You probably remember the video. Or at least, the headlines about the video. A sweating, red-faced man in a cheap suit, arguably the most powerful politician in Canada’s largest city, caught on camera in a "drunken stupor."
When people think of Rob Ford, the Canadian mayor who became a global punchline, they usually start and end with the crack cocaine scandal. But if you only look at the late-night talk show clips from Jimmy Kimmel or Jon Stewart, you're missing the point. You're missing why he won.
He was a hurricane. A polarizing, populist force that shifted the DNA of Canadian politics forever. Honestly, he was "Trump before Trump" in a lot of ways—right down to the war with the media and the fiercely loyal base that refused to quit him, no matter how many police reports surfaced.
The Rise of Rob Ford: The Canadian Mayor Nobody Saw Coming
Before he was a international meme, Rob Ford was just a guy from Etobicoke who hated seeing taxpayer money "wasted." He spent ten years as a city councillor, basically acting like a human wrecking ball against the status quo.
He didn't just talk about "stopping the gravy train." He lived it. Sorta.
Ford famously refused to use his office budget for things like stamps or paperclips, paying for them out of his own pocket. He spent his weekends personally calling back constituents who had complaints about potholes or uncollected garbage. To the elites downtown, he was a nuisance. To the "suburbanites" who felt ignored by City Hall, he was a hero.
In 2010, he ran for mayor. The experts laughed.
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They said he was too crude, too unpolished. Then the votes came in. He won with 47% of the vote. It wasn't even close. He had successfully tapped into a deep-seated anger among the working class. It’s a playbook we’ve seen a thousand times since, but in Toronto in 2010, it felt like an earthquake.
That Infamous 2013 Scandal
Everything changed in May 2013. Gawker and the Toronto Star dropped a bombshell: they had seen a video of the mayor smoking crack.
Ford’s reaction? Total denial. "I do not use crack cocaine," he told the press. He stood on his lawn and shouted at reporters to get off his property. It was chaos. For months, it was a "he said, she said" between the mayor and the biggest newspapers in the country.
Then came the police.
In October 2013, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair confirmed they had the video. It was found on a hard drive during a gang raid. Suddenly, the denials stopped. Well, they changed. On November 5, 2013, Ford stood in front of microphones and admitted it.
"Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine. But am I an addict? No. Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors, probably approximately a year ago."
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It was a surreal moment in political history. He didn't resign. He didn't hide. He just kept showing up to work, even after City Council stripped him of most of his powers. He was a mayor in name only, yet his approval ratings in certain parts of the city actually went up.
The Politics of "Ford Nation"
You’ve got to understand the "Ford Nation" phenomenon to understand why he survived so long. It wasn't about the drugs for them. It was about the fact that he was "their guy."
He was messy. He was flawed. He was a "profoundly human guy," as John Tory later put it.
His supporters didn't care about the 911 calls, the public intoxication, or the fact that he was often caught on camera slurring his speech. They cared that he wanted to cut the land transfer tax. They liked that he hated bike lanes. When the media attacked him, his base saw it as an attack on them.
A Career Cut Short by Cancer
By 2014, Ford was running for re-election. Despite everything, he had a real shot at winning again. Then, a different kind of disaster struck.
In September 2014, he was hospitalized with "unbearable" abdominal pain. Doctors found a 12-centimetre tumor. It was pleomorphic liposarcoma—a rare, aggressive form of cancer that grows in the fat cells.
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He dropped out of the mayoral race, letting his brother Doug Ford run in his place (Doug lost to John Tory, but would later become the Premier of Ontario). Rob didn't leave politics, though. He ran for his old council seat in Etobicoke and won in a landslide. Even while undergoing brutal rounds of chemotherapy, he wanted to be at City Hall.
He died on March 22, 2016. He was only 46.
What We Can Learn From the Ford Legacy
Looking back, Rob Ford, the Canadian mayor who broke all the rules, left a complicated map for the future of politics. He showed that personal scandal isn't the career-ender it used to be, provided you have a base that feels "heard" by you.
If you're trying to understand modern populism, start with Toronto.
- Responsiveness matters: Ford’s habit of answering his own phone built a loyalty that survived a crack scandal. People will forgive a lot if they think you'll fix their pothole.
- The "Us vs. Them" Narrative: He successfully framed the media and the "downtown elites" as the enemy of the average taxpayer.
- The Durability of Flaws: In a world of over-sanitized politicians, Ford's glaring, public struggles made him feel authentic to people who were also struggling.
The story isn't just about a video. It's about a shift in how voters relate to leaders. It’s about the anger of the suburbs versus the polish of the city. Whether you loved him or hated him, you can't deny that Rob Ford changed the room he walked into.
Next Steps for Understanding This Era: Check out the book The Only Average Guy by John Filion for a nuanced look at Ford’s psychology. Or, if you want the investigative side, Robyn Doolittle’s Crazy Town remains the definitive account of the reporting that brought the scandal to light.