Front page faceoff: Rob Ford vs The Senate

It is rare, believe it or not, for news about federal politics to make the front pages of the country’s newspapers. It is also rare for newspaper editors to give prominent front-page play to stories about another city’s mayor. Not today. The Senate Scandals and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford can be found on front pages all across the country  — but not necessarily coast-to-coast .

Neither Rob Ford nor The Senate shenanigans made the front pages of the largest circulation papers in Newfoundland and Labrador (The Telegram, Western Star), Quebec (Le Journal de Montreal, La Presse, The Gazette, or Le Journal de Quebec), Manitoba (WFP and Winnipeg Sun) or British Columbia (Vancouver Sun, Victoria Times Colonist).

Of course, just because a story isn’t on the front page, doesn’t mean there wasn’t coverage inside and, in the age of news via digital platforms, the whole concept of an “A1” story is becoming increasingly anachronistic. Still, working inside the Ottawa bubble as I do, I often find it instructive to see what editors elsewhere in the country are selling their papers with on the front page.

If you don’t see a title in the list below — i.e. the St. John’s Telegram, the Barrie Examiner, the Truro Daily News, the Calgary Sun — it means none of these stories had any presence on the front page today.

Also: unfortunately, the front pages of many important papers in Atlantic Canada, including leading papers in Halifax, Moncton, and Saint John cannot be found either on PressDisplay or at the Newseum. If you’ve seen the front pages, then, of the Chronicle-Herald, Times Transcript or the Telegraph Journal and these stories are on the front page, let me know :

Mayor Rob Ford

• Calgary Herald: Tease: Toronto Mayor Says Crack Reports ‘Ridiculous’
• Charlottetown Guardian: Tease: In Hot Water
• Edmonton Journal: Tease: Toronto Mayor Disputes Drug Use Claims
• The Globe and Mail (Ontario Edition Only): Tease: The Questions Ford Must Answer Now
• Hamilton Spectator: Ford mum on crack-smoking video
• National Post: Two columns: Neither Crook, nor cheat, but Ford Must Go / Act III: The hero is stripped bare
• Ottawa Citizen: Tease: Mayoral Mess For Rob Ford
• Regina Leader Post: Column: Toronto Mayor Has Some Explaining To Do
• St. Catharines Standard: Tease “Ridiculous Allegations”
• Toronto Star: Two stories, an editorial, and main art, teases to multiple inside features
• Toronto Sun: Crack Attack
• Windsor Star: Column: Toronto Mayor Needs a Time Out

In reviewing this morning’s front pages, I was struck as well, that, in Ontario, Kathleen Wynne’s decision to fire Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp chair Paul Godfrey earlier this week generated more front page news and commentary than the Senate story did among Ontario papers:

• Guelph Mercury: Firing of OLG head an encouraging sign for horse-racing industry
• Kingston Whig-Standard: Casino Plan May Go Off the Tracks
• Niagara Falls Review: More Casino Cash for City
• Ottawa Sun: Tease: Casino plan caught in spin
• The Sault Star: Godfrey gone from OLG