SARNIA, Ont. -- Premier Kathleen Wynne appeared to back off Friday from her tough talk about possibly intervening at Toronto City Hall if Mayor Rob Ford doesn't deal with what she called his personal problems.
Wynne's comment Thursday that she would take action to deal with the controversy surrounding Ford "if and when it is appropriate" angered many city councillors, including the mayor's brother.
Doug Ford angrily called Wynne an unelected premier and said she should deal with scandals at the provincial level before getting involved in the city's business.
"She has the nerve, the hypocrisy, to come and criticize the mayor," Doug Ford said Thursday. "I have one message to the premier: Get your own house in order, get it in order for the taxpayers."
The controversy followed Wynne to Sarnia Friday, where the first questions from local reporters were whether the premier had stepped over the line with her comments about possibly taking action in Toronto.
"All I have said is that I believe that city council in Toronto needs to deal with the business of the council, and there is legislation that prescribes when and if there would be any change in the relationship between the municipality and the provincial government," she said.
"So we're working within those parameters, and I just wish -- I just hope -- that city council can get on with its business, and I trust that they will."
Asked if Rob Ford has her confidence to continue as mayor of Toronto, Wynne declined comment.
"I'm not going to pass judgment on that," she said.
"It's up to city council to do the business of the city."
Wynne's comments Friday were much tamer than her statements Thursday, when the premier said she was worried international news coverage of allegations Ford was videotaped smoking what appeared to be crack cocaine was undermining the public's confidence in their municipal government.
Critics pointed out there was actually very little Wynne or her government could do about Ford unless he was physically unable to do his job, and even then it would be up to Toronto city council to deal with the problem, not the province.
