Rob Ford

Personal life

Born in Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada in 1969, Ford was the youngest of four children (Doug, Kathy, Randy and Rob) of Ruth Diane (née Campbell) and Douglas Bruce Ford, Sr. His paternal grandparents were English immigrants. Ford, Sr. was the founder of Deco Labels and Tags, which makes pressure-sensitive labels for plastic-wrapped grocery products at an estimated $100 million in annual sales, and a Progressive Conservative Member of the Ontario Legislature from 1995–99. Ford's brother Doug Ford, Jr. was the Toronto City Councillor for Ward 2 Etobicoke North in Toronto from 2010 to 2014, during Rob Ford's term as mayor.

Growing up, Rob Ford attended Scarlett Heights Collegiate in Etobicoke. Ford dreamed of becoming a professional football player, and his father paid for Ford to attend special camps of the Washington Redskins and the University of Notre Dame. After graduating from high school, Ford went to Carleton University in Ottawa to study political science. Ford made the football squad, but did not play in any games. Ford left Carleton after one year to return to Toronto and did not complete his degree. After Carleton, Ford started a sales job at Deco. After Doug Ford Sr.'s death in 2006, the Ford family retained ownership of Deco Labels through the Doug Ford Holdings corporation. Ford, alongside his brothers and their mother was a director of the company.

In 2000, Ford married Renata Brejniak, whom he had met in high school. Ford, Renata, their daughter Stephanie, and their son Doug, resided in Etobicoke. In 2008, after a 9-1-1 call from the Ford home, Ford was charged with assault and threatening to kill his wife. The Crown attorney said "there was no reasonable prospect of conviction" because there were "credibility issues" with allegations by Ford's wife due to inconsistencies in her statements. Ford said at the time that he was glad the ordeal was over and that he and his wife had sought marital counselling.

In two separate incidents, on October 25, 2011, and again on December 25, 2011, police were called to Ford's home to investigate domestic disputes. During the Christmas Day incident, Ford's mother-in-law called 9-1-1 between 4 and 5 am local time as she was concerned that Ford had been drinking and was going to take his children to Florida against his wife's wishes. No charges were filed for either incident. Further domestic incident calls to police occurred in 2012 and on August 27, 2013. Again, no charges were filed.

Football coaching

Ford continued his involvement in football as a high school coach. Ford first coached at Newtonbrook Secondary School in 2001 until he was dismissed over a dispute with a player. He coached at Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School from 2001 until 2013 until the Toronto Catholic District School Board dismissed him after a controversial television interview led to a review of his coaching. Ford had donated $20,000 to equip the Don Bosco team and started a foundation to fund teams at other schools struggling to field football teams.

In January 2014, Scott MacIntyre, the former common-law spouse of Ford's sister, launched a $1.5 million lawsuit over a jailhouse attack. The lawsuit alleges that the beating, allegedly carried out by Aedan Petros, a former football player who had played for Ford, was orchestrated by Ford, Petros, and a former football coach named Payman Abdoodowleh, because MacIntyre was threatening to expose Ford's drug use.

MacIntyre had been jailed in January 2012 after being arrested following an altercation with Ford. He was assaulted in jail in March 2012. He ultimately pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine and heroin and threatening to kill Ford. At his sentencing in June 2012, the judge referred to the jailhouse beating as "so-called jailhouse justice ... because of his being a bother to Mr. Ford". The judge never explained his comment, although it was widely reported. Ford's lawyer described the allegation as "insanity".

City councillor

Ford served three terms as city councillor from 2000 until October 2010, representing Ward 2 Etobicoke North. During his term as councillor, Ford was a strong critic of councillors' spending. Ford was known for his controversial comments and passionate arguments at Council.

Ford first ran for Toronto City Council in 1997, placing fourth to Gloria Lindsay Luby in Ward 3 Kingsway-Humber. Ford ran for councillor in Ward 2 Etobicoke North in the following election in 2000, getting the endorsement of the Toronto Star. Ford defeated incumbent Elizabeth Brown in what was considered one of several upsets in Etobicoke. According to Ford, "the people said they wanted change and they got change".

