FUMBLE – FORD SHOULD HAVE SEEN PRIDE PARADE FLAP COMING

This week's perspective from Bob Reid: The ideal damage control strategy is not to suffer any damage in the first place. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and those around him should have seen this one coming. Since confirming that he would not attend the upcoming Pride Parade on the Canada Day weekend, Ford has taken no end of heat from gay and lesbian organizations and editorial columns alike, criticizing him for failing to continue what has now become tradition for mayors of this city. Taking part in the parade is a gesture which communicates volumes, a lesson well-known by Ford’s predecessors and others in positions of authority in the community such as the chief of police. Refusing to show up for not only the parade but ANY of the numerous Pride-related events taking place over the entire week has given Ford’s critics an opportunity which they have leveraged in the media to huge success. Putting at least one Pride event on his sked – and saying the right things about the importance of the event to the city and Toronto’s values of inclusiveness, tolerance and respect – would have given Ford something to point to and would have taken away the communications weapon he has handed to gay and lesbian community leaders, his critics, and media pundits.