Toronto Mayor John Tory attends an announcement in Toronto on Friday, February 6, 2015. Tory apparently thought hip hop superstar Kanye West was from the Great White North. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
July 15, 2015 - 12:02 PM
TORONTO - Toronto Mayor John Tory apparently thought hip hop superstar Kanye West was from the Great White North.
The 61-year-old mayor was the subject of much online mockery after he conceded he didn't know that the Chicago-reared West — a 21-time Grammy winner with seven platinum albums to his name — wasn't from Canada.
Tory was speaking at a press conference on public housing when a reporter asked about West headlining the Pan Am Games' closing ceremony on July 26.
"I won't say that I spend every single night at home listening to his music but you know what, I'm smart enough to know that a lot of people do, and I'm smart enough to know that he's a proud product of our music industry here, as are a number of others," Tory said.
Afterward, he conceded in a scrum that he had really believed West was Canadian, but said in his own defence that "you can't know everything."
He added that he wished organizers had chosen a Canadian, and that he also wished he knew West isn't from here.
Online, most commentators were convinced that Tory had confused West with Drake. Less charitably, some compared Tory to gaffe-prone former mayor Rob Ford.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2015