After weeks of speculation, Doug Ford confirmed Thursday that he will not be running to be the leader of the Ontario PC Party.
Ford made the announcement at a news conference at his family’s private company Deco Labels & Tags.
"It has been the most difficult decision of my entire life," he said. “My priority is my family. My priority is our business.”
Ford went on to apologize to his supporters and his brother Rob, who he said was "not happy" about this decision.
"We have five great candidates. I’m going to support each and every one of them,” Ford added.
Candidates vying for the party’s top spot include MPPs Christine Elliott, Vic Fedeli and Lisa MacLeod, as well as federal Conservative MP Patrick Brown.
When asked if Ford would focus his support on Christine Elliott, a longtime friend of the family, Ford clarified his earlier position.
"Christine, and the late Jim Flaherty, very close friends... loyalty means everything to us," he said. "Yes, I’d be supporting Christine Elliott."
In a statement released late Thursday afternoon, Elliot said she appreciates Ford’s support.
The longtime MPP also expressed a desire to court the so-called “Ford Nation” vote, both in her leadership campaign and, if successful, in a provincial election campaign.
“Over the past few years in Toronto, the Ford brothers have tapped into a constituency of disaffected voters that feel neglected. They feel neglected by our party, by the NDP and certainly feel neglected by the Liberals who continue to betray them,” Elliot said. “The citizens of Toronto who have voted for Doug or Rob Ford are voters that we must work hard to attract to our party by offering them honest leadership and policy they can believe in. “
Ford vows to “campaign aggressively” against Liberals
For his part Ford was quick to criticize the current Ontario government and said “many changes” need to be made in order to get the province out of the “financial mess” it’s in.
"I’ll be out there campaigning aggressively, bringing the Ford Nation base, hopefully as many as we can, over to the PC Party and making sure that the PC Party changes their ways," he said.
Ford said he believes the PCs need to be the "party for the working-class people."
"Over 80 per cent of 330,000 votes that I ended up receiving would never and have never voted PC before," he said. "Our base are independents, Liberals and NDPs and a handful of fiscal Conservatives but we have to open the tent to those people and make sure they are welcome."
Despite his decision not to run, Ford said he is not ruling out a future career in politics.
"I’m saying I’m going to take a break for a little bit," he said. "I love politics, I love serving the people."
