Paul Rushforth, Ottawa real estate broker and CFRA host, dies at 52

Paul Rushforth, Ottawa's recognizable real estate broker and Saturday-morning radio fixture, died Friday, July 24, at age 52.

For 19 years, Rushforth co-hosted the Open House show on CFRA with Frank Napolitano, arriving early most mornings to joke off-air the way they did live. "What people heard on the radio was exactly who we were off the air," Napolitano wrote in a tribute, "two friends who genuinely cared about helping people while having a little fun along the way."

Rushforth founded Paul Rushforth Real Estate in 2011 after a decade as a professional hockey player in North American and European leagues. He played for the London Knights in England before the club folded in 2003 and he returned to Ottawa to build a career and support his family. His company offered a personal guarantee: if you don't sell your home, Rushforth would buy it.

Friends remember him as playful and genuine. In 2012, his charity golf tournament raised more than $21,000 for Do It For Daron, a youth mental health campaign of the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Hospital founded after a teenager died by suicide.

Rushforth was candid about his own struggles. At a 2025 Dare to be Vulnerable event supporting men's mental health, he disclosed surviving a suicide attempt years earlier, triggered by an injury that derailed his hockey career, compounded by addiction and financial problems. At his lowest point, he said, he saw "a monster in the mirror." His view had changed. "I can look in the mirror and see a beautiful person. I see a flawed, beautiful human," he said.

Two weeks before his death, Rushforth publicly celebrated his partner's birthday, writing: "You didn't just change my life, you saved it."

The Open House show did not air this weekend. A tribute episode is planned for August 1.

If you are thinking about suicide or worried about someone, you can call or text 988 anywhere in Canada.