Wednesday was a difficult day for family, friends, and admirers of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, whose recent passing was marked with a funeral service at Saint James Cathedral in Ontario’s capital city. An often controversial and irreverent public figure, Ford died last week after suffering from cancer. He was 46-years-old.
Rob Ford’s widow, Renata, was in attendance at the funeral, along with their two young children. Daughter Stephanie Ford moved the audience of mourners by assuring them that her father is “the mayor of Heaven now,” as reported by the Toronto Star .
According to CNN , Rob Ford suffered from a particularly aggressive form of cancer and was surrounded by friends and family as he received palliative care, a level of treatment similar to hospice, during the final days of his illness.
Ford garnered international coverage in 2013 during his stint as Toronto mayor when a video surfaced that ostensibly showed him smoking crack. Although Rob Ford initially denied using the illegal drug, he acknowledged engaging in excessive use of alcohol on numerous occasions and eventually said he might have used crack at some point during one of his “drunken stupors.” He ultimately received substance abuse treatment and returned to work.
Although Rob Ford attempted to seek reelection for his mayor’s seat in 2014, he eventually withdrew from the race in 2014 and opted to serve on Toronto’s city council , as noted by the New York Times . Ford was still a member of that governing body at the time of his death.
In the wake of his passing, a number of media outlets have undertaken various and sundry analyses of Rob Ford’s political legacy. Their conclusions yield a mixed bag, at best. In a detailed summary, the Torontoist notes that Ford’s policies and practices brought harm to some groups in the city and permanently lowered the bar for political discourse. Ford drew particular scrutiny for his opposition to an AIDS education initiative in 2006 in which he made public statements that clearly displayed his ignorance regarding how the disease is spread.
“Rob Ford combined [his] lack of civic knowledge with hungry political ambition to create the absolute worst kind of politician. He relentlessly celebrated his own civic ignorance and did so at the expense of others.”
Andray Domise of the website TVO suggested that the kind of incendiary rhetoric and vitriol that Rob Ford inspired in his supporters was something of a precedent to the rise of Donald Trump in the United States.
“We speak of Ford Nation — a collection of the aggrieved, the disillusioned, the fed-up taxpayers of Toronto – as though they constitute a legitimate political bloc. Yet we failed to collectively confront and reject what Rob Ford created: a final enclave for open bigotry in Toronto. Ford Nation was in many ways a prototype for the Donald Trump brand; the dying scream of nativism against the corrupting forces of multiculturalism and political correctness.”
Nevertheless, Rob Ford’s tone and tactics were appreciated by many, including Former Ontario premier Mike Harris, who was also on hand at the ceremony. He was the first of several speakers to eulogize Rob Ford, praising the former Toronto mayor for his infectious charisma.
“Rob inspired people, by his words and his actions, to get involved with their city,” Mike Harris said. “What a breath of fresh air he was at city hall.”
[Photo by Aaron Vincent Elkaim/Getty Images]
