Rob Ford the Toronto city councillor who became the world’s most famous mayor during a wild, scandal-filled term, is dead at age 46.
The married father of two young children died after 18 months of treatment for a rare and aggressive cancer first diagnosed in the midst of his 2014 bid to be re-elected mayor. Ford would have turned 47 on May 28.
A brief statement from the Ford family announcing the death Tuesday described the former mayor as a “dedicated man of the people” who “spent his life serving the citizens of Toronto.”
“The family will not be making any statements to the media or taking any questions,” the statement said.
Ford underwent surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in May 2015, what was then considered his last chance to survive
pleomorphic liposarcoma.
Though the surgery was hailed as a success, the discovery of two new tumours months later merited repeated rounds of chemotherapy that kept him away from the council chamber and his city hall office.
