Krista Ford is a former captain of the Toronto Triumph, a team in the Lingerie Football League. Ford, who was then a student at Humber College, was one of more than 100 women who tried out for the first team when the league's Toronto franchise first opened for business in 2011. She is a daughter of Ontario Premier and PC Leader Doug Ford.
Press coverage of Ford's tryout routinely mentioned that she was the niece of Toronto mayorRob Ford and the daughter of city councilor Doug Ford. According to technology journalistPatrick Seitzthe league lacked stars in its early seasons, so the limited press coverage the league received treated it solely as a "peep show". He asserted that Ford and Angela Rypien, the daughter of former Super Bowl MVPMark Rypien, were two potential stars the league could offer in its 2011 season — to counter the peep-show coverage. Team management chose Ford as the team's first captain. She also served as the team's marketing manager, responsible for seeking sponsorships. The team did not perform well when it started to compete with more experienced teams in the league. Players voiced concern that they had been issued unsafe equipment, and that the most senior members of the team's coaching staff lacked the experience to train them to compete safely. Following its loss in its first non-exhibition game the team's management fired the one member of the coaching staff who was experienced, who team members felt had the experience to serve as head coach, and four of her fellow team members. In response Ford and 15 remaining team members resigned. The Torontoist quoted Ford's announcement of her resignation from her Facebook page, where she quoted Malcolm X, "A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything" to explain her stand on principle. The Toronto Star interviewed the founder of the Lingerie Football League about Ford's resignation, who claimed he had spoken with Ford's uncle, Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, who agreed with him that his niece's resignation was a mistake. An editorial in The Manitoban cited Ford's safety concerns while arguing against allowing the league to base a franchise in Winnipeg's MTS Centre. Although seasons tickets had already gone on sale in March 2012 the league cancelled the 2012 season in April 2012. CTV News cited Ford's resignation as a factor when explaining the cancellation of the season; however, the Triumph were not included in the cancellation, which included only the U.S.-based teams.
Post-football
On August 29, 2012, Ford stirred controversy through a tweet she sent, an hour after Toronto Police had advised women of a recent outbreak of sexual assaults. Ford's tweet said "Stay alert, walk tall, carry mace, take self-defence classes & don't dress like a whore." Katherine Dunn, in her coverage in the Toronto Star, pointed out that Toronto Police consider mace a "prohibited and restricted weapon". Several press reports compared Ford's comment to those of Michael Sanguinetti, a Toronto area police officer, whose widely criticized safety suggestion to college students was "women should avoid dressing like sluts not to be victimized", triggered the worldwide SlutWalk phenomenon. On April 8, 2014, hoaxsters created a Facebook page advertising a fund-raising draw that would give entrants a chance to "win a date with the mayor's beautiful niece, Krista Ford". Krista's father denounced the hoaxsters as cowards, stating: On September 12, 2014, not long after her uncle Rob learned he had cancer, and dropped out of the mayoralty race, Mike Strobel, a Toronto Sun columnist, speculated that members of Ontario's Provincial Parliament should worry that Krista, or one of her sisters, might run against them.
