I have been gobsmacked by the number of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford supporters who say they don’t care what he does as long as he saves them money.  Seems not very many of the folks in Ford Nation have done the math.

First, see the story by respected business journalist, David Olive, in the Toronto Star yesterday that reports that in fact City of Toronto expenditures on a net basis have gone up every year since Ford was elected.  Similarly, property taxes have continued to rise.

I love a challenge so I did a little digging.  All of the City of Toronto financial reports are available on the City website.   I found that indeed the City of Toronto total liabilities went from 11. 6 billion in 2011 to 12.5 billion in 2012.   As well property taxation went from 3.583 billion in 2011 to 3.750 billion in 2012.

Last night Ford was quoted saying he had “saved Toronto more money than any mayor in the history of the city.”  Well we knew he has lied about a lot of things so this should come as no surprise.

Nor should it surprise us that by sticking to his key message, Ford has a lot of folks out there convinced that despite everything he has done, he is saving them money.

This morning CTV news asked me to appear on the noon report to talk about what Ford could do to redeem his image.  After thinking about it for awhile, I came to the conclusion he should do absolutely nothing.  Anything that a communications specialist might recommend for another politician caught in even one of the shabby circumstances that seem to plague Ford, is simply moot here.  His core find him loveable, sweaty pits, bulging belly and all.  He’s a guy they can imagine going out with for a beer.  It doesn’t seem to concern them at all that the iconic kids event, The Santa Clause Parade, could have a crack smoking Mayor waving to their kids.  In fact, at least one poll suggested that 62% of Torontonians thought he should walk in the parade.  What are we thinking?

It’s an instructive lesson for those of us that indulge in the conceit that we know a thing or two about crisis management.