Rob Ford has made his exit. In many ways, it’s an untimely end for the mayor who smoked crack while in office and earned worldwide fame (or infamy, depending on your point of view) for his blustering denials. It is most certainly a sad end to the life of a once-vibrant politician who brought a zest to Toronto municipal politics not seen in some time.
Once upon a time, Rob Ford was a student at Carleton. The academic year was 1989-90, Ford was a benchwarmer on the school’s cellar-dwelling football team, and it remains unclear why the eventual Toronto mayor left the school after just one year.
Nine rounds of chemotherapy weren’t able to slow the progress of Ford’s aggressive liposarcoma. He didn’t make it to his 47th birthday, which would have been in May.
No 46-year-old should be the subject of a newspaper obituary or television tribute, and certainly not Rob Ford.
As a politician, he was brash, anti-establishment, and in some ways successful. His budgets were typically good and his persona brought out the highest voter turnout numbers in Toronto history. In other ways, he was a failure. Numerous labour disputes, an awkward and often conflicted transportation policy, and his numerous displays of public intoxication leave his legacy up in the air.
How many Canadian mayors can say they appeared on prime time American television? Rob Ford can. How many Canadian mayors can say they have been arrested in multiple countries? Rob Ford can. How many Canadian mayors can say they inspired serious political passion throughout different age demographics at the municipal level? Rob Ford can—maybe not for the reasons he originally intended when he took office in 2010, but he can.
A haunting sequence from Ford’s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live echoes, “It’s your own fault [you’re here], because you give your phone number out to everybody and I got a hold of it—imagine my shock when you actually answered it,” Kimmel chuckled, sharpening his pickaxe.
“Absolutely, [I’m] all about customer service,” Ford responded seriously.
It’s jarring to watch in hindsight.
By that time, Ford was clearly unwell—the cancer likely already present, stressed by both the mayoral campaign and his scandals being made public—yet opened himself up to questions the same way he opened himself up to every single one of his constituents by making his cell number public.
That’s the Rob Ford that should be remembered following his untimely death. The well-intentioned Ford who inspired interest in municipal politics and wanted to be held accountable for his job despite the jagged nature of his life away from the public eye.
