Has there ever been a politician as brilliant as Rob Ford? True, when a politician is described regularly by gleeful news reporters as "crack-smoking and alleged sexual harasser Toronto mayor Rob Ford", Canadian sculptors will probably not be troubled by commissions to erect likenesses of the man for future generations to admire.

Nor do I mean "brilliant" in the literal sense. Is Rob Ford a smart man? It would take a braver woman than me to adjudicate on this issue with confidence. One can argue that a politician who announces that the bad news is he smoked crack cocaine "probably in one of my drunken stupors", but the good news is that he will seek re-election next year must be, if not full-on stupid, then quite possibly high on crack.

But anyone insisting that this cross between Cartman from South Park and Chris Farley is not a brilliant politician in any sense of the word is overlooking the most bizarre element of this whole story. That really is saying something, seeing as we're talking about a story involving a mayor who allegedly saw in St Patrick's Day last year with cocaine, weed, OxyContin and a suspected prostitute. The fact is, a lot of Toronto still likes him.

Before Ford admitted that he'd bought and smoked crack – all the while, campaigning against drugs – he was a pretty popular mayor. After his confession, his ratings went up by 5%. As of writing, while most citizens sadly admit the mayor should probably step down, 40% of the city of Toronto "currently approve of his performance as mayor". Was it the way that he bought rocks of crack?

Heretofore, Canada was to America what Sweden is to the rest of Europe, but commanding less respect. Just as Sweden is always held up as the bastion of feminism, childcare and good mental health, so Canada is a paradise of ruddy-cheeked health and socialised healthcare, while Americans pay $8,000 daily to get their gunshot wounds treated. Thus, no country is sneered about more by Americans than Canada, from South Park's song Blame Canada – which was nominated for an Oscar, ha ha, Canada – to 30 Rock, which mocked Canada almost as much as it mocked Liz Lemon's love life. Jon Stewart, who has taken to the story of the crack-smoking mayor like Ford to the pipe, laughed at the city council's apparent toothlessness when attempting to strip him of his mayoral position: "That's justice, Canadian style," he snorted.

But it's not the fact that Ford is still mayor (albeit largely powerless) that's eyepopping here – it's the fact that so many of his citizens are still so fond of him. In other words, the crux of this tale isn't Toronto city council's softness, it's Toronto voters' wildcard craziness.

This twist is not without precedence. After Marion Barry, then the mayor of Washington DC, was videoed smoking crack in 1990 and promptly thrown in the can, he was voted decisively back into office a few years after his release. One could argue that all this suggests people don't really take mayors that seriously, and therefore aren't overly bothered by their personal foibles, which would explain London's current situation. One could also make the case that maybe voters are so fed up with politicians making mealy-mouthed non-denials about their drug-taking pasts that when a politician appears grasping a crack pipe they are delighted by the honesty.

But something else is going on here, something far more surprising than a crack-smoking mayor: Canada turns out to be more renegade than most non-Canadians appreciated.

When I said earlier that Ford's supporters love him, I don't think I quite made it clear how much they love him. Put it this way: he is so beloved that there is an annual event in Toronto called Ford Fest where his supporters (known as "Ford Nation") gather to sing songs about him, eat barbecue and maybe even meet him. (Narcotics are not listed as a part of the event, for the record.)

Ford Nation represents the disaffected part of Toronto, the part unimpressed with its downtown liberals and their fancy coffees. Ford, to them, is the antithesis of all that liberal namby-pambyness: he's the ordinary working man (albeit one who buys crack) and a good family guy (albeit one who has been repeatedly accused of sexual harassment and who, when asked if he ever told a colleague he wanted to "eat her pussy" he replied that he has "plenty enough to eat at home"). In other words, he's Sarah Palin with a crack pipe, a politician who affects to be a typical guy (albeit one who grew up in a wealthy family – there are lots of albeits when talking about Ford) in opposition to the elite. Therefore his supporters say that all criticism of him comes from a snobby media.

Former New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner couldn't weather his scandals because no one liked him, Palin faded away because she and her family decided being celebrities looked more fun than politics. Ford, though, has managed to weather allegations of racial slurs, sexual harassment, threatening behaviour and substance abuse because, he suggested, he was one of them. Ford convinced the city that being "one of them" meant acting like a drunken fratboy. Who knew so many people in Toronto had such low self-esteem?

Whenever a politician describes themselves as "a regular person" they are either lying or far scummier than 95% of the human race. Ford got away with it a lot longer than most. As politicians go, he's politically brilliant. If only he hadn't been so personally stupid.