Toronto's mayoral campaign kicked into high gear Monday as former Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory and city Coun. Karen Stintz joined the race, answering Rob Ford’s call for challengers in October’s election.
After encouraging anyone and everyone to run for mayor of Toronto, Ford's re-election bid is facing stiffer competition now that the campaign includes Tory and Stintz, who are his biggest challengers so far.
Tory and Stintz filed their nomination papers Monday morning and they both told reporters their priorities include keeping taxes low and building a downtown relief line for Toronto's subway system.
Tory didn't explain how he would accomplish that feat but he vowed to release a "full financial plan" during the campaign to show how he would expand the subway system while keeping taxes low.
Stintz said she has some ideas and indicated she would turn to the province for funding "without asking people to pay more."
The three-term councillor said she wants to focus on easing congestion for all road users and the downtown relief line is part of that campaign.
Stintz also pledged support for a "hybrid" solution for the elevated portion of the Gardiner Expressway. The unstudied proposal calls for the crumbling section east of Cherry Street to be torn down and reconfigured.
She also wants Toronto to be part of a joint Canada-U.S. bid for soccer's 2026 World Cup. In January, the Canadian Soccer Association released a five-year strategic plan that lists a bid for the 2026 event as a priority.
Recent opinion polls have pegged Stintz as a longshot with Ford and Tory in the race, but she wasn't discouraged Monday and said she is "in it" until the end.
Tory and Stintz both said they want to find consensus on a council that is currently divided.
“I think that right now we’re at a time when we need the city working together, to get the city council working together,” Tory told reporters.
Without naming names, Tory said the divide between downtown Toronto and the suburbs has been stoked by “some people,” but he thinks all Toronto residents want the same thing – an expanded public transit system, new jobs and investment, low taxes and a government that “works with each other.”
'Actions speak louder than words,' Ford says
Ford has been shrouded in controversy since gossip website Gawker and the Toronto Star broke the news about a cellphone video that allegedly shows the mayor smoking from a glass pipe. Police confirmed they have obtained the video and they say their investigation into Ford and others is ongoing.
Not long after Tory and Stintz registered, Ford called in to Newstalk 1010 for an interview, and host Jerry Agar asked the mayor if he could guarantee no more "embarrassing videos" would emerge.
"Talk is cheap," Ford told Agar. "Actions speak louder than words."
Agar noted that the mayor said that previously but a video surfaced in January showing Ford rambling in a Jamaican accent and using profanity.
Ford admitted he had been drinking that night, despite vows to CP24 he had given up alcohol.
"You may be perfect, maybe the rest of society is perfect, all I know is that my record speaks for itself," Ford told Agar. "I'm a real person ... I'm straight up."
Ford plans to campaign on his fiscal record at city hall, an unfulfilled promise to get rid of the land transfer tax, subway expansion and a vow to privatize garbage collection east of Yonge Street.
In his interview with Agar, Ford wished his opponents the best of luck and claimed they want to implement new taxes to fund transit and build light-rail transit over subways.
Later in the day, Ford told reporters at city hall that he was looking forward to debating Stintz and Tory.
“The more the merrier. I just want to start debating,” he said. “Let’s go. I’ll put my record up against anyone. I have a record and it is a solid track record.”
Candidates poised for dirty campaign?
Ford, who admitted to smoking crack cocaine while in office, previously said the mayoral campaign would be "a bloodbath," suggesting he is prepared to play dirty if his opponents target him over his personal troubles.
Tory said he plans to run a positive campaign.
Shortly after Tory filed his papers, Coun. Doug Ford, the mayor's brother, took aim at the former PC leader and tried to create a divide between the political foes over things such as fiscal responsibility and subways.
Doug Ford, whose family owns a label and tag manufacturing business with offices in Toronto and the U.S., called Tory an "elitist" and a member of Toronto's "establishment," and he painted his brother as a common man who stands up for the "little guy" and "blue-collar" Torontonians.
Tory is a civic activist and now-former Newstalk 1010 radio show host who previously worked as a lawyer, Rogers executive and CFL commissioner.
He serves as the volunteer chair of the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance, the basis for most of Doug Ford's attacks.
Doug Ford, who is managing the mayor's re-election campaign and is not seeking a second term as councillor, claimed taxes would rise under Tory and he dismissed reporters when they pointed out the fact that residential property taxes are increasing to pay for the Bloor-Danforth subway extension.
The mayor is often accused of crafting proposals without financial plans to back them up, but his brother said he would pay for additional subway extensions by finding “efficiencies” in the budget and seeking private investors.
Tory accused of trying to upstage Stintz
Tory filed his papers 90 minutes before Stintz filed hers and he denied claims that it was a deliberate attempt to upstage her.
Stintz said she wasn't upstaged.
“No, it’s a great day,” said Stintz, who has served as a city councillor for Ward 16 (Eglinton-Lawrence) since 2003 and declared her mayoral ambitions months ago.
Before she stepped down as TTC chair over the weekend, Stintz announced Friday that she would file her papers Monday at 10 a.m. When she did, she brought her nine-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter but forgot her identification, forcing someone to fetch it for her as she filled out paperwork.
Tory ended months of speculation Sunday when he confirmed his candidacy and told reporters he would be at city hall Monday at 8:30 a.m.
Tory makes second run for mayor
This is Tory’s second bid to become the mayor of Canada’s largest city. His first bid failed in 2003, when he lost to David Miller.
Miller served two terms and chose not to run for a third in 2010, the year Toronto sent Ford, then an Etobicoke councillor, to the mayor’s chair.
So far, more than 30 people have registered to run for mayor in the Oct. 27 election, including former city councillors David Soknacki and Norm Gardner.
The nomination period began Jan. 2 and candidates have until Sept. 12 to register as a candidate for mayor, councillor or school trustee, or to withdraw their nomination.
Now that Tory has declared, speculation continues to swirl around NDP MP Olivia Chow, who is mulling a bid of her own.
CP24 and Newstalk 1010 are divisions of Bell Media, which is owned by BCE Inc.
With files from The Canadian Press.
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