Race for the mayor’s chair now official

The race for mayor in 2010 got off to an early start today (Monday, Jan. 4) as the first high-profile candidate, former Liberal Party President Rocco Rossi, arrived at Toronto City Hall bright and early to file his nomination papers.

Rossi greeted reporters in the hallway outside the soon-to-be-crowded elections office before going inside to hand in the paperwork for his bid. He stood in line behind another early-bird, Scarborough Southwest Councillor Adrian Heaps, who was filing papers for his own re-election bid.

The two were soon followed by other city councillors, and several other candidates who wanted to be mayor.

But the so-called high-profile mayoralty candidates – a group that includes George Smitherman, Joe Pantalone, Giorgio Mammoliti, Adam Giambrone, Shelly Carroll and John Tory – let Rossi have the elections office to himself on day one.

After making sure his papers were in order and handing in his $200 registration fee, Rossi elaborated on the platform he enunciated late last year, of selling off Toronto Hydro to pay down debt or for new infrastructure, and taking a 10 per cent pay cut to encourage frugality.

On Monday, he promised he would only run for mayor in two elections before passing the torch.

“Today I’ll declare that should Torontonians be generous enough to elect me as mayor of Toronto I only intend to file twice,” said Rossi. “I will only serve two terms, assuming that Torontonians like what I have to say and do me the honor of making me mayor of Toronto.”

Rossi got off to an early start compared to others. Even city councillor Mammoliti, the first high-profile figure to announce he would definitely be seeking the mayoralty, decided to spend Monday morning taking his daughter to daycare rather than lining up to register.

But Rossi said he’s planning on getting started early – particularly when it comes to the important task of raising the $1.5 million to $1.75 million he believes it will take to run a successful mayoralty campaign.

It’s a lot of money, but Rossi said he’s up to the task.

“Well if there’s one thing people know about me is that I know how to raise money,” he said. “I’ve raised significant funds for the Heart and Stroke Foundation for several years and as the national director of the Liberal Party of Canada. There’s lots of support out there, I intend to raise it quickly and have a fully-funded campaign.”

Heaps, meanwhile, said he wanted to make sure he was registered early because he’ll be busy with other financial matters – wrestling the city’s operating budget to the ground as a member of the city’s budget committee.

“The meetings are so intense for the next four months that I just wanted to make sure I got everything done,” he said. “When I ran in ’06, I almost forgot to register. It’s a small bureaucratic part of the process. It also sends a message as well to declare that you’re running as a candidate. Some people think the election process is a coronation. I want to look at it as a hard-fought campaign and let people know I’m there.”

Other candidates are keeping their powder dry, but not for long. Smitherman announced he was resigning as MPP for Toronto Centre-Rosedale, clearing the way to register as a mayoralty candidate.

Mammoliti said he would register either Tuesday or Wednesday; Pantalone, who said he was considering the run in late 2009, confirmed he has decided to move from city councillor to candidate for mayor.

He said he’ll register next week, but he wouldn’t put much stock in the value of being first out of the gate.

“There is ten months – almost 11 months between now and October 25 when the election is,” said Pantalone. “It’s a long run so one has to pace oneself in order to do it properly. Being first doesn’t mean one will be there first in the end. I am the perennial tortoise as opposed to the hare and we all know who won the race.”

– David Nickle

Posted in Mayoral race, News