Toronto Mayor Rob Ford calls it getting ahead of the envelope.\u00a0Ever since our days drinking together when we were both enrolled at Carleton University in Ottawa, Rob has been almost preternaturally media savvy. He likes to get ahead of the story, predicting where a problem might arise and then defusing it before it catches fire in the media. Unfortunately for Rob, he\u2019s never been a particularly photogenic man, and many of his enemies seek to exploit this vulnerability and cast him in the least flattering light imaginable. With this in mind, Rob contacted me late one night and asked if I could help him \u201cget ahead of the envelope\u201d when it came to the anti-Ford paparazzi.<\/p>\n
Based on the old New York Times Photo series, What They Were Thinking, I came up with an idea to post the unflattering picture of Ford before it made a splash, and have the Mayor, in his own words, tell the public exactly what he was thinking the moment the photograph was snapped. This way, we would be ahead of the envelope and we could see the inner, vulnerable Mayor.<\/p>\n
This photograph, taken late Thursday night at a CJPAC event, shows the Mayor kindly posing for a photograph with a fan.<\/p>\n