Final Farewell to former Toronto mayor Rob Ford

Hundreds of mourners have gathered at city hall and at St. James Cathedral in advance of the funeral of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford today.

The crowd sang “When the Saints Go Marching In” as Ford’s casket was loaded onto a hearse just after 11 a.m. for the procession from city hall to the cathedral for a noon funeral that will be open to the public.

Members of the close-knit Ford family had gathered earlier at city hall, where Ford’s body has laid in repose for the past two days, and have invited those gathered at Nathan Phillips Square to join them walking to the church.

Rob Ford, the long-time Toronto politician who became known for his personal troubles as much as his penny-pinching ways on city council, died at the age of 46.

Ford passed away early March 22 at Mount Sinai Hospital following a battle with a rare and aggressive form of soft tissue cancer known as pleomorphic liposarcoma.

A larger-than-life personality who once famously called himself “300 pounds of fun,” Ford was first elected as city councillor for Ward 2 in 2000. As a rookie politician, Ford built a name for himself by railing against councillor office budgets, using his own money to pay for his expenses and giving his cellphone number out to any constituent that needed his help.

Controversy, however, was never far behind.

He was often accused of making offensive speeches on the floor of council, on one occasion calling Italian-Canadian councillor Giorgio Mammoliti a “Gino boy” and on another speaking out against donating money to AIDS research because “If you are not doing needles and you are not gay” you won’t get the disease.

Ford was also forced to deliver more than his share of apologies

In 2006, he apologized for drunkenly accosting two fans at a Maple Leafs game after initially denying that he was even at the arena. Later as a mayoral candidate he came clean about a 1999 impaired driving arrest. Through it all, his popularity only seemed to rise.

“He evokes a sympathy that is unique,” former councillor Karen Stintz once told The Canadian Press. “People continue to forgive his indiscretions because they identify with him or feel sympathy with him.”

A people’s politician

Ford was not the most eloquent politician but what he lacked in polish he made up for with a unique ability to connect with people. From regular visits to crumbling Toronto Community Housing buildings to personally returning phone calls from constituents seeking his help in getting a pothole fixed, Ford was someone who always seemed to have time for Torontonians.

By the time he was elected mayor by a landslide in 2010, Ford had in fact become a working class hero of sorts, telling an estimated 5,000 people at his victory celebration that they had together built a coalition of voters to “put an end to wasteful spending” and “respect the taxpayers’ money.”

As the city’s chief magistrate, Ford then helped wipe out a controversial vehicle registration tax, got the TTC designated an essential service, privatized garbage collection west of Yonge Street and obtained major concessions in labour negotiations with two unions representing municipal workers. He also successfully convinced council to abandon a light-rail transit plan in favour of an underground subway for Scarborough, famously proclaiming that the people want “subways, subways, subways” during one impassioned speech.

What set Ford apart from other politicians wasn’t his policies, though. It was the brand he tirelessly cultivated.

Despite his upbringing as the son of a wealthy businessman and Progressive Conservative party backbencher, Ford successfully portrayed himself as a regular guy and spoke out against the “downtown elites” that he claimed had an outsized role in Toronto politics. Each summer, he’d throw a barbecue at his mother’s house dubbed Ford Fest and invite Torontonians far and wide. Out in public, he’d never refuse a request for a photo, sometimes creating a minor disturbance as dozens of people at whatever event he was attending lined up to meet him.

Crack scandal

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.

Instead, Ford is more likely to be remembered for the scandal that erupted in 2013 when the Toronto Star and Gawker printed a story detailing a video in which Ford was seen smoking crack cocaine with alleged members of the Dixon City Bloods.

The story and the circus that ensued soon became international news.

There was a seemingly endless supply of video footage showing Ford in various states of inebriation, stories of him drinking in his office and being drunk in public, allegations of him cavorting with gang members and a police investigation that ultimately culminated in charges against Ford’s friend and occasional driver for his alleged attempts to recover the video using extortion.

As the story grew, Ford continuously denied having any sort of substance abuse problem and waged war of words against the Toronto Star for printing the stories.

That all changed in November, 2013 when Ford walked out of an elevator, greeted the throng of reporters that had become accustomed to parking outside his office and said the words that many Torontonians were waiting months to hear – “Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine”

What followed was one of the weirdest periods in Toronto political history.

Various sources. cp24.com, CBC.ca, thestar.com, The Canadian Press.

~Wakenya Canada