What's the big deal about Rob Ford, really?
The Toronto mayor was been named the 2013 CP Newsmaker of the Year this week. He certainly made news but will history remember him as anything more than a bumbling mayor who embarrassed himself and his country?
Not likely, since he wasn't even the first Toronto mayor to do that.
Remember Mel Lastman?
Wikipedia has a great list of Lastman's worst antics.
This was the guy who, before leaving for Mombassa, Kenya, in the summer of 2001 to support Toronto's bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, told a reporter that he and his wife were nervous about going to Kenya, adding "I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives dancing around me."
The following year, Mayor Mel went to a Hells Angels convention, where he hugged and shook hands with delegates, thanking them for choosing Toronto to hold their meeting.
And then, in 2003, during the SARS outbreak, he was asked on CNN what the World Health Organization was doing to help with the crises and he replied that they didn't know what they were talking about and he had no idea who they were.
Ford suggested a reporter was a pedophile this year.
Big deal.
Lastman threatened to kill a reporter when he was mayor.
Ford denied allegations he had oral sex with a female staffer, adding that he "gets plenty to eat at home."
Big deal.
While in office, Lastman admitted to a 14-year-affair with a woman not his wife and to fathering two sons with his mistress during the relationship.
The big difference is that Lastman's mayoral reign predated Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, so there was no social media frenzy.
But American comedians were still paying attention. Ford wasn't the first Toronto mayor to get the Jon Stewart treatment. Nope, Lastman beat him to it.
And how did Canadian journalists thank Lastman for the great stories he gave them? By not once naming him as the country's top newsmaker.
CP has flubbed up its choices before. The year Michaelle Jean began her stint as the most memorable and newsworthy Governor-General of Canada in Canadian history, CP named John Gomery as its top newsmaker of 2005. If you remember who Gomery was, you have an unhealthy obsession with national politics in general and Jean Chretien in particular.
Worst of all for CP was in 2010, when its voting members (of which The Citizen is one) named Russell Williams as the year's top newsmaker. Williams was the commander of CFB Trenton until he was relieved of his duties, charged and found guilty of raping and murdering two women. That certainly made news but somehow the shot heard round the nation was ignored. Sidney Crosby's overtime goal in the men's gold medal game at the Vancouver Olympics easily overshadowed the heinous crimes of an army colonel.
By a slim majority, The Citizen newsroom voted for Chris Hadfield over Rob Ford for the 2013 Canadian Press Newsmaker of the Year.
Never mind that Lastman's antics from a decade ago have faded from the memories of most, it seemed that the international headlines Hadfield made during his stint as commander of the International Space Station during the first four months of 2013 was completely forgotten, too. Hadfield collaborated on a song with the Barenaked Ladies from space, he chatted on Twitter with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, he performed a cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity before he returned to Earth and then when he got back, he sang it again at the Canada Day festivities in Ottawa. Oh, and he painted his face like Bowie did 40 years ago for a Macleans magazine cover shot.
Like Lastman, Ford will fade into history as another mayor of Toronto who said and did some really stupid things and got everybody excited about it for a few minutes.
Hadfield's 2013 accomplishments aren't just for the year, they're for the ages.
