Toronto

The struggle to restore Toronto’s power may have paled compared to the power struggle behind the scenes.

On one hand, you had a mayor trying to be a mayor and on the other, you had the deputy mayor — with appointed executive powers — waiting to, perhaps, take control.

To do that, a state of emergency needed to be called.

But Mayor Rob Ford is the only one who can do that.

If such a declaration was made, Councillor Norm Kelly — the deputy mayor — would have taken charge.

In the wake of Ford’s crack cocaine scandal, city council determined that Kelly — not the mayor — should be the one to lead in the event of an emergency. As a result, council transferred that power from Ford to Kelly.

Lots of games being played.

Power games.

By the time night fell Sunday, there was mounting pressure on Ford to make the declaration.

“We are getting ready to ask the mayor to declare this an emergency largely because it will assist the staff at the province to make resources available to us — crews, generators, facilities for warming centres,” said Deputy City Manager John Livey.

Mayor Ford declined.

“They tried to get the mayor to hold a 7:30 p.m. news conference to declare an emergency but he flat out said ‘no,’” added an insider.

In an interview, Ford acknowledged there was such a push but he saw it more as “political” than practical.

“It’s not an emergency at this point,” Ford said. “If it gets to a point where it is, we will make that step.”

Ford said he was told of Livey’s concerns but said the city would not abuse the privilege of calling an emergency to get help they don’t so far need.

“We can borrow generators if we need them or get help or shelter if we need it without calling a full out emergency,” insisted Ford. “If it was like a hurricane and the whole city was shut down, then that would be different. It is not that. We have one-third of the city without power and crews are working hard to restore it.”

Ford said calling an emergency would in essence “shut the whole city down” and this is not yet necessary.

It could have cost the city millions.

“It’s something you do as a last resort,” said Ford. “We definitely have a lot of people without power and hydro is working hard to restore it and even though I have heard the numbers are rising, my information is the number is actually going down.”

Just who is in charge around here was the question of the day?

There were several vying for the spot and sharing the spotlight. Only one, though, was elected into leadership by the people.

Ford called the news conference to update the city on responses of how to tackle the ice storm but ended up sharing the stage with two others — Kelly and Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, the city’s public works chairman.

The mayor said he was “ready to go” at noon but was urged to wait for Kelly to arrive and eventually took the podium at 1:45 p.m.

Kelly stoked the fire when it was revealed he and Premier Kathleen Wynne had spoken. With no emergency declared, it would be normal practice for the mayor to take that call.

Awkward.

It is said to not have got any warmer behind the scenes. Kelly or the mayor, say several sources, did not communicate at all.

Kelly’s office did not respond but the mayor laughed it all off.

“It’s just politics.”

The people without electricity in their homes, he said, don’t care about a political power struggle. They have bigger problems.