Mayor Ford makes geographical flub while chatting with couple in Chicago

Mayor Ford made a geographical flub while greeting people in Chicago during a business mission this week, when he said Winnipeg was across the river from Detroit.

The mayor chatted with a young couple in front of the Cloud Gate sculpture, also known as the bean, at Millennium Park on Tuesday. A woman told Ford she’d visited Canada — “the part where you cross from Detroit, over the river.”

“Oh, Manitoba? You were in Manitoba. Winnipeg?” Ford said.

He corrected himself and asked her if it was Windsor she had visited.

“Windsor? … That’s Ontario … It’s about four hours away — Windsor and Toronto.”

Ford made another error as he was leaving Toronto for Chicago on Tuesday when, after listing the five Great Lakes, he said Toronto and the Windy City “share one of those five Great Lakes.”

Ford is leading a two-day mission in Chicago to drum up business, to renew a partnership agreement between the two cities, and identify growth opportunities. He said the trip is a way to “stimulate the economy” and create jobs in Toronto.

George Cohon, founder of McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada, and Robert Deluce, president and CEO of Porter Airlines, as well as a number of city officials are members of Ford’s delegation.

Ford has a full schedule Wednesday, including a meeting with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The mayors are expected to renew the sister-city agreement signed in 1991.

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