Rob Ford has cancer. The news does not come as a surprise. It has been suspected since doctors reported last week that they had found a tumour after he complained of unbearable abdominal pain. It has been written on the faces of his family as they went to visit him in a downtown Toronto hospital.
All the same, the words delivered with dispassionate precision by a leading specialist came as a blow. This is not how anyone, even his bitterest foe, wanted or expected the reign of the world's most infamous mayor to end.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Mr. Ford was firing shots at his rivals in a rollicking election debate. "Ding, ding, ding," he muttered as he took the stage, mimicking the bell in a prizefighting ring. Now, he is out of the fight for mayor and into a very different kind of conflict.
The tumour, his doctors say, is very rare and difficult. It is aggressive. Mr. Ford faces two courses of chemotherapy and, if that does not work, perhaps radiation, perhaps surgery.
"We are optimistic about this tumour," Dr. Zane Cohen said. It is the sort of thing doctors say. All the same, it is clear that Mr. Ford faces what he himself called "a battle of my lifetime."
Can he prevail? Dr. Cohen notes that Mr. Ford is "a pretty strong person," which puts it mildly. Whatever you may think of Mr. Ford, you have to admire the sheer energy and determination that emanate from this battleship of a man. What makes him so annoying as a politician but at the same time so absorbing to watch is his bullheaded refusal to acknowledge obstacles in his path, even obstacles of fact or logic. He just forges on, knocking the obstacles aside like so many grey-haired ladies on the floor of city council.
When most of council turned against him, he carried on. When he was caught smoking crack and all logic, common sense and propriety said he should resign, he carried on. He is stubborn, headstrong, pigheaded, obstinate, single-minded, obdurate – the thesaurus exhausts itself over Rob Ford's will.
Even the strongest individual cannot always resist the progress of something as implacable as cancer. Sometimes we make too much of the role of attitude, character and state of mind in what is, in the end, a biological process, not a jousting match. But if resolve and fighting spirit play any role in beating back disease, then Mr. Ford is well equipped for the struggle ahead.
"I know Rob Ford is strong. He's a fighter," said Olivia Chow, who knows a thing or two about coping with cancer.
"I know what it's like when a family receives bad news," she said. "But I also know the strength that the support and the warm wishes … can give to you from all the people in the city. And I hope that the family can feel that warmth that envelopes them right now."
The Fords enveloped by warmth? Here was yet another twist in the Rob Ford story. Few political figures have divided the feelings of the Torontonians the way he has. Yet, as he faced this sudden, unexpected struggle, the city was united in consternation and sympathy.
Who could not feel for his mother, Diane Ford, as she visited the hospital, her arm looped for support in that of her son Randy? Who could not remark on the change in Doug Ford? Usually so full of either back-slapping high spirits or fighting words, he was blank-faced as he marched through the media crowd for his hospital visits, his eyes cast down. For once, he had almost nothing to say.
What he did say came from the heart. "Rob has always been so strong for all of us and now I ask us all to be strong for him," he said in a release on Wednesday night. "Your kind words and well wishes mean everything to him right now.
"Rob will beat this."
The whole city is hoping he is right.
Marcus Gee