Yesterday was the first day of the advance poll in the Toronto municipal election. Today we learned the turnout was the highest ever with 28,046 electors taking the time to vote. In 2010 just over 50 per cent turned out to vote. And over at City Hall today one eager voter had to leave before voting – the line was too long. Maybe, just maybe, Toronto can top the 2010 turnout on October 27.

There has been some speculation that Olivia Chow might not stay in the race for Mayor of Toronto. Today the Chow campaign released two TV ads and boasted “it is a six figure buy” on TV in the city. For my money that should put an end to the speculation. The two ads are very different. One features her favourite campaign line, “everyone counts.” It uses a series of short sound bites from Chow at a recent debate. The ad promises Chow “will fight for you.”

The second ad is much more interesting. The ad attacks the front runner in this race, John Tory. A picture of Tory mounted on a weather vane presents “the two faces of John Tory.” With the weather vane spinning away the ad takes shots at Tory’s changing positions on his transit priorities, donating to Doug Ford’s campaign in 2010 and Tory’s different version on how to finance transit priorities. Here’s why it is so interesting. It’s an ad that is remarkably similar to an attack ad from the 1995 Ontario election campaign. In that campaign the Progressive Conservative leader was Mike Harris. The campaign attacked Harris’s opponent Liberal, Lyn McLeod, in much the same way as the Chow ad released today. That old ad begins with a graphic, “Where does Lyn McLeod really stand?” The ad features a still of McLeod on a pole and ends with McLeod’s head spinning just like Tory’s on the weather vane. Olivia Chow’s campaign manager, John Laschinger, had a hand in that Harris campaign all those years ago. So here we have an Ontario Progressive Conservative attack tactic from the 90’s repurposed for a social democrat in 2014. It will be interesting to see which ad the Chow campaign uses most - the Tory attack or the Chow “everybody counts” ad.

CP24’s Stephen LeDrew is sitting with each of the main mayoral contenders in a one-on-one interview meant to show them in a softer light. Last week, John Tory came in with his wife Barbara. Today, it was Olivia’s turn.

Chow spoke about her determination to achieve her goals. “If I want to get something done,” she said, “I get it done.” Chow spoke about her passion for art and its relationship to politics. She said “I still have a passion to make a difference … I always remain optimistic and hopeful.” The interview reflected the sentiments in the “everyone counts” TV ad.

Doug Ford and his wife are expected to sit with LeDrew tomorrow.

Doug Ford, his wife Karla and three of his four daughters took advantage of the advance poll and voted today. Ford continued to visit wards across the city. Today the Ford campaign is hitting most of the Ford friendly wards in Etobicoke. All the Etobicoke wards voted in large numbers for his brother, Rob, in 2010. Ford said again today that he will visit every ward in the city over the next few days.

Chow went down to the tracks near Union Station to keep up her attack on Tory’s Smart Track plan. Chow said Union Station will not be able to handle the increased rail traffic that Tory’s plan would entail. The Chow campaign’s media release put it this way: “The problem for Mr. Tory is this: he wants to add more than 150 trains a day. Why, who knows, since GO electrification will expand service in the city with or without his scheme. But in pursuing his scheme, he not only says no to the TTC’s priorities, he exceeds capacity at Union Station.”

The Tory campaign was primed and ready with its response. It fired off its response just 13 minutes after the Chow campaign hit send questioning the Tory plan. Quoting Metrolinx Tory insisted his plan “rates an A plus.” Supporting that the release said, “Metrolinx concluded: “Medium-term (within 10 years): With current planned improvements, Union Station and USRC (Union Station rail corridor) train capacity can achieve the following: peak hour train volume can be doubled; total all-day train volume can be tripled.”

Meanwhile, out in Etobicoke, Ford stuck to his subways and only subways solution to Toronto’s transit problem. For yet another day, the three leading candidates for mayor talked up the city’s needs for better public transportation in Toronto. And, for one more day, they did it without even mentioning that all there promised plans require billions of dollars from somewhere and years of planning before any voter will, maybe, step on a train (Tory), subway (Ford) or LRT (Chow).