Okay, I’m going out on a limb here and saying, “Yes, I did vote for Rob Ford, and No, I’m not surprised his popularity went up, and …wait for it…I’ll probably vote for him again if there’s no better alternative.”

Maybe it’s a sign of how cynical we’ve gotten about our politicians that his popularity went up after the admission, but honestly the whole situation reminds me a titch, just a titch, of Citizen Kane.

Rob Ford is just as bloviating as Orson Welles in that movie, just as pompous and bombastic, and he sure doesn’t know how to pick his battles, having alienated just about everyone at Toronto City Hall…but…what does that have to do with him being able to run the city? To cut taxes?

Boy was I pissed off to hear all the perks and free lunches that people at City Hall just felt they were entitled to at tax payer’s expense before he got into office! I really liked the idea of him drying up the gravy train–as he called it!

And finding morality in your politician is just naive these days.

Being a strict teetotaler, frankly the moment he picks up a beer he violates my personal sense of debauchery (not that I’m judging anyone) so why should I care if he’s gone a step further into illegal substances as long as he keeps it in his personal life and not on the job?

Do you really think the other people in power haven’t at least tried blow?

Ford’s problem is he got caught.

If it sounds like I’m defending him, nope, I’m not.

Don’t care one whit about him or against him.

Just let him do his job.

I honestly don’t have a dog in the race and I’ve laughed at the lampooning he’s gotten on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

Sure wouldn’t want to be him right now!

Yesterday I finally got the Indian visa situation straightened out! All is hunky dorey in that regard and even though I was freaking out, part of me was telling myself to relax, if worst came to worst I’d just have to pay the $125 visa fee again, it’s a first world problem!!!

Luckily that fear never materialized. Didn’t have to pay the fee again, and I got the dates changed, but the fact that I’m suffering from first world problems really hit home this afternoon.

The CBC came to film me during a presentation at Rose Ave. P.S.. This school is right on the edge of the poshest neighborhood in the city, Rosedale.

But the kids that go to this school tend to come from immigrant and inner city families.

It is SO hard to keep the attention of a bunch of grade 4 and 5 students when there’s a cameraman filming behind me, to the side of me, among them etc. but somehow I did it.

I thought just because this is a huge opportunity for me (the piece is supposed to air on the National) doesn’t mean I shouldn’t give a proper presentation!

Afterwards two of the girls were talking to me. They were so cute. Skinny little Asian types, asking me questions, but there was a girl in the background just hanging around, casting glances at me. I thought if I stayed focused on the two girls in front of me she’d probably work up the courage to come up to me, and sure enough she did.

She had the sweetest smile, and the cutest braids. She told me how she could really relate to The Roses in My Carpets story because it was about a refugee and a foster child because right now she’s homeless, and living with her mother and brother in a shelter.

The way she said it, so matter of factly, and then she paused, and moments later, a few tears slipped from her eyes. I asked her what it was like.

She said it was hard. Her father had heart problems and has been in the hospital for a long time, and she doesn’t think he’ll make it.

And I thought subhan Allah! Me worrying and fretting over a $125 visa fee! First world problems indeed!

I told her I would pray for her and I already have.

And I thought back to the moment in the presentation where I talk about prisons and how knowledge is free in Canada, and I told her that I hoped she’d focus really hard and make her dreams come true. Learn as much as she can! Read as much as she can!

I really do believe it makes all the difference.

It did to me!

I was never homeless, nor did I ever live in a shelter, but I have been poor!

And I know you can make your way out of it!

So really…why does what Rob Ford smokes even matter???