Ward 2 is located in the north-west corner of the city in the former city of Etobicoke. The ward's population of over 50,000 in 2006 was 53% composed of immigrants, the largest group being South Asians. It is mixed in nature with 40% of dwellings being single-family detached homes and 35% being high-rise apartments. It is also known as an area that has seen gang violence, including six murders in 2000.

Ford had previously resided in the ward, but moved in 2000 prior to the election, after his marriage, to Ward 4. In 2003, Ford was re-elected with 80% of the vote in Ward 2, defeating two candidates from the local Somali community. In the 2006 election, Ford won again, defeating Somali-Canadian candidate Cadigia Ali, this time with 66% of the vote.

2001 municipal budget

It was during the 2001 budget deliberations that Ford earned a reputation for passionate speeches. The City was facing a several hundred million budget shortfall, enough to require a 32% tax increase after services were downloaded from the Government of Ontario. Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman was pleading with other governments for financial assistance. According to Don Wanagas, the National Post City Hall columnist, the other councillors began to dread when Ford rose to speak. "I have to give my head a shake because some of the rhetoric that comes out of the mouths of some of these councillors boggles my mind, I swear. ... Get the government out of our backyards. It's ridiculous. Government red tape here. Bureaucratic here. It's nonsense having all this government. And it's nonsense. It's so ridiculous. If you don't like what the province is doing, there's going to be an election in June of '03 – before our election, by the way." Councillor Anne Johnston proposed giving Ford a "neo-con award of the day", while councillor Joe Pantalone advised Ford to take Prozac. Ford argued against spending money on the suicide prevention barrier on the Prince Edward Viaduct, and spending it instead on rounding up child molesters "who are the main cause of people jumping off bridges."

Ford proposed a cut to each councillor's $200,000 office budget, money for travel to conferences, ending city limousine usage and club memberships. According to Ford, "if we wiped out the perks for council members, we'd save $100 million easy." Ford was one of only four councillors who voted against a 5% increase in property taxes for 2001. Ford made a point of not using his allotted city budget for his office expenses, paying for the expenses from his salary. He claimed $10 for his first year, and $4 for his second year. In Ford's opinion, "all this office budget stuff is self-promotion to benefit yourself. Why should the taxpayers have to pay for it? It boggles my mind."

2002 municipal budget

During the debates around the 2002 municipal budget, Ford and Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti got in several heated exchanges, where Mammolitti called Ford a "goon" and Ford called Mammolitti a "scammer". The argument got heated to the point where Ford called Mammolitti a "Gino-boy". Mammolitti called the insult a "racist remark" and filed a complaint with the city's human-rights office. Three councillors stated that they heard the insult said by Ford, who denied it. Ford dismissed the councillors stating that they were liars if they thought he had made a racist remark. "I'm a conservative and the majority of people are left-wing and cannot stand my politics." The exchanges led councillor Pam McConnell to complain about 'testosterone poisoning' in the chamber. Ford extended his exchanges outside the chamber with columnist John Barber of The Globe and Mail: "I am not a racist. Anyone who calls me a racist is going to face the consequences!", to which Barber replied "You are a racist."

2003 municipal election

In the 2003 municipal election, Ford endorsed twelve political candidates on a platform of fiscal responsibility to take on fellow councillors: "We just need to get rid of these lifelong politicians that just give out money to special interest groups and don't serve the community. I'm really teed off. We need to get a new council or this city is going to go down the drain." Ford targeted Brian Ashton, Maria Augimeri, Sandra Bussin, Olivia Chow, Pam McConnell, Howard Moscoe and Sherene Shaw. Shaw was defeated by Ford's future budget chief Michael Del Grande, while the rest were re-elected.

Ford made a priority of responding to local constituents' problems, often returning calls himself or meeting with city staff to resolve problems. In 2005, local radio station AM 640 tested councillors on their response by having a reporter make an after-hours call to report a pothole. Ford was one of only three councillors to call back in person, within a day. His zeal in attending to constituents' problems became a competitive rivalry with fellow councillors Howard Moscoe and Gloria Lindsay Luby.

In June 2006, Ford spoke out against the city donating $1.5 million to help prevent AIDS, arguing that most taxpayers should not be concerned with AIDS. Ford publicly apologized for the comments in May 2010 during his mayoral campaign after his opponent, George Smitherman, called Ford's character into question over the remarks. At a council meeting on March 5, 2008, Ford stated "Those Oriental people work like dogs", a remark he later formally apologized for but stating that he meant it as a compliment.

