Today a family was told that they have to battle cancer. A father, husband, son, and brother was diagnosed with liposarcoma and will soon start treatment for his tumour. That person happens to be embattled Toronto Mayor, Rob Ford.
Because it’s Rob Ford there are already many stories and posts about the diagnoses and the man and everything that surrounds him. He’s a lightning rod. Some love to hate him. Some love to celebrate him. Some love to laugh at him. We LOVE to talk about him. Hell, I’ve written about him in this very space with a fake apology speech, a post about my opinions of the man and what has happened, I even included him in a recent post about Ray Rice. And that’s not all… I’ve written about him at work (What is Rob Ford Doing to Toronto’s Brand?) and I spoke (for about 30 seconds) about the Mayor on BBC Radio’s World Have Your Say.
It’s fair to say that I’ve garnered my fair share of traffic on the back of Rob Ford.
torontosun.com
But today it’s different. We already know that Rob Ford won’t continue as Mayor of Toronto after the October 27th municipal election. And while his brother Doug is running, many are already celebrating the end of the Ford era in Toronto. So with that issue solved, but so many more still on the table (Sandro Lisi, Project Brazen 2, Mark Towhey’s book, etc.) we move forward.
In the week that has passed since Rob Ford was admitted to hospital there has been mixed commentary on the subject. The polite masses (including Mayoral candidates John Tory and Olivia Chow) have wished him well in his health. The aggressive haters online who care not for politeness have exclaimed their happiness and called the tumor karma. His supporters have said that they will continue to stand by him and with his name on the ballot for council in Ward 2, I won’t be surprised if they do and he wins.
It has always been easy to say that I didn’t want Rob Ford as our Mayor anymore. It was easy to say that the night he got elected in 2010. But it is never, ever easy to hear that a man has cancer. The conflicting thoughts of “this man is a homophobic, hypocritical, offensive, oaf who doesn’t belong at City Hall” and “I really hope that treatment works and Rob Ford is able to be a father to his children” both sit on the tip of my tongue.
This tweet may sum things up as perfectly as any 140 characters on the internet… and while I don’t follow @scottdagostino – I thank @ccath for retweeting the message so I could see it in my feed.
Best wishes to Rob Ford for successful cancer treatments. I want him to have a long, happy life far away from City Hall and video cameras.
— Scott Dagostino (@scottdagostino) September 17, 2014
I’ve never wished another man dead. And I’m not about to start now. I sincerely hope that chemotherapy works. And if it doesn’t, then radiation. And if not that, then surgery. And I hope that Rob Ford remains cancer-free and able to live his life differently moving forward than he has until now.
It’s hard to call it a 2nd chance when someone’s seemingly been given so many already – but if Rob Ford is able to do this he will have been given a 2nd chance to live his life and care for the people that care about him the most. And hopefully, care for himself a little better too.
Good luck Mr. Ford – you may need it – and while I’m not forgetting anything that you’ve said or done in the past – I do hope that you have a future to look forward to.
