TORONTO

The only thing a snap mayoral election in Toronto would prove is that we’re a city of Rob Ford enablers.

Ford was and remains the elected mayor of the city despite admitting to smoking crack cocaine, buying illegal drugs and misleading Toronto residents.

Now we start to hear murmurs of a snap election to clear the air and some even advocating it.

Should we spend more than $7 million to have a special election just because Ford is a drunken, crack-smoking global embarrassment who doesn’t feel enough shame to quit? No.

Beyond the cost of the election, there is the simple fact that the actual election starts on Jan. 2 and runs until Oct. 27, 2014. We will be in an election in less than a month and any snap election wouldn’t start, best case scenario, until February or March.

We don’t need an election because one is coming.

Some will say that because Ford can’t legally be ousted under the current rules, the rules should be bent to allow an election and deal with this unprecedented situation.

Blizzard: Call early election to put us out of Ford misery

Why do we bend the rules of the city and the province just to accommodate Ford’s follies? That’s how we got into this mess in the first place.

Enough taxpayer-funded staffers who worked for Ford, enough councillors, enough members of the media, enough judges, enough voters have helped smooth over Ford’s previous failures, his refusal to follow the rules, his shortcomings and his gaffes.

We don’t need an election because it would be unfair to everyone but Ford.

A snap election helps those with name recognition and easy access to resources. The incumbent yet incapable mayor would be off to a running start. The fairest test of Ford’s support in the city is the election in its due course not one brought on suddenly.

Let’s be honest, we don’t need an election, we need a mayor that can feel an ounce of the shame he’s brought on his office and then demonstrate a modicum of honour.

We need a mayor that would know when to quit and realize that he should quit now.

It was one of the three choices given to him by his staff in May when the crack video allegations first became public and it is now his only option if he ever hopes to have a chance at holding a political office beyond this term.

To leave his office now would be a rare honourable act by a man who has displayed nothing but dishonour over the last few months. He has lied to Toronto, he has associated with the city’s criminal element and he has disrespected the taxpayers he had pledged to respect.

Staying in the spotlight says even more about just how truly flawed Ford’s character is. By refusing to leave office the mayor is refusing to acknowledge that he actually did anything wrong.

Quitting would show even he rejects the nefarious life he was leading that was so far from what voters threw their support behind in 2010.

An exit rather than an election — regardless of whether you support Ford or not — that’s what Toronto needs right now.