Meanings
- A 2013 scandal involving reports of then-mayor of Toronto Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine.
It's not all high fives and fist bumps, though. Over at Queen's Park, the unravelling of the biggest Ford fiasco since Crackgate has led to a mounting list of humiliations and resignations—and proof that what happens in Vegas rarely stays there.
2023 September 26, Courtney Shea, “Winners and Losers: The Greenbelt scandal”, in Toronto Life, Toronto, Ont.: St. Joseph Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 Sep 20232 more examples
A mayor who insists he is not a crack addict — and there's no indication of habitual use, nor much likelihood that drug traces could be obtained from hair samples, given the buzz cut that Ford suddenly adopted a few weeks ago, after Crackgate exploded in the media.
2013 June 14, Rosie DiManno, “Dixon Road raids turn up glare on Rob Ford's helter-skelter life: DiManno”, in Toronto Star, Toronto, ON: Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 02 Oct 2023First came the crack-cocaine-smoking video, which was leaked in 2013 and promptly transformed Ford into an international late-night-TV staple. His links with the Toronto demimonde were exposed in a series of increasingly crazed media reports, and if he was considered to be unsuitable before the election, there was no political terminology to describe his standing post-Crackgate.
2018 September 28, Richard Poplak, “A Populist Has Exposed a Sinkhole in Canada's Democracy”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Jan 2023
Origin
Cite this entry
Crackgate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Crackgate
“Crackgate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Crackgate. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Crackgate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Crackgate.
Source: Crackgate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.