Former Toronto mayor Mel Lastman weighed in on the debate over the $3.2-billion one-stop subway proposal for Scarborough on Tuesday, telling reporters that "everybody loses" with the current plan, which has been aggressively championed by current Mayor John Tory.

Mingling before a lunch-hour event to honour Toronto's pre-amalgamation mayors with a group portrait at City Hall, the 83-year-old ‎Mr. Lastman could not resist telling a group of reporters the city should not have turned down the province's offer of a longer, fully funded light-rail line for Scarborough, as it did under previous mayor Rob Ford.

"Everybody's going to lose on this one," Mr. Lastman, in a baby-blue plaid sports jacket, said with TV cameras rolling and with Mr. Tory, on the eve of a council battle on Wednesday over the subway, looking on with his face frozen in a nervous smile.

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"When they had the chance to get the money from the province, they should have taken it. You know, I like subways! I love subways! But when someone comes to me and says they are going to give me a couple of billion dollars for nothing, and they're going to pay the costs, I'd be nuts to say no," said Mr. Lastman, who bowed out of politics in 2003.

Former Metro chairman Alan Tonks jokingly tried to cut things short by saying, "Let's leave it at that." And then Mr. Tory, still smiling, chimed in: "Are you causing me trouble, Mel?" But Mr. Lastman, the former mayor of North York who became the first mayor of the amalgamated Toronto in 1998, carried on.

"No, no! I'm not," Mr. Lastman protested.

"It's going to be great. We're going to have jobs and investment in Scarborough," Mr. Tory said quickly, as Mr. Lastman turned back to the TV cameras.

"One stop! And I don't know. Nobody's going to win, that's what I mean ... No matter what position you take, you lose, because the people are not going to happy with that one station," he said, before allowing that it was also unclear how long it would take to build the now-scrapped light-rail proposal. "I don't blame the people for wanting it now."

The official event then began, and reporters retreated from Mr. Lastman, under whose reign the much-maligned five-station Sheppard Subway – derided as a "stubway" with low ridership – was built for $1-billion.

At the podium, Mr. Tory joked about being reminded of trying to control Mr. Lastman's scrums when he co-chaired two of the former mayor's election campaigns. Mr. Tory then delivered a speech before unveiling a commemorative portrait while flanked by Mr. Lastman, Mr. Tonks, former Etobicoke mayor Doug Holyday, former York mayor and current councillor Frances Nunziata, former Toronto mayor Barbara Hall and former East York mayor Michael Prue.

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Minutes later, the colourful Mr. Lastman – well-known for gaffes such as his remarks about cannibals in Africa before heading to a meeting in Kenya for the city's failed 2008 Olympic bid – was back at it. Mr. Tory, his aides and some city councillors could only look on as Mr. Lastman addressed a bigger crush of reporters.

"Now they are going to get one station. One station, there is going to be a lot of unhappy people. Because they ... have to take a bus or something back to where they want to go. And it's just going to be chaos," Mr. Lastman said. "But at the same time, if they don't build it, everybody's going to say, we're never going to get it. And it's too bad that that happened in Scarborough."

He said Scarborough had a chance at a subway extension in the 1970s, but chose the now obsolete Scarborough RT line and then got little else in transit investment ever since. And he said the problem with the subway plan is that it will leave Toronto taxpayer with higher costs.

Asked if City Council should scrap the subway plan and revert to the light-rail proposal, Mr. Lastman said no: "Whichever way they decide, I am not going to tell them what to decide, but I know that the people who live there will be very unhappy if they don't get anything. ... I think they are all tired. I think they are all fed up with talking about the subway."

His talk then turned to beaming about his grandchildren and their careers, before he was asked how he thought Mr. Tory was doing: "I think he's trying and he's trying hard and he's doing well."

Mr. Lastman then moved on to an impassioned plea to keep property taxes low for senior citizens amid rising prices for food and rent. He also said he expected council to approve new taxes on alcohol or tobacco, but warned that people would get "fed up" with politicians who raise taxes too much on the middle class.

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Asked once again about the subway, he said he didn't want to see Scarborough end up with nothing: "I don't think council has much of a choice."

One of Mr. Tory's watching aides then chimed in, telling reporters they could ask one more question. No one did.