Rob Ford - Ford Nation: Two Brothers, One Vision

You never beat cancer, thats one thing. Theres no new tumours, thats great... [If] I had to do this for the rest of my life, I have no problem doing it. The alternative, I dont want to be pushing up tulips in the next few years, which I could have been doing. I would have been dead by now. Something has happened for a reason, and I want to thank whoever, my dad, or the good Lord, for making this happen. It might sound crazy to you, but I cant thank people enough for their support.

R OB F ORD, IN AN INTERVIEW ON AM640S B ILL C ARROLL S HOW , O CTOBER 1, 2015

E lection night for the Toronto 2010 municipal election was held on October 25. It would make a good story to say it was a nail-biter, but it really wasnt. Rob Ford, my younger brother, was announced as the winner almost immediatelynot much more than six minutes into the ballot counting. Rob had won the election with almost 400,000 votes. The next closest was the downtown left-wing favourite, Furious George Smitherman, at 289,000. Voter turnout that year was over 50 percent, the highest the city had seen in a long time.

Robs campaign had been a roller coaster ride from the start, and wed had lots of opportunities to worry about his prospects; Robs no-bullshit attitude and dedication to fiscal responsibility had already made him unpopular with a lot of the elites. But we also had no idea that he was leading a surge of populist solidarityregular people who, regardless of the way theyd voted in the past, were sick of lacklustre politics as usual. With Robs victory, these people had spoken.

Rob was inaugurated in early December. Don Cherry, of course, was a huge highlight at Robs inauguration ceremony. Don was a big supporter of Robs. I believe theyd gotten to know each other after Don listened to Rob on AM640. Robs views werent too far off Dons own opinions. Anyone whos ever watched Coachs Corner knows that Don is a pretty direct, tell-it-like-it-is kind of guy, so we decided that we were going to have him come and put the chain of office around Robs neck.

Although his speech was meant to be funny and lighthearted, Don still had some important things to say, especially when he related a story about how Rob helped an older woman get reimbursed (to the tune of $5,000, no less) after the city cut down a century-old tree in her yard... and then stuck her with the bill. Cherry concluded by saying, And thats why I say hes going to be the greatest mayor this city has ever seen, as far as Im concerned, and put that in your pipe, you left-wing kooks. Thank you very much.

Naturally, a bunch of the left-leaning councillors in the crowd were pissed off about Cherrys speech. Some of them even turned their chairs around and showed their backs when Don was speakingbut many of the same people were in line to get his autograph after the TV cameras were off. (Looking back on it now, that was a symbol of all the craziness to come over the next few years.)

After Cherrys speech, Rob gave his own remarks. He congratulated each councillor on being elected and told everyone that it feels great to help people. In my opinion, he came across as humble. In fact, as I listened to my brother, I felt that his inauguration speech kind of showed his natural shyness. That shyness was a side of Rob not many people understood.

Id just been voted in as councillor of Ward 2, Etobicoke North, Robs old seat. For my part, Id never been more proud of Rob, and with the campaigning and election behind usnot to mention the most memorable inauguration in Torontos historyit was time to get to work. But just as we hadnt predicted the populism that had brought Rob to victory, we also didnt know the extent of the opposition already lining up against him. This opposition included political rivals and a relentless media, who were intent on ensuring that Robs every move would be shown in the spotlight.

F AST FORWARD TO August 11, 2016almost six months after Rob succumbed to cancer. The publication ban was lifted on the so-called crack video that had sidelined the last year of his mayoralty and revealed an alcohol addiction that eventually led him to rehab. The crack video isnt very long, not much more than a minute. It shows my brother in an obviously impaired state and, yes, he smokes something out of a pipe. Im not making excuses for what Rob is shown to do in the video, or the things hes pressed into saying while impaired. But my question is, whats the point of releasing this video? Rob is gone, but much of the media still seems to have it out for him.

When the video was made public, my first reaction was one of utter disgust. Robs immediate familyhis wife, Renata, and his children, Stephanie and Dougieare still reeling from his death at age 46. This video has kicked them while theyre already down. But the impact on Robs family has never seemed of much concern to the mainstream media. From the day Rob announced his plan to run for mayor of Toronto, the media descended like vultures.

And the spotlight wasnt just confined to Rob, Renata and their kids; it was also turned on my wife and daughters, as well as our mother and other siblings. We had a steady stream of journalists at our homes in Etobicoke, at our family cottage, at our places of work. Our feeling was that the mediapredominantly the left-wing outlets such as the Star and The Globe and Mailwere waiting for any crumb of news, no matter how tiny (or how irrelevant, as in the case of the video released after the person in it had died), which they could use to take down a non-establishment political figure like Rob. When I think about it that way, I guess its no surprise that our family was treated like collateral damage. Never in Canadian politics has the mainstream media had a vendetta against someone to the extent they did against my brother.

R OB AND I sat down and started to work on this book in the winter of 2016 . Unfortunately, his health declined soon thereafter and he wasnt able to participate in the book the way we had planned. I spoke to him about the book more than once before he passed away, and he insisted that we complete it if he wasnt around to do so. He was too sick to do any interviews for the book, as he needed all his strength for the various treatments, and then he became so sick that there was no longer any question about his participating further in the book at all. His family came first, as it always had.

After Rob died and the funeral was over and everything calmed down a bit, I talked to the family about the book, and we agreed that, as Rob had wanted, we would finish it. We decided we wouldnt put words in Robs mouth. Instead, we decided to let Rob speak for himself, drawing on various press conferences and interviews hes done over the years. Youll read Robs own words throughout the book, his opinions and perspectives, as I tell the story of Rob, me and our family, and what really happened. This is as much Robs book as it is mine. We are partners on this bookco-authorsas we were in life. We are also fortunate to have additional remarks from our mother, Diane, our nephew Michael, and Robs wife, Renata. I believe their commentary adds balance to mine and also reveals more about Rob Ford the person.

I know our family has been described (some might say accused) as highly political, as if weve always had some kind of secret long-term plan. But that isnt it. We were never into secret plans or backroom strategy at all. My dadthe first Ford to hold political officejust didnt operate that way, and Rob and I took our example from him. The first time I heard us called the Canadian Kennedys, I got ticked off. We never had anything in common with a family like that. But then I had to laugh about it, because it was such bullshit. We just represent the people, and thats it. Were about as grassroots as they come. That was a bit of a problem with Rob, actually. Sometimes he was too average and grassroots; he would forget he was mayor and get himself too involved in the problems he was trying to fix. In any case, theres never been a vault in the house on Weston Wood Road where we keep the top secret Ford-family strategic plan.