Mayor Rob Ford late to Economic Club speech, days after drunken video

From Steak Queen to salad forks: Rob Ford can certainly make his way around the dinner circuit. Even if he isn't the best at showing up on time.

Days after being videotaped drunk, slurring and speaking in a Jamaican accent during a late-night appearance at a Rexdale steak restaurant, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was supposed to address a sold-out luncheon hosted by the Economic Club of Canada in downtown Toronto.

Ford did not appear for his scheduled appearance at 11:45 a.m., leaving some of the country's best minds waiting for more than an hour. It surely gave those in attendance extra time to consider, “Will he speak in Jamaican patois again?”

Ford has been railing against the city's proposed property tax increase, which is currently set to be 2.23 per cent thanks to a 0.5 per cent increase attributed to Ford's personal subway development plan.

[ More Brew: Mayor Rob Ford calls public drunkenness a ‘minor setback’ ]

During a executive committee meeting on Wednesday, former ally Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong called Ford a "coward" for leading the city into a costly subway project and then opposing the tax increase it was responsible for.

Ford has, of course, been called names other than coward recently, after a video surfaced of an inebriated Ford cursing and using an offensive Jamaican accent on Monday night.

Ford had previously claimed he had given up drugs and alcohol in November, after admitting to smoking crack and a series of drunken public appearance that nearly sunk his mayoralty.

Following the Monday incident, Ford said he had "a few" drinks but said it was a private matter. The confession came just moments after Coun. Doug Ford, his brother and re-election campaign manager, guaranteed that Ford hadn’t been drinking that night. Doug told AM 640 Radio on Thursday that his brother's confession had caught him by surprise.

"I truly believed that was an old video and I stated that," Doug told the station. "Obviously I was wrong."

This was not the first time Doug has been caught flat-footed by his brother. Last year, the mayor admitted to the existence of crack cocaine video in the midst of a campaign by Doug to attack and discredit the Chief of Police over the same.

Interestingly, Ford's lawyer Dennis Morris has also come out and told the Globe and Mail that seeking alcohol treatment "would never hurt anybody."

Ford, meantime, has vowed to quit drinking. Again. "Definitely."