On March 7, 2007, Ford spoke out against cyclists sharing roads with motorists, which were "built for buses, cars, and trucks, not for people on bikes". As councillor, Ford opposed the installation of bike lanes on University Avenue and Jarvis Street and during his election campaign proposed spending money on off-road cycle paths. Bike lanes were installed on Jarvis in 2010 over the objection of traffic advocates, and Ford made it a priority to get them removed during his campaign, and as mayor he was able to get council to reverse the decision in 2011, a move which was criticized by cycling advocates and led to protests. The Jarvis bike lanes, which cost the city $86,000 to install in 2011, were removed in December 2012 at a cost to the city of $200,000–$300,000. At the same time, physically separated bike lanes on Sherbourne Street were installed. Toronto Cyclist Union president Andrea Garcia praised the Sherbourne lanes installation: "Cities all across North America that are doing way more innovative things for cyclists have been building separated bike lanes for a long time...It's great to finally see Toronto catch up." However, she also regretted the loss of lanes on Jarvis: "People live and work and go to school on both of these streets and they all need a safe way to get to these places."

2010 Toronto mayoral election

Ford was elected mayor with 383,501 votes (47%) over George Smitherman's 289,832 (35.6%) and Joe Pantalone with 95,482 (11.7%). The voter turnout was around 52% of registered voters, the highest in Toronto's post-amalgamation history. Ward-by-ward electoral results showed that Ford had won all of the former pre-amalgamation suburbs, while Smitherman topped districts in the pre-amalgamation Toronto districts. Ford also received 80,000 votes from the "Downtown 13" wards, or 20% of his total votes. Ford ran on a populist platform of fiscal conservatism and subway expansion.

Mayor

After the election, Ford had outgoing councillor Case Ootes, a former City of Toronto budget chief, head the "transition team." From his campaign team, Ford named Nick Kouvalis as his chief of staff; Mark Towhey, who had drafted his campaign platform, as his policy advisor; and Adrienne Batra, his communications advisor, as press secretary. Councillor Doug Holyday, who had helped elect Doug Ford Sr., was named deputy mayor. For the Executive Committee of City Council, Ford named councillors who had endorsed him in his campaign. For the inauguration ceremony at the first meeting of the new council, Ford had television commentator Don Cherry introduce him and put the chain of office on him. Cherry garnered some controversy with his remarks. Cherry described how Ford had reversed a mistake of city staff cutting down a tree of a Toronto property owner for no good reason and then billing the property owner, who suffered from Alzheimer's. Cherry added "Put that in your pipe you left-wing kooks" and, in regards to the pink suit he was wearing, "I'm wearing pinko for all the pinkos out there that ride bicycles and everything, I thought I'd get it in." During the summer of 2013, City Council endorsed a plan to modify the proposed LRT replacement and extension of the Scarborough RT into the Scarborough Subway Expansion fulfilling one of Ford's main campaign promises. This project was later approved and received funding both provincially and federally.

2014 election

Ford registered on January 2, 2014, as a candidate in the fall's mayoral election. Ford participated in several debates but went on a leave of absence in May and June to deal with his substance abuse issues after a video surfaced of him smoking crack cocaine. Ford returned from his leave of absence in July and was polling in second place, behind John Tory and ahead of Olivia Chow. On September 12, 2014, Ford suddenly withdrew his candidacy due to the discovery of a tumour in his abdomen which was suspected to be, and subsequently confirmed to be cancerous. His brother, Doug Ford, registered as a mayoral candidate in Rob Ford's place and the mayor instead registered as a candidate for city councillor in his old constituency of Ward 2 Etobicoke North. Doug Ford, with 33% of the vote, was defeated in the October 27 mayoral election by Tory, who received 40%, while Rob Ford was successful in Ward 2 being elected with 58% of the vote. Ford's term as mayor ended on November 30, 2014. He stated that he intended to run for mayor again in 2018.

