Ford gets video tribute set to Puff Daddy song
Funeral for ex-Toronto mayor Wednesday
TORONTO — Rob Ford’s family has posted a video tribute to the controversial former mayor of Toronto set to a Puff Daddy song that was itself a tribute to murdered friend The Notorious B.I.G.
The four-minute video posted on YouTube features clips of supporters hugging Ford while Faith Evans’s voice from the track I’ll be Missing You plays.
Ford served as mayor from 2010 to 2014. He died of cancer, at the age of 46, on Tuesday.
Dan Jacobs, Ford’s chief of staff, says the video tribute was requested by his family and made by local filmmaker Tharanga Ramanayake.
The video shows Ford as mayor, and while he was running for reelection, talking about his track record, and encouraging people to vote.
One clip shows Ford dancing with Karen Stintz in July 2014 when they were both running for mayor.
That video was shot three months after the Toronto Sun reported that Ford made “lewd comments” about Stintz at a Toronto bar, for which Ford later apologized. The tribute video also shows supporters singing Ford’s praises. One woman, who is shown carrying three “Ford Nation” flags in one hand, says the scandal-plagued mayor was “a gift from heaven.”
“He came to my building. It was a ghetto building, too!” another supporter said. “I got to take a picture with him! That man’s a real celebrity. A real hero.”
Another clip shows the former mayor downplaying his Hollywood status.
“I don’t look at myself [that way],” he says. “I’m just an average person that watches taxpayers’ money, returns phone calls and does what the taxpayers want.”
On Monday, mourners can pay their respects to the late councillor as his body will lie in repose for two days at city hall.
A procession Wednesday morning will start from Toronto City Hall and end at St. James Cathedral, where a large funeral will be held. After the service, Ford’s family will leave for a private ceremony.
Jacobs said that the Ford family wants members of the public to continue sending their own short tribute videos and photographs to robfordmemorial@gmail.com for inclusion in a montage at Wednesday’s celebration of life.