How international media reported on Rob Ford's death

International reports of Rob Ford`s death pulled no punches Tuesday about what the former mayor of Toronto may be remembered for abroad.

The Washington Post said Ford`s tax-cutting agenda “was overshadowed by a tempestuous personal life that made him an international butt of ridicule.”

Ford died Tuesday morning from a rare form of cancer he had been battling for 18 months. He was 46.

While Ford allies are pleading for the former mayor`s political legacy and grassroots touch with the masses to take centre stage, global news reports of his death are filled with a litany of his transgressions: smoking crack, public drunkenness and lewd behaviour.

Ford`s scandal-plagued mayoral term made frequent headlines abroad. Canadians aren’t used to their politicians -- let alone a municipal one -- being international news. Ford changed all that.

On the day of his death, Canadian media have been circumspect, more respectful of a mourning family and a city full of Ford Nation supporters who are reeling from his loss.

International media have been much more pointed.

The Associated Press began its story: "Rob Ford, the pugnacious, populist former mayor of Toronto whose career crashed in a drug-driven, obscenity-laced debacle, died Tuesday after fighting cancer, his family said. He was 46."

The New York Times said Ford “took a belligerent approach to governing, engaging in profanity-laden shouting matches with city councillors and sometimes journalists.”

A number of news outlets said Ford was far outside the norm of Canadian politics.

“His image contrasted sharply with Canada's usual calm, buttoned-up politics,” said BBC News.

“His time in office was strikingly at odds with the typical image of calm Canadian politics,” said The Washington Post. “He made controversial statements, including an obscenity-laden rant in which he threatened murder, and spoke about oral sex on live television.”

Some American media compared Ford to Sarah Palin, the controversial and polarizing former vice-presidential candidate.

Toronto-based writer Stephen Marche wrote in Esquire magazine that the “next Rob Ford could easily be the next President of the United States.” That was clearly a reference to Donald Trump, though Marche doesn’t mention him by name.

Marche said Ford is “the inventor of a new and virulent style of politics composed of equal parts comedy, rage and celebrity culture. The man rewrote the political playbook without trying. Rob Ford died an accidental prophet. ”

The Telegraph in London said Ford embarrassed stodgy Toronto when American comedians made him nightly fodder on late-night TV.

“That Canadians did not see the joke, of course, made it even funnier.”

American political magazine The New Republic said Ford`s use of homophobic and racist slurs made him “a toxic figure in Toronto municipal politics. He won the mayoralty thanks to his belligerently ignorant populism. ”