Substance abuse incidents

On April 15, 2006, Ford attended a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game at the Air Canada Centre. Visibly intoxicated and belligerent, he began to insult a couple seated behind him, who were visiting from out of town. Two security guards escorted Ford out of the building. When confronted about the episode three days later by a National Post reporter, Ford initially denied having been at the game. He later told the Toronto Star: "This is unbelievable, I wasn't even at the game, so someone's trying to do a real hatchet job on me, let me tell you", but later on said: "I reflected on it last night, and talked to my family. I came forward and admitted it. That's all I can do. I mean, I'm not perfect," said Ford. "Being in politics, you're in the spotlight all the time. I made a mistake. I made a major mistake. I really regret it."

During his 2010 mayoral campaign, a 1999 arrest of Ford in Miami, Florida for driving under the influence (DUI) and marijuana possession became an election issue when the Toronto Star published details of the arrest. Ford pleaded no contest to the DUI charge, while the marijuana charge was withdrawn. Ford was given a fine.

At Saint Patrick's Day festivities in March 2012, Ford was "very intoxicated" at City Hall and a downtown restaurant. According to those attending, Ford held a "wild party" in his office. Ford knocked down a staffer, insulted others, then went to the BierMarkt restaurant. After "flailing around" on the restaurant's dance floor, Ford returned to City Hall by cab, making racial slurs to the driver. The Mayor then wandered around City Hall after 2 am with a bottle of brandy, swearing at his staffer Earl Provost before security arranged for him to be taken home. The incident was revealed in November 2013 after an e-mail from a City Hall security guard describing the incident was found through Access to Information requests.

On August 11, 2016 the original video of Rob Ford smoking crack was released from publication ban by the Toronto Police Service after the extortion charge against Sandro Lisi was dropped. The cellphone video was recorded "surreptitiously" by Mohamed Siad in May 2013. The video shows Ford smoking crack from a glass pipe. His words are slurred and mostly inaudible during the conversation. Shortly before he admitted smoking crack, Ford said, "Whatever this video shows... Toronto residents deserve to see it and people need to judge for themselves what they see on this video."

Illness and death

After developing severe abdominal pains, Ford was admitted to Humber River Regional Hospital in North York in September 2014 with an abdominal tumour, and a biopsy was taken. Ford announced that he would not run in the 2014 Toronto mayoral election because of his illness; his brother Doug would run in his place. Ford chose to run for his former Ward 2 seat on the City Council. He was likely to shortly begin treatment with multiple chemotherapy agents; the doctor did not say whether Ford would need to have surgery or radiation treatments.

On September 17, 2014, Dr. Zane Cohen of Mount Sinai Hospital (the lead doctor of Ford's health care team) revealed that Ford had been diagnosed with pleomorphic liposarcoma, a rare form of cancer that arises in adipose tissue. Ford was treated with chemotherapy and surgery. After chemotherapy and radiation therapy, Ford announced in a press conference that he was going to have a lengthy surgery done on May 11, 2015, to remove the tumour. He said he would be "out of commission" for four months. At a community barbecue hosted by the Ford family in 2015, Rob Ford announced that doctors had cleared him of cancerous tumours.

On October 28, 2015, Ford revealed, and his physician confirmed, that a new tumour was growing on his bladder. The next day, Doug Ford advised reporters that the tumour had been found to be cancerous and consistent with liposarcoma (the previous tumour), based on a CT scan.

On March 17, 2016, Ford's office announced he was in the hospital "with his family beside him" as chemotherapy treatment had not been successful, and Ford's health was being reviewed to determine if he could continue treatment. The Ford family thanked the many who had wished the former mayor well in recent weeks, but requested privacy. A Rob Ford "get-well-soon" website was set up by the Ford family to send positive messages to Ford while he received cancer treatment; it received over 5,000 messages from well-wishers in the first two weeks after its creation.

On March 21, 2016, Ford's office confirmed that he had been placed into palliative care at Mount Sinai Hospital. Ford died the following day at the age of 46. After his death, City Hall started an official period of mourning. Flags at municipal buildings were lowered to half-mast, a book of condolences was started at City Hall, chalk provided for personal messages on the pavement of Nathan Phillips Square, similar to that after the death of Jack Layton, and the dimming of the 'Toronto' sign at the square. Visitations for the former mayor were held at City Hall with the Ford family present. On March 30, a public funeral service was held at St. James Cathedral followed by a public commemoration of his life at the Toronto Congress Centre in the evening. Ford's burial was at Riverside Cemetery in Etobicoke where his father is also buried.