TORONTO

This likely wasn’t the early birthday present Mayor Rob Ford wanted.

Ford, who turns 44 Tuesday, arrived at City Hall around 1:30 p.m. Monday to find his press secretary George Christopoulos and his deputy press secretary Isaac Ransom had quit “on principle.”

They left the mayor of Canada’s largest city without a spokesman in the midst of a crack cocaine video scandal which threatens to topple his mayoralty.

A clearly unhappy Ford was spotted going through the empty offices in the mayor’s administrative area with City Hall security. It wasn’t clear what Ford was looking for as he checked several offices including those which had belonged to Christopoulos and Ransom.

Ford’s two spokesmen delivered their resignation letters together, calmly walked out the back door of the mayor’s office, went down a back staircase through to the City Hall public library and away from the dozens of reporters.

Ford has been locked in a crisis for more than a week after Gawker.com published a report about an alleged cellphone video of Ford smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.

Both Christopoulos and Ransom refused to comment when confronted by the Sun as they walked out of City Hall Monday. They did not return calls and e-mails after the news broke.

A source familiar with the deteriorating situation in Ford’s office said the two men “left on principle.”

“I know it was a s--- show on Friday and they weren’t very happy about it,” the source said. “I think that Fortress Ford is kind of circling the wagons now and only listening to family.

“I don’t think they’re listening very much to staff now.”

Ford delivered a statement Friday denying he uses crack cocaine or is a crack cocaine addict.

As the Sun reported Sunday, the mayor ignored advice from Christopoulos and Ransom for his Friday statement and instead relied on advice from his family.

Both Christopoulos and Ransom advised Ford not to do his radio show this past weekend and neither showed up at the radio studio on Sunday.

It still isn’t clear who exactly has replaced Christopoulos. Ford immediately issued a statement naming mayor’s staffer Sunny Petrujkic as acting press secretary. Then in a brief press conference, he named Amin Massoudi — Councillor Doug Ford’s executive assistant — as his new “director of communications.”

That was followed by Ford’s Twitter account naming Massoudi as his new “press secretary.” Calls and e-mails to Petrujkic and Massoudi asking for clarification were not returned Monday night.

Ford said Christopoulos and Ransom “have decided to go in a different avenue or down a different avenue.

“I wish them the best of luck in their future endeavours and I want to thank them for working hard in this office and that’s it. It’s business as usual, we have our executive committee (Tuesday) and we’re soldiering on,” Ford said.

Ford refused to say why he believed the two left, saying he never gets into personnel issues.

The resignations come less than a week after Ford fired his chief of staff Mark Towhey.

Ford denied his administration was spinning out of control and dismissed a Globe and Mail report about police speaking with a senior staffer in his office as part of an investigation.

“Everything is fine. I have no idea what the police are investigating — it is better that you talk to the police about that,” he said.

Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday was surprised when Ford called him Monday and said the duo had quit.

“I said, ‘Well, why did they quit?’ and he said he didn’t know so I guess we can all assume but I don’t know for sure,” Holyday said. “There is certainly difficulty there (in the mayor’s office) it seems.”

Holyday said he’s “disappointed” the two left.

“I’ve guess they’ve got good reason. No one quits a good job for nothing,” he said.

The Etobicoke councillor acknowledged the departure looks bad in the public eye.

FORD TIMELINE