The Crack-smoking Pothead Alcoholic Homophobic Mayor of Toronto!
“Rob Ford” was mayor of Toronto from 2010 to 2014. He stirred quite some controversy during his time in office. Much has been written and said about that. Here’s just the first year of mayoral key moments. He died of cancer in 2016. I still cannot stop laughing about him when I think of Ontario politics. Here’s to his legacy!
When in the latter year Torontonians expressed embarrassment about their mayor, I used to tell them that it is how I feel about Ahmadinejad being the Iranian president.
Bike lanes
In 2010, before he became mayor, in the city council he compared bicycling to “Swimming with the sharks. Sooner or later you will be beaten…”. Watch the short video.
As mayor, he spent up to $300 million to remove the Jarvis Street bike lane. Fortunately Toronto has great bike lanes these days.
Graffiti removal
In 2011 he kept with his campaign promise to “clean up the city”. He took it upon himself to remove graffiti from the city. Apparently he was not good at it.
They tried washing the graffiti, but since that did not work, they mostly just painted white on top of them, making neighborhoods particularly ugly.
In one incident, they painted over a mural on a concrete underpass on Dupont St. Turns out, the city had paid an artist $2,000 to paint that a couple years ago! He repainted it with money donated from local businesses.
Obviously graffiti artists did not sit still. Rob Ford stencils were painted all over town. Here’s a few.
Art bicycles
Another project of his city beautification campaign in 2011 involved removing abandoned bikes from around the city. They would tag bicycles with a notice that if they are not moved within a week, they risk removal. Let alone that some people voiced that they use their bike every day, and they park it in the same spot everyday. There's a more hilarious twist to the story.
There was an abandoned bicycle in front of a Dundas Street gallery. The gallery staff decided to make an art piece out of it, so they painted it neon red and put flowers in the bike’s basket. A couple days later they received one of those city slips about removal!
The issue became popular in the Toronto blogto website, and many wrote to their councilor to save the art bike. One councilor took it upon themselves to handle this. It worked, but then the city also decided to recruit local artists to paint dozens of abandoned bikes across the city neon!
What used to be a cool art bike, now became a nuisance across the city with these neon abandoned bikes taking up space on street bike racks. In one sighting on College Street I saw three blue neon bikes just within meters of each other. It completely ruined the concept.
Reading & driving
In 2012 Rob Ford was spotted at the Gardiner Expressway, driving while reading a newspaper. He later justified that with “having a busy life”!
A Toronto police Sergeant later said, directed at Ford: “'It is obvious that you are busy enough to require [a driver] and no amount of money you are saving by not having one is worth the life of one of your citizens.”
Knocks down city councilor
In 2013 he charged towards a female city councilor during a debate and almost knocked her down to the floor before other councilors rescued her.
Crack & alcohol
In 2013 his problems with substances surfaced in the news.
In November,, he denied the allegations. He admitted that he has smoked crack cocaine “probably in one of my drunken stupors, probably approximately about a year ago.”
The police chief revealed that they are in possession of the recovered video.
Later in front of the city council Ford apologized, but again, admitted to having bought illegal drugs within the past two years, and used them, but that he has no addiction to alcohol or illegal drugs: “just a few isolated incidents.”
He was reported drunk at work on numerous occasions.
In 2015 it surfaced that police officers had pulled over the mayor's car late at night on multiple occasions and driven him home rather than charging him for driving under the influence.
Jimmy Kimmel had the most fun with Ford on late night TV. Highlights.
Later a video appeared of an intoxicated Rob Ford talking in a Jamaican accent incoherently at a fastfood restaurant. Jimmy Kimmel was quick to cover it.
And then there was the city hall dance.
In August 2016 finally his video of smoking crack was publicly released outside of the courtroom.
Homophobia
When asked many months earlier in 2013 whether he would attend the Pride Parade, he said that he had a previous family commitment at the lake that weekend. Come Pride 2013, he begrudgingly attended and there was no family commitment apparently. Reportedly, he was uncomfortable holding up the rainbow flag.
In 2014 though, he unequivocally admitted that he skips Pride because it's “The Way I Am.”
Protest
In November 2013, there was a protest in front of the city hall against Rob Ford:
6 November 2013. “Rob Ford” protest. Toronto City Hall.
Rob Ford ran on a platform of “stopping the gravy train”. So someone was literally handing out gravy to passersby!
6 November 2013. “Rob Ford” protest. Toronto City Hall.
Rehab & relapse
During the 2014 mayoral campaign he became the center of late-night shows again, by going to rehab. Toronto Star reported that he was disruptive in rehab and had to be expelled from group sessions.
For a while his whereabouts were kept secret from the public. Conan even did a comedy sketch.
More than enough to eat at home
Last but definitely not least is when, in 2013, he said about his former special assistant, Olivia Gondek, on live TV:
“Oh the last thing was, Olivia Gondek says that I want to eat her pussy. I’ve never said that in my life to her. I would never do that. I’m happily married, I have more than enough to eat at home.”
Later that day he apologized, with his wife, Renata, by her side. She was not impressed.
The End
Rob Ford went to rehab for two months during the 2014 mayoral campaign, but he returned. Later, in September, he dropped out of the race when he realized he has cancer. His brother, Doug, took the nomination and lost to John Tory. Rob Ford had ambitions to run for mayor again in 2018, but he died of cancer on 22 March 2016.
Here’s an interview of him on World Cancer Day in 2015. And here’s Doug’s full eulogy, another populist speech.
I leave you with the top 10 Rob Ford videos of all time, Rob Ford’s most unforgettable quotes, and last but not least: “According to Rob Ford”.
3 May 2024
Edmonton
[CC BY]
2 December 2013. Limited-edition bobblehead of Rob Ford. Toronto