Doug shifts gears to his brother’s health regimen.
Ford: The mayor is feeling healthier than he ever has. He's focused on his diet plan, He's focused on working out two hours a day.
The Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale: What do we care about his diet plan?
Ford: He's of healthy mind and he's moving forward, and in my humble opinion – we don't underestimate our opponents in the next election – Rob Ford stays the course, he drops 60, 70 pounds, looking good, he's going to win the next election.
Inexplicably Doug, Rob, and (super inexplicably) the mayor's bizarro lawyer Dennis Morris keep bringing up the mayor’s efforts to lose weight as some kind of justification for not answering burning questions about his drug use and ties to gang members.
Presumably, it's supposed to be evidence that the mayor is turning over a new leaf, as if being slightly skinnier would absolve the mayor of all the crazy shit he's done.
***
Ford: I tell you what I hear on the street, people are getting sick and tired of listening to the media. They don't want to listen to this anymore. They want to move forward with the city, you're beating a dead horse here.
Dale: It's a live horse Doug! The horse is totally alive because…
Ford: The mayor has not been charged… He has apologized very clearly, he's moving on, he's done a great job for this city, and he's the only elected official down here that watches every single penny.
Aside from the fact that Doug and Dale arguing about the health of a metaphorical equine is among the most delightfully surreal episodes of this whole Ford affair, there are by now many holes in the notion that the mayor is watching every penny at City Hall.
He has been liberal with his office budget, hiring family friend David Price at an inflated $130,000 salary. Court documents also show the mayor regularly asked his staff to run personal errands like buying him liquor and called them over to his house to perform menial tasks like replacing batteries in his kids' toys. The documents also suggest mayor is pulling down a $170,000 a year salary to work four-hour days.
***
CP24's Katie Simpson then asks Doug about the mayor’s allegedly offering a gang member $5,000 and a car in return for the crack video at the center of an ongoing scandal.
Simpson: Are you not concerned for his safety if he's allegedly hanging out with these gang members…?
Ford: Well that's allegedly. It goes back to the media twisting the story. Allegedly, allegedly. Allegedly we could say Katie Simpson robbed the First National Bank...
Reporters: That's not in a police document! This is in a police affidavit Doug!
This is the second time that Doug has singled out Simpson, who has by no means been unfair in her coverage of the Fords. In November he told CP24's Stephen LeDrew that Simpson wanted to "kill" the mayor. First attempted murder and now robbery? Simpson's on quite the crime spree.
