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OTTAWA — Jason Kenney, long considered an aspirant to the Conservative leadership, has become the first federal cabinet minister to call on Rob Ford to resign, accusing the infamous mayor of shaming the city of Toronto.

“I will say as an elected official that I think Mr. Ford has brought dishonour to public office and the office of mayor and his city,” Kenney, the employment and social justice minister, said Tuesday as he left the House of Commons.

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“I wished he had taken a leave of absence some time ago to go and deal with his personal problems. But not having done that, I personally think he should step aside and stop dragging the city of Toronto through this terrible embarrassment.”

Kenney went far further than his boss did a day earlier, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office issued a tepid slap on the wrist to Ford after weeks of silence on a series of surreal antics that have turned the mayor into an international laughingstock.