Mayor Rob Ford guilty, kicked from office but can run again

[MADem]

24. Well, it's a 'horse out of the barn' at this point, but you are the exception to the rule.

If Toronto changes their mayor, or doesn't, it will not affect the average American. The vast majority of Americans don't know who this guy is, what his issues are, and damn few could even find Toronto on a map. If they can even distinguish Canada from USA on a map without any writing on it, they're doing well.

Further, Canadian law is not controlling in the USA, any more than British, French or Islamic law is. It's an object of curiosity for the reasons you state, but not a national matter. Most Americans couldn't tell you who the PM of Canada was. This topic was not covered on my nightly network news, the cable newsers didn't have it, and the BBC didn't have it, either.

It's just not a "national" issue. It's an "international" issue, at best (and that is a HUGE stretch), but truth is, it's a local or regional issue in Canada, and barely a "national" issue for them, either.

My mayor was just released from hospital after a long stay of over a month for a variety of not-insignificant medical issues. Now, Boston is big town, it's known to most Americans, it's the home of the Bean and the Cod...but I wouldn't consider the fact that Menino is finally home a matter of "national interest" either. My local news covered it, but damn--not a word from NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN, etc. about that, either.

It's a real stretch to put this kind of stuff in LBN, and it dilutes and cheapens the utility of the forum. There are other places where this kind of thing is more appropriate--like the woefully underutilized Canadian group, where yesterday, only four threads were posted--one of which was a duplicate of this one, garnering only a handful of replies.