WASHINGTON – A petition to make Rob Ford an honorary U.S. citizen hasn’t garnered much support so far.
The petition appears on the White House website under the headline: “Proclaim Robert Bruce ’Rob’ Ford, the 64th Mayor of Toronto, An Honorary Citizen of the Unites States of America.”
Fourteen people had signed it by Sunday night.
The petition had been on the website since Jan. 3, and even though it had received a bit of media attention, that didn’t exactly appear to have spurred a great public stampede toward the cause.
The tongue-in-cheek petition says: “(Ford) has at once demonstrated an exceptional proclivity to act for the greater good and been the subject of horrifying political attacks. The evidence demonstrates the attacks are motivated by Mayor Ford’s unwavering adherence to good governance over the interests of his political opponents.”
It goes on to say: “Mayor Ford is clearly a hero of humanity who deserves the very best. We therefore petition (President Barack) Obama to declare Mayor Ford an Honorary Citizen of the United States.”
Ford has become a bit of a celebrity in the U.S. amid his scandals, and is now a staple in the material of late-night comedians. A media-monitoring firm has also declared that no other news story from Canada has gotten this much attention in the U.S., so far, in this young century.
As of Sunday evening, the petition was 99,986 signatures short of the 100,000 required to get a White House response.
The White House instituted that requirement after its site had been hit with other spoof petitions including one demanding that America build a “$850,000,000,000,000,000, Star Wars-style Death Star.”
The White House had to answer to that one politely, and jokingly, informing people that a Death Star would cost more than that projected amount and was not fiscally feasible in a time of budget constraints.