Doug Ford made his first appearance as a mayoral candidate at a lively and often loud debate Tuesday night since replacing his brother on the ballot nearly two weeks ago.

Ford, who officially kicked off his campaign with a canvassing blitz in Etobicoke over the weekend, joined fellow candidates Olivia Chow and John Tory for the two-hour York-South Weston debate at York Memorial Collegiate Institute.

The candidates fielded a number of questions from the crowd, as well as from social media, often between loud outbursts of both applause and jeers from those in attendance, on areas including youth employment, working with other levels of government, the welfare system, and what differentiates them from one another.

Plans for building and improving existing transit in the city were once again a major focus of the debate, with Ford trying to distance himself from both Chow and Tory.

“I’m the only candidate sitting at this table that wants to build underground transit on Eglinton,” Ford said when asked about the Eglinton Connects project.

“The other two candidates want LRT on Eglinton in Scarborough. But really you both live downtown, you have subways. It shouldn’t be a two-tier system.”

Raising a sign of the transit plan proposed by his brother, Ford drew a loud response from the crowd.

“You want a transit plan? That is a real transit plan,” he said.

“We should have been building one subway stop for the last 20 years,” Tory said, adding that his SmartTrack plan would bring city-wide transit relief within seven years.

Chow questioned the impact of Tory’s SmartTrack plan, pointing to what impact there would be on existing infrastructure

“Mr. Tory needs to tell you how many homes he will bulldoze,” she said. “How many libraries will he get rid of for that track?”

For a clear comparison of the candidates' promises on transit, click here.

A question from the audience asking each candidate if they would march in next year’s Pride Parade garnered strong reactions, both from the candidates and the crowd.

“We value our diversity,” Chow said, stating that she would indeed march if elected.“Everyone counts. That has always been my value. The Pride Parade is the celebration of this city.”

“I will be there every year as mayor,” Tory said.

“I believe in equal rights for every single person in this city,” replied Ford. “I have no problem with the Pride Parade.”

Pushed for a firm answer by the other candidates on whether he would walk in the parade as mayor, Ford said that he been to the parade in the past, and contributed financially to it.

“I’ll be mayor of all the people,” he added.

The moderator at one point had to order a break in the proceedings as a Ford supporter kept shouting from the audience, preventing Chow from answering a question. She was eventually escorted out by police.

Heckling continued throughout the debate. David Price, a close friend of the Ford family as well as a former aide to Mayor Rob Ford,  was heard jeering from the audience.

For more highlights from the debate, including a live chat with CP24 viewers, click here.

Ford says he’s calm going into debate

Ford confirmed his attendance at Tuesday’s debate Friday, telling reporters that he wouldn’t have any first debate jitters.

“I have been debating for four years down at city hall with a lot tougher people,” he said.

A number of debates have been held since Ford registered on Sept. 12, however the outspoken city councillor has skipped all of them in order to provide support to his ailing brother Mayor Rob Ford.

Speaking with reporters at a press conference in North York Tuesday morning, Chow welcomed Ford to the campaign trail and challenged him to use his first debate to discuss the city’s rising youth unemployment rate.

“I welcome him to the debate and I hope that he understands why it is so important to invest in children,” she said. “We will be debating in an area where I have met with people and they have said ‘Olivia, it is so important that we have some jobs for young people.’ There are a lot of young families there and they want more after school programs and more food programs. Tonight’s debate I will talk very, very clearly about priorities of families.”

Meanwhile, in a one-on-one interview with CP24 Tuesday afternoon Tory said he was hopeful that Ford will arrive ready to debate policy and not to launch personal attacks.

“You don’t know which Doug Ford is going to show up and the fact is that there is a bombastic and divisive one who has said a lot of negative things over time, including the fact that he wanted to run off to Chicago and ditch this city,” Tory said. “You just sort of hope the one who shows up would like to have a positive debate about the ideas he has and that I have and that Olivia has and do it in kind of a positive way with some criticism maybe but not personal attacks. We will see.”

Chow discusses school nutrition program

Chow was in North York earlier Tuesday to discuss her previously announced plan to make a pre-existing school nutrition program available to an additional 36,000 students.

She was joined at the news conference by the parents of several students who have benefited from the program.

“It is so important that children have a head start in life and it is so important that children have good food in school because it is hard to focus when you are hungry,” Chow told reporters. “Research has shown that if kids have a good nutritious snack or meal in the morning they will have better academic performance and better reading, writing and math scores.”

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