Brothers Ford

Doug on Rob's drinking, now:

Ford and his brother, Coun. Doug Ford, also spoke about the mayor's intent to alter his drinking habits.

Doug on Rob's drinking, then:

"I've never seen Rob drink at any event.  Ever."

Clearly, Ford the Councillor hasn't been totally honest.  Due to the Fords' take-no-prisoners approach to politics, disregard for protocol and general rough-around-the-edges personalities, the assumption from those who vilify them is that they are thugs, pure and simple.  Every move they make is either in pursuit of their narrow interests or to intentionally flip the bird at the public/public institutions/groups they don't like.

All of that probably plays into the choices they make, but remember - these aren't aliens from another planet.  The Fords are as human as any of us.  It also happens that they're related.

It's not often you have siblings working that close together in politics, so there's a tendency, I think, to ignore the bigger impact of their personal relationship on their shared relationship with the public.

If Ford the younger falls, it's a mark on their family name and the reputation of their father.  Even more important to consider, Robbie is Doug's younger brother.  That's normally a special relationship, with a sense of responsibility on the part of the older one.

There may be a part of Doug that sees himself as a failure for his brother's challenges, which appear to consistently be greater than his own.  Doug's spokesperson role is a defensive one, almost a "you leave my poor brother alone" approach.  Maybe he doesn't know what else to do and feels powerless to help his brother.

It's worth considering that as much as Doug has been misrepresenting the facts to the public, he might just as well being doing the same with himself.