Adulation and infamy mark memorial for former mayor
‘Ford Nation’ will endure, brother vows at funeral service
With her mother beside her, Rob Ford’s daughter Stephanie stepped to the pulpit in a downtown Toronto cathedral Wednesday to eulogize her father.
“I remember at the hospital, he smiled at me and he said, ‘Stephanie, I might not be here for too much longer,’ ” she told the crowd of roughly 650 inside St. James Cathedral, and the hundreds more watching on screens outside. “He said, ‘I want you to remember that I’ll always love you. I need you and your brother to be strong for your mom.’
“I know my dad is in a better place now — and he’s the mayor of heaven now.”
The young Ford’s speech was one of several tributes to the former Toronto mayor during the service Wednesday, including former premier Mike Harris and Ford’s brother Doug. Attendees in the cathedral included Toronto Mayor John Tory, police Chief Mark Saunders and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne.
“Rob, I’m gonna miss you like crazy,” Doug Ford said at the close of a brief speech, with his voice shaking.
“I love you more than anything in the world. And don’t worry, Ford Nation will continue.”
He also recalled when his brother, then the mayor, was in a Mr. Sub in the late evening and the shop got an order for delivery, but had no one to deliver it.
“So Rob jumped up,” he said. “And he knocked on the door and the people opened up. And you can just imagine what they were thinking when they have the mayor of Toronto delivering a sub at 10 o’clock at night. “That’s classic Rob.” Rev. Andrew Asbil, rector of St. James Cathedral, noted the improbable heights of both adulation and infamy that Ford scaled as mayor.
“You and I, no matter how hard we try, will never have the same notoriety nor popularity nor household fame as Rob Ford,” Asbil said in his homily.
“Very few of us in this room know what it’s like to carry the burden of living your failings and your weaknesses in such a public way as Rob Ford. And — this is important — very few of us will know what it’s like to experience the love and admiration of so many for the work that we do in the same way as Rob did.”
Ford, 46, whose mayoralty was marred by a litany of scandals and drug use, died March 22 of malignant liposarcoma, a rare form of cancer.
For two days prior to the funeral, Ford’s coffin had sat in the city hall rotunda as members of the public lined up to pay respects.