The Life and Legacy of Rob Ford

Robert Bruce Ford — “Robbie” to family, “Coach” to the boys of the Don Bosco Eagles, “Mayor Ford” to the history books — was born in Toronto on May 28, 1969 and died there on March 22, 2016. He was forty-six years old.

Early Years in Etobicoke

The youngest of four, Rob grew up in a noisy house on Weston Wood Road. His father, Doug Ford Sr., sat in the Ontario legislature for a single term beginning in 1995 and spent the rest of his working life running Deco Labels, the family-owned labelling business that would eventually employ Rob, his brother Doug, and a long rotation of cousins, old friends, and second chances.

Rob played football at Scarlett Heights Collegiate and later at Carleton University, where he joined the Ravens for a single season in 1989 before the injuries that would follow him the rest of his life caught up. He transferred back to Toronto and finished a degree in political science.

City Hall, 2000–2010

Rob ran for Ward 2 Etobicoke North in 2000 and won by a narrow margin. He was thirty-one. From the start he kept an unusually direct line to his constituents: the home phone number in the phone book, a personal answering machine that he listened to late at night, and a habit of driving himself to the homes of people who called with broken streetlights or dumped furniture. For ten years as a councillor he ran expenses through his own pocket rather than claim allowances, often to the frustration of the staff assigned to help him.

Mayor, 2010–2014

In October 2010 Rob Ford was elected the 64th Mayor of Toronto with 383,501 votes, the largest popular vote total in the city’s history. He governed with a short list of priorities: cut what he called the “gravy” inside city operations, contract out garbage collection west of Yonge Street, end the vehicle registration tax, and build more subways.

His four years in office were, by any honest accounting, a storm. There were fights with council, investigations, a removal from office that was itself overturned, and a personal crisis that played out on a public stage. There was also, quietly, a balanced budget, a thousand fewer positions on the city payroll, and a subway extension to Scarborough that broke ground on his watch.

Return to Ward 2, 2014–2016

Diagnosed with liposarcoma in September 2014, Rob withdrew from the mayoral race and ran instead for his old council seat. He won easily. For the next eighteen months he attended committee meetings between rounds of chemotherapy, answered constituent calls from his hospital room, and wrote a weekly column for the local paper. He was never out of office.

The Coach

Through all of it Rob coached. The Don Bosco Eagles, a high school football program in Rexdale, was his — even when the school board asked him to stop, even when his illness made the sidelines impossible. Former players filled the messages on this memorial site by the hundreds. Several credit him for their college scholarships. A few credit him for keeping them alive.

Family

Rob is survived by his wife Renata, whom he married in 2000, and their children Stephanie and Douglas. He is survived by his mother Diane, his brothers Doug and Randy, and his sister Kathy. He was predeceased by his father, Doug Sr., in 2006.

The Funeral

The service was held on March 30, 2016 at St. James Cathedral in downtown Toronto. It was broadcast on CP24 and filled the pews with a mix of current and former council members, football players from Don Bosco in their red-and-black jerseys, longtime Ward 2 constituents, and ordinary people from across the city. The procession from the cathedral to the graveside at Riverside Cemetery passed slowly along streets where residents stood on their front lawns.

Rob Ford’s name is now on a memorial bench outside the Etobicoke Civic Centre and on the plaque at the front door of Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School. The thousands of messages that appear on this website remain, for many people who knew him only through the news, the plainest record of what he was to the people he served every day.