking of the list. Do you have any colleagues on there? Zero. The company I work for, they're huge into Facebook. They're all Facebook friends. So I add one and you could see how their entire list is this company. I find it a bit odd that they're so close.

They know about each other's personal lives. I do current occupant, my current job. I don't have anyone from this at Facebook. I don't like the worlds to collide. But when I leave a job, I will start to add people I liked. Yeah. So I have some people I used to work with, just nobody I actually currently work with. Babe, can I ask you about, I don't even know if I'm ready to talk about this, but you were in the room with me during the third period in overtime of the Maple Leaf Bruins game

seven. Yeah, I was. Do you want to take a moment to describe sort of reactions and what you witnessed? Well, I think it was, was it 2-0? 2-1. 2-1. I had a ball game. I had a doubleheader.

When you came home, it was 2-1. Yeah. Okay. So you asked me if I, I thought we would win at that point. And you said it was still too early. And they scored a third goal you didn't cheer too much because you still you thought it was still too early but the fourth goal I've never seen you jump so high you were so excited you were yelling I had Rudy the dog here he was scared he's never seen you like that before but I was happy for you

I was when that fourth goal went in who scored it kessel or cadre i'm having a block now i think it was cadre anyways when the fourth goal went in it was four to one with like i don't know 12 minutes left whatever yeah i don't think i've ever jumped that high i literally i jumped six feet in the air and i've never i don't remember it's been a long time since i felt that elation i was i mean i was having some chats with like humble howard for example and i remember telling him how fucking happy i was and i was like i was so so happy and i remember telling you like i was almost like tears in my eyes i was so happy because we were going to win that game seven and i saw the rangers next and i knew we had home ice advantage and i knew we could beat the rangers it turns out I'm right because Boston's probably going to sweep them. And then what happened next?

Well, they scored again. No, 4-1. Was it 4-1? Yeah, we only scored four goals that game. Okay. Okay, so Boston scores a goal, and I'm starting to reason. It's like I'm reasoning with time.

Like, okay, still a two-goal lead. They can pull their goalie, but that means we could get an empty netter uh how often how often does a team score two goals with the goalie pulled and i start thinking it almost never happens we should be able to hold on yeah then they score that goal with like a minute and sign left and now i'm scared but i'm still thinking it's a minute. We have an empty net to shoot at. It's a minute. I felt like we should be able to still snatch this. Yeah, everybody felt that way, I think. And then the tying goal. And now I pretty much had no reaction at that point, but I'm like, oh my God, we blew it. We better win this in overtime. And now I'm watching overtime.

oh my God, we blew it. We better win this in overtime. And now I'm watching overtime. What happened? Was it Bergeron? What happened when Bergeron scored the goal in overtime? You were upset. You turned off the TV right away. I was in shock. We were both in shock. And you were in shock for a couple of days after that. I was stunned. I didn't have a reaction at all. I was stunned. I didn't believe what I saw. And it was so crushing. For days, I felt depressed. a reaction at all. I was stunned. I didn't believe what I saw. And it was so crushing. For days, I felt depressed. It looked like it. I know, I was depressed.

I couldn't believe it happened. How did we cough up a third period, three goal lead in game seven? I couldn't believe it. We need to change the topic, babe. I can't talk about this. You're still hurt. I'm still hurt.

Can we just, one thing maybe before we close. You and I are big Mad Men fans. There's actually rumblings. I read some articles where people are saying it's a slow and boring season. And I strongly disagree. I'm

thoroughly enjoying this season and I think it is great television. I could see a few episodes this season that were sort of slow um but not the last few not the last few there there have been a there's been a few fantastic episodes this season the last one especially i want to watch it again that's the trippy the trippy episode it was trippy and but revealing it we're doing a great job of painting the Don Draper backstory, like his childhood in the whorehouse. It's amazing. It is amazing. And this writer, Matt Weiner, or Weiner? Weiner. Weiner. This guy is genius. The subtlety of the show and the way it's written

and the characters and the evolution. This is such a great show that it's definitely one of my top five shows of all time. Where does it rank for you? I'd say top three. What are your top two? I don't like this question. You can say top three and then not field the follow-up question. It would fall in the top three

I'd say The Wire is very good do you have The Wire no influence from your future husband here I will still love you if you'd say you hate The Wire do you really think The Wire is the best show you've ever seen no I wouldn't say it's the best show then what is the best show

it's in the top three what show have you seen that's better than The Wire I have a problem I watch a show and I forget about it It's in the top three. I don't know. What show have you seen that's better than The Wire? I don't know. I have a problem. I watch a show and I forget about it. So I might have seen a series way back when and I forgot how good it was. And then... Then how good could it have been if it deserted you?

Well, wait a few years and I'd probably forget about The Wire or Mad Men. So you don't know... You can't say you'd like to show better than the wire not at this time no what's better breaking bad or the wire um i'd say the wire and what's better madman or breaking bad um i put it at a tie wow why now we know. The Wire is your favorite show of all time, and Mad Men and Breaking Bad are your next two.

You just gave me your top three. Okay, but... I tricked you. Those are the last three series that I've watched. So what does that say? It says you have a bad memory. I think so. I isolated one of the humble Howard promos.

I just want to see if it works. Hold on. You're listening to see if it works. Hold on. You're listening to this city's finest podcast about the city that this man loves. This is Toronto Mic'd. And I'm just going to play another one and tell me which one you like better. You're listening to Toronto Mic'd.

TorontoMic.com I like the first one. Done. What do you like? I don't know, but I'm going to do the same game. I like the... I don't know if I like the first one. Done. What do you like? I don't know, but I'm going to do the same game. I like the, I don't know if I like either,

to be honest. They're fine. I think the first one's a bit better. I am going to ask Rosie the same question next week. So, Rosie, if you're listening,

and you should be. Rosie, you should come back and record because you are great. Monica was no good. No. So,

we need you back for episode 39. I'm sorry. I can't argue with Mike on, well, I guess you guys probably agree on the whole Rob Ford thing, but... I don't even know what she's going to say about the Rob Ford. I'm very excited to find out. So I need her to come back for episode 39. I do know that I'm apologizing on behalf of my Samsung Galaxy

that doesn't normally crash. The phone app seems to have crashed. It doesn't normally happen. And I'm so sorry that you were in the rain waiting for me to answer my call and get you. So... That brings us to an end of our show. That brings us to the end of our show. You can follow me on Twitter at Torontoonto mike and monica at miss monica reena see you all next week bye everyone Thank you.