Olivia Chow used a formal address on Tuesday to mount an extended attack on the judgment and mettle of rival John Tory, whom she portrayed as a serial flip-flopper.

In news releases, Twitter posts and negative advertisements, Chow’s campaign has targeted Tory’s character from the outset of the mayoral election. Chow’s remarks to the Canadian Club of Toronto constituted the longest planned offensive from the candidate herself.

“Now don’t get me wrong. I think changing your mind once in a while can be a sign of good leadership. But changing your mind all the time is a sign of poor judgment,” she said.

Chow focused on Tory’s apparent reversal last week on transit. He proposed a 53-kilometre surface rail line, the “SmartTrack,” after spending the early months of the race leaving the strong impression that he was advocating a downtown relief line subway.

Tory’s campaign contends he did not reverse himself at all: Tory, his spokespeople say, merely promised he would build a “Yonge St. relief line,” and the surface rail line will indeed provide relief to the Yonge subway.

Chow, though, suggested that Tory’s new proposal is indicative of a personality flaw.

“I don’t want to go into his latest scheme today, but I do want to talk about what this flip-flop means about Mr. Tory. Because we’ve seen this over and over again,” she said at the Hilton hotel on Richmond St. W.

Tory spokeswoman Erika Mozes said after the speech: "What was made abundantly clear with NDP candidate Olivia Chow's absurd attacks today is that she has no plan to get Toronto moving.”

Chow noted that Tory abandoned his pledge to cancel the Eglinton Connects street alteration plan. She also said he was forced to “take back” his 2007 support, as Progressive Conservative Leader, for public funding to non-Catholic faith-based schools. He never did explicitly withdraw his support, though he did say he would permit a likely-to-fail free vote on the issue.

Chow’s speech was the latest salvo in a tit-for-tat battle with the Tory camp. With the exception of their regular jabs at incumbent Rob Ford, each of the campaigns has focused its attention almost exclusively on the other.

Tory has previously attempted to portray Chow as indecisive; his aides played a public game of Twister in April to draw attention to Chow’s then-muddled message on the relief line. Tory habitually calls Chow “the NDP candidate,” and he has suggested she is beholden to labour interests.

Chow has offered little criticism of the substance of the Tory rail plan. Mozes said Chow’s “only substantive response to a 53-kilometre, 22-stop rapid transit line is to desperately grasp at old personal attacks from 10 years ago.”

“John Tory has said from day one of this campaign that it's unacceptable to wait 17 years for congestion and transit relief,” she said, noting that the relief line would not be finished until 2031. “With SmartTrack we will bring real relief in seven years.”

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Chow does have a plan to quickly improve rush-hour bus service. The Scarborough light rail line she advocates could be completed several years earlier than the subway Tory prefers, though only if she wins approval from council and the provincial government.

Chow made no new promises on Tuesday; she used the speech to reiterate her pledges boost the city’s after-school program and cut small-business taxes. She also called on the province to fund some of the TTC’s operating costs and repairs to public housing. The city regularly makes the same pleas.

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