Rob Ford's Road Show Makes A Stop At Jimmy Kimmel Live

Last night's Jimmy Kimmel Live paid off the gag that was teased in his post-Oscars show, as embattled/disgraced/disgraceful/drunk (pick your favourite adjective; they all apply) Toronto mayor Rob Ford made his American late night talk show début. And I have to say, Kimmel did not really go easy on him: there was a lot of fake ass-kissing -- you know, he does have to be a complaisant host overall or risk scaring away future guests who might want to use his show to rehabilitate their images -- it would definitely not be fair for anyone to say Kimmel went easy on Ford. Practically the first thing Kimmel does is read Ford a list of the indignant responses he got when Ford's appearance was announced.

Kimmel later presented a kind of greatest hits playlist of Ford clips that have already been made famous online.

(Those are Parts 1 and 3 of the interview, respectively; if you want to watch the whole thing, here are 2 and 4.)

Much as he did the last time he showed up in this space, Rob Ford is pretty confounding for the Canadianosity Scale™. He's probably the most famous Canadian right now among Americans. (In fact, thanks to all the joking about him on late-night talk shows, more Americans could probably identify him as "Toronto mayor Rob Ford" than could go on to tell you that Toronto is in Canada.)

But as I pointed out last time, Ford's behaviour is most assuredly not in line with Canadian values, and it hasn't gotten any more Canadian since then. The very fact of his guest appearance is a slap in the face to his Canadian heritage, as he (a) draws attention to himself and (b) passes up literally dozens of opportunities to say he's sorry. If you've ever known a Canadian, you know we generally reflexively apologize even for things we have no reason to be sorry for; two Canadians who bump into each other on a subway can basically write off their whole afternoon. But here's a guy who really has good reason to be sorry, and he's defiant and cocky? Oh, H-E-Double-Hockey-Stick No.

As he mentions as the interview winds up, Ford is up for re-election in October, and after the shitshow of the past year-plus, here's hoping that Toronto voters will have the good sense to deny him another term and replace him with someone a lot more Canadian, by which I mean sensible, responsible, decorous, and classy and who, best of all for the city, will not make him- or herself the object of fun or of any kind of attention at all. Because this guy is still not taking his position as Canadian celebrity seriously enough.