So where are Toronto’s business, cultural, academic and moral leaders when it comes to the Rob Ford saga?

To date — missing in action.

As the city continues to be a laughingstock around the globe and the Ford antics — now shown even more vividly in the wiretaps — likely to provide additional fodder for the likes of Jay Leno and Jon Stewart, what has been the reaction from the opinion leaders of Canada’s largest city?

Quite simply, the collective silence has been deafening.

Where are the well-reasoned op-ed pieces in newspapers?

Where are the full-page ads from concerned thought leaders?

Where are the petitions or outraged interviews?

Aside from the wall of chalk at Nathan Phillips Square, where is there a sign of protest? We have certainly heard an endless stream of ongoing adulation from Ford Nation. But what is the view of those “downtown elites” the Ford duo so loves to castigate.

Admittedly there have been exceptions. To this observer, federal Employment Minister Jason Kenney has been the most clarion and unambiguous.

“I think Mr. Ford has brought dishonour to public office and the office of mayor and his city. . . . He should step aside and stop dragging the city of Toronto through this terrible embarrassment.”

But then again, Mr. Kenney, albeit a Conservative, is from Calgary.

Another exception is Carol Wilding, head honcho at the Toronto Board of Trade.

After the mayor admitted to smoking crack, she put out a carefully worded statement calling on Ford to take a leave of absence. However, she has refused all subsequent interviews and is now the victim herself of a Doug Ford attack.

Then there are the Toronto Argonauts and Santa Claus Parade which took exception to Ford either wearing an Argos jersey or attending the parade. However, in each instance, Ford almost forced the reaction by his outrageous behaviour.

There is no doubt the letters to the editor pages of all four papers are replete with citizen anger. And all four have editorialized for Ford to step down.

Yet efforts from the media to elicit comment from the city’s leaders have so far proven fruitless. Indeed, CBC Radio contacted more than 60 so-called leaders with nary a response from one.

What about the klatch of former Toronto mayors? Only John Sewell has gone public and argued that “perhaps” the city should ask the province to declare the mayor’s position vacant.

What about potential mayoral candidates? Given that the brutish antics of the Fords on the floor of city council crossed every line of procedural civility, one might have expected a sharper reaction.

An ever-so-careful John Tory has called for Ford to take a leave. Olivia Chow has gone a titch farther calling Ford an international embarrassment. Councillor Karen Stintz called his actions “disturbing” but pointedly abstained on the motion to have him apologize and speak to police, explaining the motion had no legal force.

Only one-time Ford ally Denzil Minnan-Wong showed real leadership in heading the motion to have Ford stripped of his powers. And Minnan-Wong also had to endure a physical confrontation engineered by Ford on the floor of council, eerily reminiscent of the Oka standoff years ago.

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And what of the city’s top bankers, whose personnel regulations would have forced dismissal on any employee acting like the mayor?

“It’s business,” explained one whom I asked directly. Seems fears of financial retaliation from members of Ford Nation have spooked our bankers.

And there is no doubt the Fords will stop at nothing to attack those who dare go after them.

Just ask Chief Bill Blair who dared express his “disappointment” at the crack video he saw firsthand. The subsequent attack on him by Doug Ford — demanding he take a leave of absence — was downright vicious. And certainly this newspaper has never been so successfully villainized as was done by the Fords on their weekly radio show.

For us, there has been a price to pay.

Yet one might think other business and cultural leaders might have stepped up.

“I can’t believe the money people who have so much invested in this city can let this clown continue to set the tone in which Toronto is viewed worldwide,” said one newsmaker recently arrived from the U.S.

Yet there has been precious little.

And what of our political leadership at Queen’s Park? Premier Kathleen Wynne has gone so far as to call the mayor’s conduct “deeply troublesome.” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has also used the “troublesome” word. And PC Leader Tim Hudak said Ford “needed to get healthy,” calling on him to take a leave. All in all, far from fighting words.

Toronto likes to consider itself a world-class city. Just imagine if the mayor of New York, Chicago or Boston had acted like Rob Ford. Can you ever envision the leaders of those cities remaining so silent?

It is simply unimaginable.

Toronto deserves better.