For a political wife, Renata Ford is an enigma—neither humanizing homemaker nor independent careerist. So who is she?
(Image: André Carrilho)
Renata Ford is the invisible wife. Most Torontonians caught their first glimpse of her on election night: a smiling, slender blonde, wearing a jacket constructed of leathery gold leaves and standing one step back from her triumphant husband. Immediately afterward, she disappeared from public view. Today Renata remains an enigma, the first mayoral spouse about whom almost nothing is known, including her age, background and occupation.
In Canada, the media generally regard political spouses as off limits. They are, after all, unelected and unpaid. Nowadays, as women out-earn their husbands, head up political parties and dominate graduate-school enrolment, there is less of an obligation or even an expectation for a political wife to play a public spousal role. David Miller’s wife, Jill Arthur, declined, but at least we knew she was a lawyer at the Ontario Court of Appeal.
So is the media discreet, or merely cowardly? You be the judge: a rumour has been circulating for months now about the infidelity of a high-level political wife in Ottawa, possibly involving a female RCMP officer. And yet not a whiff has made it into print (until now). It’s the kind of rumour tabloids and talk shows love in the U.S., Britain and France, and for good reason: a politician’s home life speaks to his character.
In Canada, deference to authority is embedded in our political DNA. We’ve never fought a war of independence, guillotined a king and queen or rammed a Magna Carta down the throat of a recalcitrant monarch. That doesn’t mean we aren’t curious about the personal lives of politicians. A literal bedfellow is a confidante, someone with a potential influence on public policy.
So what’s it like to be married to Rob Ford? A fiscal hawk might be great for taxpayers, but not so great if he’s your husband and (probably) the main breadwinner. I know that if I had two toddlers at home, I’d be less than thrilled if my husband spent hours every week coaching high school football, and occasionally brought home troubled team members for sleepovers. I’d ask, “Honey, where are your priorities?” The city has asked the same question. Surely the mayor of Toronto won’t have time for charity work. Ford’s reply: he’d give up coaching to tend to city business only if a suitable replacement could be found.
Imagine being married to someone who claims to have personally returned more than 200,000 calls in the past decade. A YouTube video of a campaign appearance shows Renata sitting at her husband’s side, nodding like a bobble-head doll, while he waves a fridge magnet with his telephone number on it and tells the audience, “I return phone calls personally.”
As this city’s mayor, will Ford ever stop being receptionist-in-chief? After I left several messages, I received one of his famous 54.8 returned calls per day (although exactly why he bothered is a mystery).
Ford: “Hi, this is Rob Ford.”
Me: “Wow. So you really do return calls.” I quickly repeated my voice mail—that I was a journalist, writing about him and Renata.
Ford: “All media has to go through Adrienne Batra.”
Me: “Well, can you at least tell me how old Renata is?”
Ford: “Sorry, you have to go through Adrienne.”
Me: “Can you tell me when you were married?”
Ford: “Sorry.”
Me: “Well, is your person going to set something up?”
Ford: “You have to go through her.”
Batra, his press secretary, and various assistants all declined my repeated requests for an interview with the Fords and refused to answer any questions.
The nation has no business in the bedrooms of the state.
February 3, 2011 at 9:07 am | by MikeMayor Ford is the elected official and there is plenty to scrutinize. She has not put herself in the public sphere, so she is off limits. Move along TL.
February 3, 2011 at 10:03 am | by ModerateIf Mrs. Ford chooses to speak to the media, she will speak. After all, it’s not as if she doesn’t know how or where to find them. Until then, if she’s content in her husband’s very large shadow, then good for her.
Also, the reference to the rumours around the politician’s wife and the RCMP officer: tacky. I don’t like the people at the centre of this rumour and would be delighted to see them skewered–but the reason this hasn’t appeared in print is that, despite the efforts of seemingly hundreds of media personnel to unearth otherwise, the rumour is apparently trashy erotic fiction and sadly nothing more.
February 3, 2011 at 10:12 am | by DavidNo kidding she won’t speak I would be embarrassed to be married to a selfish person like him. With new cuts to services to the disabled and the blind no wonder she would hide or him for that matter avoid the press. I could care less who he is married to as I won’t be voting him in again he is an arrogant self absorbed moron who should try and live on an ODSP or welfare diet and see how much weight he will lose.
February 3, 2011 at 10:35 am | by stellasomeone married that slob??!!
February 3, 2011 at 3:15 pm | by realermanpoor dumb woman!!
What’s with the obsession over age? I personally could care less how old a politician is. It’ll suffice to mention a general number,ie.30′s. As for political spouses,unless they choose to be in the public eye outside of staged moments,they should be allowed to live in privacy. Acts of indiscretion caught by the “public” are fair game. Contrast high profile off springs,President Bush’s twins had their moments,yet Chelsea Clinton stayed below the radar.
February 3, 2011 at 11:12 pm | by lonewolf“a politician’s home life speaks to his character” Really? Maybe we’re more progressive in that we see wives aren’t the mushroom growing out the side of the tree, but a tree herself. Her business doesn’t reflect his or his ability to do his job. Woah with the patriarchy.
February 4, 2011 at 3:42 pm | by KandeezieGood for Renata for keeping her private life private!
February 5, 2011 at 4:34 pm | by Rolfleave her alone, if she campaigned she would be fair game but she left this to him she wasn’t paraded around nor were her child(ren)
February 5, 2011 at 5:51 pm | by dumbstuffWe don’t know anything about her that we didn’t at the beginning of the article. This is a complete non-story. Not to mention you are trying to make a story where there is nothing there, and being a little disrespectful of personal privacy. Some people can’t take a hint!
February 10, 2011 at 5:22 pm | by Brorack BrobamaNo one is above the law, unless of course you are God and Ford you are not one! If this happened & if you were an Indian you would have been arrested & a no-contact would have been imposed until a court date but it seems if you are rich & famous & a BULLY then you can get away with anything! Renata take the children & run!! This BULLY can’t control you.
December 31, 2011 at 6:58 am | by CyberonimoJan Wong is back at work, spreading her idiocy and crushing souls wherever she treads. In a just world, some half-bright kid out of the J program at Humber College would follow and harass Wong, peering into her home and hassling her neighbors, while blithely insulting her appearance (aged, unlovely), temperament (objectionable, calculating), and professional abilities (a sick, fucking joke.) Aside to Brorack Brobama: Calling Jan Wong disrespectful is like accusing a snake of being scaly and slime-covered. Precisely like that.
January 4, 2012 at 12:04 pm | by Nils LofgrinMrs. Ford is too scared to talk.
January 26, 2012 at 4:22 pm | by T. D. Votes