He became mired in controversy soon after taking office.
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If his term had ended after two years Ford’s time in office may have been remembered for his unique brand of retail politics and the increased focus on cost-cutting that he brought to city hall.
The CBC, Toronto Star and Associated Press reported his death. But I have been writing about Toronto’s former mayor for years, and have no doubt that he would have been re-elected and still be mayor had he not been stricken with cancer. After he admitted smoking crack cocaine, he resisted efforts to remove him as mayor and vowed to run again.
At first, the rotund Ford denied using the drug, but he later acknowledged smoking crack cocaine in a “drunken stupor”, while saying he was not an addict. Ford would have turned 47 on May 28.
Major American media outlets including CNN, NBC and CBS all featured stories about Ford’s life and death on their homepages as top stories.
Throughout the scandal, he refused to step down as mayor.
Eventually the city council took action to reduce his budget and his mayoral authority, deferring many of duties to the deputy mayor.
Ford had been fighting cancer since 2014.
Robert Bruce Ford was born May 28, 1969, in Etobicoke, in Toronto’s west end.
Ford’s family has yet to announce funeral arrangements. Ford ran for city council – his old job – instead, and won election by a landslide.
True to his word, Rob Ford entered rehab and emerged a man committed to remaining sober for the good of his family and those he served.
Ford’s voter base resided mainly in the outer suburbs, a result of the Conservative provincial government’s decision to force liberal Toronto to merge with five of its neighboring municipalities in 1998, creating a mega-city that now has 2.7million residents.
He wasn’t afraid to laugh at his own expense.
“My deepest condolences go out to his family and his children”.
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford speaks to supporters in Toronto on Monday, October 27, 2014. He eliminated a vehicle registration fee to turn back the “war on the auto”.
Rob Ford, right centre, is helped with his jacket by his sobriety coach Bob Marier, left centre, while his driver and personal security guard Jerry Agyemang, left, and Communications Officer Amin Massoudi look on as they arrive at an announcement at a TTC transit yard in Toronto on Friday, July 11, 2014. Ford promised to “bore, bore, bore” for subways rather than agree to traffic- clogging light rail but never detailed how the city would pay for the new transportation.
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Ford, who had been serving as Toronto city councillor, underwent surgery for the cancer in 2015, but months later, doctors found two new tumors.
