Ford flip-flop follies: the mayor files appeal to halt campaign finances audit

Ford flip-flop follies: the mayor files appeal to halt campaign finances audit

Ford is doing what he said he wouldn't (Image: Shaun Merritt)

As events unfold, the ongoing story of Mayor Rob Ford’s election finance audit keeps getting more and more, well, amusing. After weeks of insisting that he wouldn’t go to court to stop an audit of his campaign finances, yesterday Ford filed an appeal to, uh, stop an audit of his campaign finances.The Globe and Mail reports:

Bernard Nayman, an accountant and veteran compliance auditor, warned that this legal move maybe be the first of many, as Mr. Ford will have numerous opportunities to challenge the compliance-audit process in the courts. Under the Municipal Elections Act, a compliance auditor has a mandate to review all aspects of the campaign’s finances, and the process could take well over a year.

Citing a similar drama that played out with Vaughan mayor Michael Di Biase between 2007 and 2009, he said, “This could go on until the next election, as far as I’m concerned.”

Well, hurray! See, if we were in public office, we might want to clear up any financial shenanigans well before we had to run for re-election. We’d probably also want to do everything we could to keep the alleged scandal off the radar, especially in an election year. Ford, on the other hand, may well keep this issue alive into the next election cycle, in his zeal to prove that he didn’t do anything wrong.

There are a few people making cracks about how this proves that Ford does have something to hide, despite his denials. But let’s be fair—filing the appeal doesn’t make him look guilty. Saying, however, that he never would, and then going ahead and doing it anyway, makes him look pretty silly.

Ford wants court to delay review of his campaign expenses [Globe and Mail]
Ford asks court to halt audit of his campaign finances [Toronto Star]
Mayor files appeal of campaign audit [Toronto Sun]