The Rob Ford Netflix documentary is extra surreal for me. Because I'm in it

Hamilton Spectator

5 hours ago

Many Torontonians are, thanks to
a new Netflix documentary
, reliving Rob Ford's wildly chaotic, world-headline-making years as the city's mayor and chief magistrate.
Watching '
Trainwreck: Mayor of Mayhem
,' was extra surreal for me because I'm in it, among three reporters, three former mayoral staffers and two city councillors whose recollections narrate Ford's unlikely election, early mayoral success, crack-fuelled scandal and untimely death.
Reactions to the doc, since it went live Tuesday, are as fascinating and varied as Torontonians' evaluations of Ford as mayor, ranging from martyred best-mayor-ever to a natural human disaster for the city.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says a new Netflix documentary about his late brother Rob Ford is "disgusting." The doc titled 'Trainwreck: Mayor of Mayhem" chronicles Rob Ford's rise to power as Toronto mayor in 2010 and his chaotic time in office. Speaking at a news conference in Toronto, Doug Ford said he wasn't going to watch the film, and he doesn't see eye-to-eye with the creators. (June 17, 2025 / The Canadian Press)
In 2016, when asked about Ford's death from a rare cancer, I replied that it was a huge human tragedy for him and his family. For the city, his reign was collective trauma that would take years for all of us to work through. We're still doing the work.
Some reviewers have questioned why do the doc,
and why now
. The reality is that Canada, where the Ford story is known, is a small part of Netflix's viewership. This is a fast-paced retelling aimed at a global audience including those who had never heard of him.
Social media reactions from viewers in the U.S., England and elsewhere are versions of 'I remember a bit about this guy but the stuff in here is CRAZY, can it all even be true? And in Canada??' I sympathize because, even though I watched Ford like a hawk as the Star's city hall bureau chief, I had forgotten how many embarrassing videos surfaced before he finally went to rehab.
Torontonians' reactions seem split between Ford fans who,
like his brother Doug the premier, think that making a doc is 'disgusting,'
those who say the filmmakers made a balanced and informative recounting, and those who say glowing tributes and missing details hide lasting damage Ford did to the city's reputation, transit, finances and more.
My take is that U.K.-based director Shianne Brown and her team did a great job in the run time they had, less than 50 minutes, and within the confines of a 'Trainwreck' series focused on promising things that went horribly wrong. I can say from my window into the process that they took the challenge seriously and did exhaustive research, including three background interviews with me before I went on camera.
Could the Rob Ford experience have sustained a 90-minute treatment, or longer? Absolutely. The doc doesn't mention the saga of Ford
mugging my then-colleague Daniel Dale of his BlackBerry
, trying to ruin Daniel's reputation with a heinous falsehood and being
forced to apologize
. Also missing are Ford's visits to Taste of the Danforth and the Biermarkt, as well as
wandering through city hall at 2:30 a.m. with a half-drunk bottle of brandy
.
A friend who worked at city hall and knew Ford well told me the story is crying out for a multi-part, Scorsese-esque dramatization.
Brown artfully covered the question 'What happened?' A longer run time would have allowed a look at 'Why?', and a deeper exploration of the most complicated person I have met in 36 years of reporting.
The film mentions the strong influence of Doug Ford Sr., the rags-to-riches millionaire patriarch and one-term Progressive Conservative MPP who was 'tough' on the kids but sparked their ambition before his own premature cancer death. There is more to consider on that.
In 2014, I
examined why the Fords had no 'off switch,'
no matter what came at them, by talking to Doug Ford and family friends.
Doug Sr. used to call his four privileged children's unlimited potential 'the gold mine.'
'Any time he got ticked off he'd say, 'You aren't mining the gold!' ' Doug recalled. 'The gold mine, it doesn't have to be financial. You have an opportunity and take advantage of the opportunity.'
In 2010 when Rob Ford
launched his mayoral campaign at an Etobicoke convention hall
, he choked up looking skyward and said: 'He was my idol ... I know you're with me Dad, I know you're with me.'
For
the 2014 story
, when Rob Ford was deep in addiction and scandal, people who knew Doug Sr. and his sons told me that the father who ignited Rob's passion for politics was the only person who could have forced him to temporarily quit to get healthy — but he was gone.
The documentary doesn't include the mayor captured by police surveillance drinking in the Etobicoke park named after his father. He seemed haunted by the loss of Doug Sr., the pressures of being mayor of Canada's biggest city — a job he appeared to dislike except for public appearances and helping individuals — and multiple investigations into his conduct.
In the documentary, I note that Rob attempted to demonize and delegitimize media, hitting hardest those most likely to expose or criticize him, before U.S. President Donald Trump did the same. Part of the reason Ford is still important is that he was a warning that the populist ability to buffalo through any allegation, with bravado and no shame, is an incredibly powerful political weapon.
Something else I felt when the documentary ended was a phantom-limb-like memory of my exhaustion trying to ensure we were keeping up with a seemingly inexhaustible mayor on an extended rampage. I was seeing my wife and young kids so little, and thinking about Ford so much, that I sought and got a nine-month fellowship — my rehab from Rob Ford — at U of T's Massey College.
But on a fellowship trip to Berlin I opened a newspaper, aiming to test my high school German, only to see a front-page story headlined 'Crack-rauchen Bürgermeister' — crack-smoking mayor — and knew that I could not escape Rob Ford.
Later, when I was back at work and Ford was back from rehab, my doctor sent me to a private clinic for my first routine colonoscopy.
As an anesthetist prepared to put me out, the physician about to perform the procedure asked what I do for a living. When I told him, he beamed and said he knew Ford from the Muskoka addiction clinic, adding 'I like Rob!' My stomach lurched. Ford Nation folks hated the Star, and by extension me.
'But him,' the physician said, pointing at the anesthetist as the needle slid into my arm, 'he LOVES Rob Ford.'
'Oh my God,' I thought just before the lights went out, 'they're going to kill me.'
Spoiler: They were completely professional and I survived. But I couldn't escape Rob Ford. I still can't, and we still can't.
We're still doing the work.