Is he Kanyedian? Toronto Mayor John Tory admits he thought Kanye was from Canada

TORONTO – Toronto Mayor John Tory apparently thought hip hop superstar Kanye West was from the Great White North.

The 61-year-old mayor was the subject of much online mockery after he conceded he didn’t know that the Chicago-reared West — a 21-time Grammy winner with seven platinum albums to his name — wasn’t from Canada.

Tory was speaking at a press conference on public housing when a reporter asked about West headlining the Pan Am Games’ closing ceremony on July 26.

“I won’t say that I spend every single night at home listening to his music but you know what, I’m smart enough to know that a lot of people do, and I’m smart enough to know that he’s a proud product of our music industry here, as are a number of others,” Tory said.

Afterward, he conceded in a scrum that he had really believed West was Canadian, but said in his own defence that “you can’t know everything.”

He added that he wished organizers had chosen a Canadian, and that he also wished he knew West isn’t from here.

Online, most commentators were convinced that Tory had confused West with Drake. Less charitably, some compared Tory to gaffe-prone former mayor Rob Ford.