Halifax mayor stars in spoof video in bid to win his town a makeover.
by Stephen Kimber
The good news — for all concerned — is that Mike Savage is not Brad Pitt. The better news is that he isn’t Bruce Banman either.
Banman is the beleaguered mayor of Abbotsford, the currently virally — not to forget bacterially — in-the-news BC community where city officials recently scattered chicken manure around a homeless encampment to convince campers to de-camp. Banman has been apologizing ever since.
The video is part of a campaign to generate votes for Halifax in a paint company promotion in which the winners among 100 competing communities from across North America earn a modest mainstreet makeover.
The ongoing Niagara-Falls-like spillover since Ford’s carefully parsed non-response to that seen-but-not-yet-acquired video of him allegedly smoking crack cocaine have conspired to make Toronto the favourite city of stand-up comedians everywhere. Name another modern mayor that can match the torrent of news like:
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the still from the video that appears to show the mayor hanging with a young man who was later murdered in a house that turns out to have been the site of a recent armed home invasion;
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the published allegations Doug Ford, the mayor’s brother, closest confidant and fellow Toronto city councilor, was once a major hash dealer;
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the mayor’s many and various senior aides, all fired or resigned, at least one after urging his boss to go into rehab;
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the mayor’s own sweaty, what-me-worry smile before turning and running from the cameras.
Compare Mayor Ford’s non-video video with our own Mike Savage’s charming I-am-not-Brad-Pitt-but-people-confuse-us YouTube star turn last week. “Brad Pitt starred in Oceans 11,” Savage deadpans. “I used to play in the ocean when I was 11.” “I know what you’re thinking,” he notes as the camera follows him. “But the camera adds 10 pounds — and we’re using a lot of cameras.”
The video is part of a campaign to generate votes for Halifax in a paint company promotion in which the winners among 100 competing communities from across North America earn a modest mainstreet makeover.
A fun video is no substitute for political leadership or vision, of course. And the jury is still out on whether Savage will ever show those.
But… after years of enduring a mayor whose exploits — can you say concertgate, the occupy eviction, the infamous story of his friend’s estate? — were cringe-worthy, it’s comforting to finally at least have a mayor we can laugh with.
About Stephen Kimber
Stephen Kimber is the Rogers Communications Chair in Journalism at the University of King's College in Halifax. He is an award-winning writer, editor and broadcaster.
His writing has appeared in almost all major Canadian publications including Canadian Geographic, Financial Post Magazine, Maclean's, En Route, Chatelaine, Financial Times, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and the National Post. He has written one novel — Reparations — and six non-fiction books. Website: http://www.stephenkimber.com.
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