Looks to be a two-man mayor’s race: Smitherman
admin | Friday, July 23rd, 2010 | No Comments »
Ford challenged to one-on-one debate
The race to become mayor of Toronto appears to be down to two men, candidate George Smitherman said Thursday, July 22.
Hours after challenging competitor Rob Ford to a one-on-one radio debate, Smitherman said polls and residents have led him to believe he and Ford are the main contenders to lead the nation’s largest city.“That’s the sense that I get, yeah, to the greatest of extent,” Smitherman said in response to a question of whether he’s has the impression it’s a two-man mayor’s race based on his conversations with people he’s met on his walk across Toronto, which winds up Friday, July 23, in Scarborough.
“That’s not to say other candidates aren’t garnering other bits of support here and there, but I think it’s shaping up that way, yes.”
The director of communications for Ford’s mayoral campaign said the councillor hasn’t come to the same conclusion as Smitherman.
“Not at all,” said Adrienne Batra Friday morning.
“And in fact the numbers don’t tell that either. If you look at even that last CP24 poll that was done, (Rocco) Rossi’s numbers moved up, (Joe) Pantalone’s numbers moved up, (Sarah) Thomson’s numbers moved up. The only one that moved down was Smitherman. And so Mr. Ford does not in any way discount or disregard the other three (candidates).”
A Globe/CTV/CP24/Nanos Research poll released in mid-June showed Ford, city councillor for Etobicoke North, as the top choice of 17.8 per cent of respondents and the leader in the inner suburbs of Scarborough, North York and his homebase of Etobicoke.
Smitherman, the former provincial minister of both health and long term care and energy and infrastructure, garnered top spot from 15.9 per cent of respondents and was leading in the older parts of Toronto.
Pantalone was top choice for 10.1 per cent of respondents, Rossi nine per cent, Thomson 5.8 and Mammoliti 2.5 per cent. The latter dropped out of the mayor’s race soon after the poll was released. However, the poll also showed 38.9 per cent of respondents were unsure of their choices, a figure slightly higher in the inner suburbs.
The poll results (www.nanosresearch.com/library/polls/POLNAT-W10-T426.pdf) were based on a random telephone survey of 1,000 likely Toronto municipal voters between June 7 and 11, asking them to list their first and second choices for mayor from the presumed Top 6 candidates. The results are considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
On Thursday, Smitherman said he suggested the one-on-one debate between him and Ford after the radio show host Jerry Agar of Newstalk 1010 interviewed him. Agar repeatedly brought up Ford’s views in the interview, and Smitherman said it would be preferable for listeners to hear Ford respond on his own behalf.
“I think it’s going to be a good opportunity for the people of Toronto to hear from the two of us, most of the polls seem to indicate we’re the two leading contenders,” Smitherman added. “And I intend to expose the fact that (Ford) has no plan, and to the extent that he’s offered a plan, it is about expenditure increases and revenue reductions (and) that can only lead to service cuts.”
Batra didn’t discount the idea coming to fruition.
“Mr. Ford would rather have all the other candidates there,” she said. “That said, he certainly wouldn’t back down from a challenge.”
The proposal wasn’t well received by the other three candidates however, with Rossi tweeting: “Smitherman’s presumption knows no bounds.”
Smitherman defended his position, noting there will be a lot of upcoming debates between the main candidates.
“I think I’ve committed to another 40 or 50 of them or something like that,” he said. “Seems to me there’s lots of opportunities out there. But people are free, in any format they wish, to have as many debates as they can possibly organize.”
“How the others react is of less consequence to me,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the chance to go head-to-head with Councillor Ford and to hold him to account to the fact that he hasn’t brought forward a platform.”
- Tim Foran
