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John Tory discovers Kanye West's music, ogles Kim Kardashian

A good way to fix a political slip-up is to be honest and move on. A better way is to own it and make it something unique. Give Toronto mayor John Tory credit for making lemonade out of a big pile of lemons.

Tory found himself widely mocked on Wednesday after he said he thought Kanye West was Canadian. At a press conference after Kanye West was announced as a performer for the closing ceremony of the Pan Am Games, Tory tried to soft-step the uproar over West’s selection.

“I won’t say that I spend every single night at home listening to his music but you know what, I’m smart enough to know that a lot of people do, and I’m smart enough to know that he’s a proud product of our music industry here, as are a number of others,” Tory said.

According to the National Post, Tory later admitted he didn’t really know anything about Kanye, adding “you can’t know everything.”

It could have ended there, with the image of the old, white, out of touch mayor not understanding much about the rap game fading into the memory of the summer. Instead, Tory and his staff played it up, shooting a video on Thuresday morning that showed the mayor sampling some Kanye music “Faster, Better, Stronger,” discovering wih much interest the Rolling Stone magazine with Kim Kardashian (West’s wife) on the cover, and riding the TTC (in disguise, with sunglasses and a Canada Pan Am hat).


In true political fashion, Tory’s staff found a way to turn the whole thing into a pro-Tory message, ending the video with the words “Mayor John Tory, working to make #Toronto faster, better, stronger.”

There's still a petition out there to get the Pan Am organizers to rescind West's performance, although as Toronto councillor Norm Kelly noted, there may be bihgger fish to fry.