The Doug Ford campaign for Mayor of Toronto didn’t show up today. With six weeks to go until election night Rob Ford’s brother took another day to prepare the campaign and spend time with his ailing brother and family. Rob Ford remains in hospital and there is no update on his medical diagnosis. On Friday evening Doug Ford hinted he might be in campaign mode by today but that didn’t happen and now there is speculation that there will be a Doug Ford campaign event on Tuesday – maybe but maybe not. On Sunday, Doug Ford told Toronto to “stay tuned” and that indeed has everyone waiting.
The other two candidates are filling time as they ponder what the new Ford mayoral campaign will look like. And while they wait they take their shots at the phantom campaign. This morning John Tory accepted an endorsement from Ward 25 councillor Jaye Robinson and said, “It’s time to bring the Ford era to an end.” He continued his hard line against Doug Ford saying Toronto doesn’t need someone who “picks fights.”
Olivia Chow scheduled an event for Tuesday morning when she’ll parade her current city council supporters before the media. Chow also wants to “send the Fords packing” but sitting in third place Chow is talking about Ford and Tory in the same breath as often as possible. A Chow press release this morning ended with the line, “Ford-Tory: we can’t afford four more years.”
Organizations across the city have worked hard to get the mayoral candidates to sign up for debates. Week in and week out the candidates have trudged from one debate to the next to face each other and answer similar questions – sometimes twice a day. Today the Tory campaign pushed back and announced it has sent its regrets to three debates including a very last minute withdrawal from a transit debate schedule for Monday afternoon. This afternoon’s debate organizer, a group called TTCRiders, called Tory’s sudden withdrawal “completely disrespectful.” The Chow campaign jumped on the news. (In fact the Chow release popped up on my email eight minutes before the Tory announcement that he was cancelling came across my e-feed.) The Chow campaign release included this quote from its Communications Director, Jamey Heath. “It’s clear John Tory can’t compete with Olivia’s knowledge or her transit plan. It’s no wonder why he ran away. I’d run away too if I had to pass back-of-the-napkin silliness off as a real plan, up against someone who knows far more.
Karen Stintz who left the campaign at the end of August showed up at City Hall telling reporters, “it was never boring working with Doug Ford at City Hall.” But she too criticized Toronto’s newest mayoral candidate. “Doug does speak before he thinks…he will need to control his temper.” Stintz said she has no plans to endorse any candidate and said voters will decide “who to trust and the most credible candidate to deliver results for the city.”
The campaign coverage is in a holding pattern waiting for the new man to show his cards. Will he be the confrontational councillor of the last four years or a mayoral candidate with a vision for the city that goes further than his kid brother’s? A check in at dougfordformayor.ca Monday afternoon showed a blank page so no policy yet there. This morning one of his supporters, John Nunziata, went out of his way to point out that Doug went to one of the Gay Pride parades a few years ago with his daughters. The other thing many will watching is Doug Ford’s commitment to the race. With his brother in hospital and already on the record as wanting to leave municipal politics Doug Ford will need to have an answer when his opponents ask him why he is in the race.
