Paul Rushforth spent Saturday mornings at the CFRA studio in Ottawa for 19 years, cracking jokes with co-host Frank Napolitano before their Open House show went to air. The warmth audiences heard on the broadcasts matched the man friends describe away from the microphone, a former pro hockey player turned broker who put people ahead of a sale.
“Paul and I used to race to see who could get there first so we could brag about buying breakfast,” Napolitano wrote in a Facebook tribute. After COVID-19, the two kept arriving early, joking off-air the way they did live on-air. “What people heard on the radio was exactly who we were off the air,” Napolitano wrote, “two friends who genuinely cared about helping people while having a little fun along the way.”
Rushforth died on Friday, July 24, at age 52. The cause of death was not disclosed. He was a father of three and the partner of Petra Sedlakova Blais.
He was among Ottawa’s most recognizable real estate brokers with a guarantee: “If you don’t sell your home, we’ll buy it.”
Rushforth grew up playing hockey locally before spending a decade as a professional in North American and European leagues. His family moved with him to England, where he finished as captain and assistant coach of the London Knights. That club folded in 2003 after the British Ice Hockey Superleague collapsed. Coming home frightened him, he later said, since he had to find a career, a home and a way to support a growing family.
He returned to Ottawa and founded the boutique firm Paul Rushforth Real Estate in 2011.
His company issued a statement on July 25 calling the past 24 hours “incredibly difficult.” The statement thanked residents for the stories and memories they had shared. “He was an exceptional human being,” it read.
Friends remembered a playful man. Former radio host Stu Schwartz called Rushforth a master promoter who never took himself too seriously. Schwartz remembered goofing around with him at golf tournaments.
In 2012, his brokerage’s inaugural charity golf tournament raised more than $21,000 for Do It For Daron, a youth mental-health program championed by the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Hospital. Friends and family of Daron Richardson founded the program after she died by suicide at 14. “The number of youth suffering from this illness is staggering,” Rushforth said at the time. He called the cause near to his heart.
At a 2025 Dare to be Vulnerable event in support of men’s mental health, he disclosed having survived a suicide attempt years earlier. An injury had disrupted his hockey career, while addiction and financial problems compounded his distress, he told the audience. At his lowest point, Rushforth said, he saw “a monster” in the mirror, the Ottawa Business Journal reported.
His view had changed since then. “I can look in the mirror and see a beautiful person. I see a flawed, beautiful human,” he said.
Days before his death, Rushforth celebrated his partner’s birthday with a public tribute. “You didn’t just change my life, you saved it,” he wrote to Sedlakova Blais, calling her his safe place.
The Open House show did not air on July 25. A tribute episode is planned for Aug. 1.
If you are thinking about suicide, or worried about someone you know, you can call or text 988 anywhere in Canada.
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