8 November 2013 Last updated at 16:05 ET

Profile: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford

The mayor of Toronto came to power an outsider, with strong backing from his suburban neighbourhood.

But now Rob Ford faces pressure to resign from former allies on the city council after admitting he smoked crack cocaine while severely inebriated.

The drugs confession is only one of the many episodes in a long saga of cringe-inducing behaviour from the mayor.

Mr Ford has refused to resign and leave the job he says he loves.

"Our family has been through everything - from murder to drugs to being successful in business," Mr Ford once told the Toronto Star. "Nobody can tell me a story that can shock."

Family business

Rob Ford was born in May 1969 in Etobicoke, Ontario, now a diverse district in the west of Toronto.

His father Doug Ford Sr was a businessman and member of Ontario's provincial parliament.

The elder Mr Ford ran the successful printing firm Deco Labels and Tags. The Ford family still owns the company, and Mr Ford has served in senior management positions there.

Mr Ford attended Carleton University but did not graduate, instead returning home to care for his sister, a recovering heroin addict, according to a profile in Toronto Life magazine profile. Years later, an ex-boyfriend would shoot his sister in the face in her parents' home.

In 2000, Mr Ford married his long-time girlfriend Renata. They have two young children. Rarely seen in public, she has been dubbed the "invisible wife".

Mr Ford was charged with assaulting her in 2008 but the charge was dropped.

Rubbish strike

After a previous attempt, Mr Ford was elected to represent Etobicoke in 2000 in the city council. In that role, he gained a reputation for controversial remarks and an aversion to spending city money.

He ran for mayor with a promise to "end the gravy train" at city hall and to partially privatise rubbish collection services after a month-long strike.

In 2010 he was elected mayor with 47% of the vote, largely on the strength of his support in the outlying suburbs. His brother Doug Ford Jr replaced him on the council as representative of Etobicoke.

The rubbish privatisation was deemed a success, and Mr Ford continued to look for ways to trim the city's budget.

He also continued coaching a high school football team and lending his name to a foundation supporting the city's football programmes.

Soon he was criticised for missing part of a council meeting to coach the team and for an incident in which two city buses were cleared of rush hour passengers in order to transport his football team.

The mayor said he had nothing to do with the bus incident.

'Made mistakes'

Later, he became embroiled in a conflict of interest row after he was accused of using the city of Toronto logo and leveraging his status to solicit funds for his football foundation.

The city council tried to sack him, but in January 2013 a Canadian court overturned the removal order.

Also since becoming mayor, he has been caught reading while driving on a city expressway, and once called the police when a comedian tried to film part of a popular television programme outside his home.

In March, the Toronto Star reported he had been asked to leave a military ball because its organisers thought he was inappropriately intoxicated. "It's an open secret at city hall that the mayor has battled alcohol abuse," the newspaper said.

Then, in May the Star and US gossip website Gawker reported their journalists had seen a video apparently showing Mr Ford smoking from a crack cocaine pipe while obviously intoxicated.

The Toronto mayor denied he was a crack user - but never denied using the drug in the past. Months later, police said they had gained possession of the video.

After the revelation, Mr Ford said he had "made mistakes" and said he would curb his drinking. Ultimately, he admitted to smoking crack cocaine, "probably in one of my drunken stupors".

And he dismissed calls to step down: "We must keep Toronto moving forward. I was elected to do a job and that's exactly what I'm going to continue doing."

The same week, another video of Mr Ford became public. The clip showed the Toronto mayor in a foul-mouthed rant during which he vows to rip out a unspecified person's throat,

The context of the clip is not clear, nor is the target of Mr Ford's wrath. He has said he was intoxicated when it was filmed and was "very embarrassed by it".

After the video was published, Mr Ford's mother and sister told a local television station his behaviour was unacceptable for a mayor, but said he had done good work for the city.

"It isn't like it has affected his work," said Mr Ford's sister, Kathy.

Asked whether she thought her brother was an alcoholic, she responded, "It depends on what you consider an alcoholic."