Dwight Duncan says embattled Rob Ford should step aside immediately because the mayor’s “gong show” is doing “irreparable harm” to Toronto’s reputation.

The former Ontario finance minister is first person of prominence outside city hall to call on Ford to either resign or take a leave of absence in the wake of allegations of drug use.

Speaking to the Economic Club on Tuesday, the former Liberal cabinet minister turned businessman said, “I think he ought to resign . . . this is doing horrible damage to the reputation of this great metropolis.”

For that reason, Duncan said he is baffled by the fact that more city council members and even officials at Queen’s Park aren’t doing more.

“Why aren’t they taking a resolution demanding that he step aside while these various allegations be looked at. I don’t know why the province isn’t doing something on that,” Duncan said in an onstage chat with TVOntario’s Steve Paikin.

Duncan, who left politics in February to become a senior investment adviser at McMillan LLP, said the “ongoing insanity” at city hall “in my view is going to do irreparable harm to this community.”

He explained that when he was a cabinet minister he would often be advised on the financial cost of good and bad news coverage and “I can’t imagine what the cost of all of this is to the city and to the region’s reputation.”

The former treasurer argued the maelstrom surrounding Ford is also hurting Ontario because Toronto is the provincial capital as well as the country’s banking centre.

Duncan said it is unlikely Queen’s Park could formally have Ford removed “but there has to be a leadership role because Toronto is the engine of the Ontario economy, of the Canadian economy arguably.”

“Until people of good will start saying that (Ford should resign) this gong show is going to continue on,” he told the luncheon.

“Can you imagine a provincial politics or senior cabinet minister were in this position? We have had ministers resign for viewing movies in hotel rooms. It’s just gotten beyond the pale.”

A spokesperson for Premier Kathleen Wynne said later that there is virtually nothing the province can do to intervene unless Ford is convicted of an offence and sentenced to jail time.

Another senior provincial official confirmed the government is closely monitoring the situation at city hall.

Under Ontario’s City of Toronto Act, the province could only order a mayoral and council byelection if city councillors fail to obtain a quorum for 60 days and are unable to hold meetings.

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In that case, the entire 45-member council would be forced to run in a byelection.

The senior insider stressed no one is considering such drastic actions because the business of the city is continuing.