Rob Ford late for lunch speech

(Update)

Another stumble for Rob Ford Thursday. But in this case, it appears not to be of his own making. Just days after an intoxicated Ford was caught on video cursing at a fast food restaurant, the Mayor was an hour late for an event where he was the guest speaker. Why? He was stuck in a service elevator.

Rob Ford pushed past media after arriving an hour late to the lunch: “I was stuck in an elevator for 45 minutes.”

He and his staff say they were stuck in the Hilton Hotel’s freight elevator on his way to speak. Amin Massoudi is Mayor Ford’s press secretary: “We were stuck with the General Manager of the hotel, the head of security and the head of the Economic Club in the elevator and they can all verify that for you.”

Ppresident of the Economic Club of Canada, Rhiannon Traill, backed Ford’s story, saying they couldn’t notify anyone because there was no cell service in the elevator: “Unfortunately we were stuck between floors so they couldn’t get us out for a while.”

When Ford finally arrived, he gave a campaign-like speech: “Toronto is booming like it’s never boomed before.”

Making no mention of the 2 videos that surfaced this week in which he admitted he was intoxicated: “Monday was unfortunate. It was a minor setback.”

Though some luncheon attendees like David Fowler, were irked by Ford’s late arrival: “It was a long wait. We were getting hungry.”

Many remain supportive of the Mayor they waited an hour to hear from. Jim Regan was a lunch guest: “As a resident, i think we should be supporting our elected politicians instead of humiliating them.”

While his backers are willing to overlook his so called “set backs”, the rest of Toronto wants answers. Two big questions that Ford refused to answer Thursday were who drove him to the restaurant the night the video was taken, and is the other man in the video Alessandro Lisi, his former driver who’s out on bail for drug charges.

Ford’s delayed speech comes just days after he was  using Jamaican profanities.