After an unprecedented day comes unprecedented chaos.

Premier Doug Ford’s move to trump a judicial ruling in order to secure a Toronto city council with 25 wards has left candidates and lawyers scrambling and voters in limbo ahead of the upcoming municipal election.

That includes at least eight incumbent city councillors who had planned to run for re-election but who could be locked out of the 25-ward race depending on how the legislation is worded, with legal experts unsure of what to expect from Ford’s government.

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When a Superior Court judge ruled Monday that Ford’s legislation cutting the size of council to 25 from 47 wards was unconstitutional, city advocates believed for a short time that they had won the day.

But Ford’s announcement hours later that he would invoke the rarely used “notwithstanding” clause in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to override Justice Edward Belobaba’s ruling led to a flurry of unanswered questions, including whether the election can even proceed as planned on Oct. 22.

The legislature will resume Wednesday after Ford recalled MPPs from recess. Ford indicated the new bill would be tabled then. What it will say, his officials refuse to tell.

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What we know and don’t know about Ford’s planned use of the notwithstanding clause

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Doug Ford’s constitutional manoeuvre brings role of judges into focus

Thomas Walkom | Opinion: Notwithstanding Ford’s actions, this is not the end of democracy

The province doesn’t expect the new legislation to be passed before Sept. 24, with MPPs off for two days next week to attend the International Plowing Match near Chatham-Kent. That leaves a very small window between a fundamental shift in the election process and the start of advance polling days, which are currently scheduled to begin Oct. 10. City clerk Ulli Watkiss earlier raised concerns about having enough time to prepare an election, including printing ballots for the whole city.

City council will have an emergency meeting Thursday to again discuss their current legal options and what happens next.

Ford promised the province would also appeal Belobaba’s ruling in court, but that application had not been filed as of Tuesday. A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Attorney General would only say Tuesday evening that an application would be filed “as soon as possible.” The province will also seek a “stay” of Belobaba’s ruling, which, if granted, would return the election to a 25-ward race until the appeal could be heard.

While some have suggested the federal government should intervene and has the powers to prevent provincial legislation from coming into force, Ottawa does not appear to be poised to act. In Winnipeg on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “disappointed by the provincial government in Ontario’s choice to invoke the notwithstanding clause, but I won’t be weighing in on the debate on how big Toronto municipal council should be.”

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Meanwhile, candidates were trying to figure out whether they could still sign up if the election reverts to a 25-ward race — many of them progressive downtown representatives and former foes of Ford when he was an Etobicoke city councillor and his brother Rob Ford was mayor.

The city clerk, who administers the municipal election, was no longer accepting nominations in the 25-ward race as of Monday, a city spokesperson confirmed. The deadline to sign up in that race was originally Sept. 14. The clerk is now following the law in place after Belobaba’s ruling, which is to run a 47-ward election.

The problem is that several candidates who were registered to run in the 47-ward election did not reregister for the 25-ward race ahead of Monday.

A total of 509 certified candidates for councillor and school board trustee signed up for a 47-ward race as of July 27, when that original nomination period closed.

When Bill 5 became law on Aug. 14, any candidates who wanted to be nominated in a 25-ward race had to notify the city’s elections office by Sept. 14. The deadline for new candidates was the same. As of Monday, 315 candidates had registered in that race.

But it’s now not clear what the new legislation Ford plans to introduce will say about the nomination period if there is a return to a 25-ward race, or whether those who had not yet registered in the previous 25-ward race will have lost the opportunity to sign up. The premier’s office refused to comment on nominations Tuesday.

That could affect the campaigns of downtown, progressive incumbent Councillors Sarah Doucette, Gord Perks, Mike Layton, Joe Cressy, Kristyn Wong-Tam and Paula Fletcher. Etobicoke Councillor John Campbell and appointed downtown Councillor Lucy Troisi, who was appointed by city council to replace the late Pam McConnell, also did not sign up in the 25-ward race.

“We are in entirely uncharted waters,” said veteran lawyer Howard Goldblatt, who led one of the legal teams that successfully challenged Bill 5 in court. “It’s incredibly confusing ... It’s sort of indicative of the kind of difficulty that all these candidates have faced right from the beginning of this process.”

Goldblatt said they are all “anxiously awaiting” what Ford’s government has planned.

“I learned yesterday not to predict what the government’s going to do,” he said.

Alexandra Flynn, a University of Toronto urban governance professor and a lawyer, said because Bill 5 was struck down by the court, that earlier nomination period no longer applies and Ford’s new bill will have to create an entirely new nomination period for candidates. If the new legislation doesn’t reopen nominations, those who weren’t registered by Monday would have a sound legal argument if they challenged the province in court, she said.

“But maybe (Ford) doesn’t care,” Flynn said. “It’s hard to know.”

Alan Lenczner, a prominent Toronto litigator, said “any legislation can be backdated.”

For example, he said, it is possible for a government to pass a law creating a new tax retroactive to a previous date.

“It all depends on how you write the legislation, but there is nothing to prevent you from writing into legislation a sort of backwards effect,” Lenczner said.

Several councillors told the Star on Tuesday that they had spoken with various city staff and believed the nomination issue could be resolved. A city spokesperson would not elaborate on what the city’s legal team and clerk are discussing.

“We’re waiting to hear. I have heard that (the clerk’s office) is talking to their lawyers,” said Parkdale-High Park Councillor Gord Perks. “They understand the problem and they know it needs to be fixed. That’s what was said to me.”

Perks said the city’s lawyers understand it would be “ridiculous” not to reopen the nominations because they had published a nomination date and closed it without notice.

“They know they have effectively taken away our right to register so they’re trying to find a fix,” he said.

Tory told reporters Tuesday it would be “unfair” to “cut out” those who haven’t yet registered, but said he’s confident the clerk’s office will work it out with Queen’s Park.

Campbell was unaware of the potential problem when reached by the Star. He said he was planning to register this week for the 25-ward race.

“They are going to have to extend the date,” he said. “They will have to let me register. It’s a bit of a confusing mess. I can’t imagine the province would pass (a new bill) and say the deadlines were shut off.”