Former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, whose tumultuous four years as leader of Canada’s largest city included an admission of smoking crack, died on Tuesday, his office said, after struggling with cancer.
Ford, 46, who was serving as a Toronto city councilor, had been was undergoing treatment for an aggressive form of cancer that had reoccurred despite surgery and several rounds of chemotherapy.
Ford, married and a father of two small children, was diagnosed with a rare and hard-to-treat cancer in September 2014 after being hospitalized with abdominal pain.
He was in the middle of a campaign for re-election to mayor when the cancer was found but withdrew from the race and was elected as a city councilor instead.