The bombshell tossed by Premier Doug Ford into Toronto’s civic election rocked more than just the city council races he targeted.

Ford, like his late brother, Rob, is a gobbler of political oxygen who leaves many around him gasping for air, or at least attention. Those in the spotlight are forced to react to a flow of pronouncements from a polarizing figure, a man many Torontonians see as a walking ballot question.

Before late July, as Ford settled into the premier’s office with a majority mandate, Toronto looked set to have an unusual mayoral race in the form of an incumbent, John Tory, seeking re-election with no high-profile challenger trying to unseat him.

That changed July 26, when Tory invited reporters to his office to react to news that Ford was set to cut the number of Toronto council wards in half, from a planned 47 to 25. The move, in the middle of an election that started May 1, yanked the rug out from under candidates and shocked the city.

The mayor said Ford, a one-term city councillor whom he beat in the 2014 mayoral election, was “absolutely not right” to trigger “change being rammed down our throats without a single second of public consultation.”

But Tory did not declare war on Ford. He did not rally Torontonians to pressure the premier to step back and let council’s plan for a 47-ward framework — the result of a four-year review process, a confirming council vote and legal challenges — proceed.

Tory raised the prospect of fighting the coming provincial legislation in court, saying he wanted to hear from legal experts. However, he added, “Whether I like it or not, the province has very broad latitude to do things that affect the city of Toronto … that’s just the reality.”

The solution, the mayor said, is a referendum to let Torontonians decide council’s size — if possible before the election, but if not, then after a 25-seat race. The idea seemed to come out of the blue.

“I hear people this morning talking about conversations and consultations and discussions and debates — there haven’t been any of those things on a major decision that affects them and their civic democracy … the people should decide,” Tory declared.

But the consultant hired by the city to help decide how to best equalize ward sizes had conducted consultations including polling and public meetings. Later, at city hall, residents gave deputations to Tory’s executive committee, which backed 47 wards, while Tory wanted the number to remain at 44. City council then debated and voted for 47.

Tory’s response to Ford’s move — “I’m angry at the process,” he said, but was eager to talk to Ford about council size, Tory’s request for “strong mayor powers,” and term limits — enraged some of his colleagues.

“A ‘referendum’ is not a vigorous defence of Toronto’s democracy,” tweeted Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam. “Very weak response from one who wants ‘strong mayor’ powers.”

Jennifer Keesmaat, the former chief city planner who had worked with Tory, agreed.

The University of Toronto lecturer lined up the next day to enter the mayoral race with a handful of progressive politicians and activists, but no real campaign team, cheering her on.

She quickly backed away from a tweet musing about Toronto seceding from the province and started launching attacks on Tory, saying she is the best candidate to “stand up for Toronto” against Ford.

Keesmaat’s problem is that the ensuing political and court battles over Ford’s plan, and his unprecedented threat to use the notwithstanding clause to overrule charter rights and enact the 25-ward option, largely sidelined her as the clock ticked toward the Oct. 22 vote.

Rather than capitalize on the criticisms by leading protesters to Attorney General Caroline Mulroney’s office, or Queen’s Park, Keesmaat’s campaign alleged a Ford-Tory conspiracy that got little media traction.

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Polls continue to give Tory a commanding lead.

While the focus on Ford has helped Tory, the pugnacious premier presents problems for the mayor as well. Ford’s apparent eagerness to impose his will on city hall, and to take jabs at his one-time rival, could put Tory back on his heels.

Around the time of the 2014 election, Ford gave this hair-raising quote to Councillor John Filion for The Only Average Guy, Filion’s 2015 book about the Fords: “You’ve never seen the vicious side of me. You watch! I’m going to latch onto (Tory’s) ass. He’s going to take off the sheets in bed at night and find my teeth wrapped around his nuts.”

Both the Tory and Keesmaat campaigns have released pledges on transit, housing and more, but Ford remains in the driver’s seat. And that, says Ryerson politics professor Myer Siemiatycki, is bad for everyone.

“Premier Ford’s intervention has sucked all the media coverage, public attention towards him and his initiative from what should have been an election campaign focused on the real issues and challenges facing the city of Toronto,” Siemiatycki said.

“What we’ve seen is over a month of focus on the arbitrary downsizing of Toronto council and now the judicial to-and-fro implications of that move. What we’re not getting is any focused, serious discussion or attention being paid to the issues facing the city of Toronto.

“It’s kind of a scenario where the attention has shifted from where it should be — a reasoned presentation of issues, perspectives, platforms, candidates — to the free-for-all of this initiative by the premier.”

Imagine, then, being a so-called “fringe” candidate who had hoped to play giant killer to Tory but now sits a couple of rows back on the sidelines.

Sarah Climenhaga had planned this month and next on trying to boost voter turnout as part of her platform to get Torontonians more involved in city issues. That has been “absolutely impossible,” she said, “because of the turmoil in our election.”

“The demonstration of how the premier intends to use his powers, and his promise to take further drastic action to put his agenda through, makes mayoral platforms more tenuous,” Climenhaga wrote in an email. “When it comes to transit for instance, will he push his own agenda on the city?

“In many ways the premier’s actions have made the municipal government, and therefore the mayoral campaign, seem borderline irrelevant — a disastrous state of affairs for the most populous city in Canada and the country’s economic engine.”

David Rider is the Star’s City Hall bureau chief and a reporter covering Toronto politics. Follow him on Twitter: @dmrider

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