Toronto Mayor Rob Ford refers to a map of the city at a news conference to address an ice storm that left over 250,000 customers across the city without power on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2013. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Chris Young) (The Associated Press)
TORONTO – Toronto's embattled mayor is trying to take a high media profile as his city grapples with power outages from the weekend's severe weather, but Ontario's premier appears to be bypassing Rob Ford as she coordinates recovery efforts with affected municipalities.
Kathleen Wynne held a news conference on Sunday to talk about the province's role and she reeled off a list of mayors that either she or her office has contacted. Ford was not on the list. Wynne said she talked to deputy mayor Norm Kelly about how the province can assist.
Ford admitted last month to smoking crack "in a drunken stupor." He has rebuffed intense pressure to resign over his admitted crack use and revelations of other erratic behavior. The Toronto City Council has stripped him of most of his powers in an attempt to sideline him but the conservative mayor has vowed to seek re-election next year.
Ford was the dominant voice during a news conference the city held about the storm before Wynne's media event. He's also done a number of one-on-one media interviews about the storm, which left hundreds of thousands of people in parts of southern Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada without power.
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